Christian Simonson’s “Amazing” Ride on Indian Rock Wins Ocala World Cup Freestyle

Christian Simonson's “amazing ride” on Indian Rock to win Ocala World Cup big step toward championship Final in Fort Worth, Texas in four months.

Christian, based in Wellington, Florida said the performance indoors before one of the biggest crowds experienced in the near year-long partnership “all kind of clicked” in the head of the 12-year-old stallion. “He was like, ‘okay, I know my job and I’ll do it for you.’ And it’s just been there. It was just a really, really fun feeling throughout the whole freestyle.”

The placing earned the rider the first top points in the inaugural event of the 2026 $250,000 US Open.

The score of 78.840% was, however, lower than expected for an error-free frequently dramatic freestyle that was enthusiastically applauded by the crowd. The bigger than 10% disparity between the high result of 83.525% and a low mark of 73.225% showed three other scores of 79.700%, 79.275% and 78.475%. The low mark from Brenda Minor of Canada placed the American duo second. There was no explanation of the scoring.

At the age of 23 and coached by Adrienne Lyle, a three-time Olympian including silver at Tokyo, Christian dismissed any concern over the scoring of him and the horse owned by Zen Elite Equestrian owned by Heidi Humphries of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida who was at Ocala to watch the ride.

“I genuinely am so happy with the specific things in the test that Rocky did, that if the score was like zero or 100, I would still be really happy, because for me, I executed on the things that I wanted to do, I did the things Adrienne asked me to do, and Rocky did his job,” Christian explained.

Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu on the 11-year-old gelding Jaccardo was awarded 75.115% for runner-up as the pair was in the Grand Prix but earned enough points to go with a victory a month ago in Toronto that puts them in contention to claim one of the three spots assigned to North America at Fort Worth.

If successful, she would become the first Canadian to start in a World Cup Final since Jacqueline Brooks on D Niro and James Irwin on Lindor’s Finest in 2013.

Brittany said she competed Jaccardo, owned by Jill Irving, “to get experience and to understand how does he travel, how does he cope indoor.

“Our partnership is so new that I’m just looking to see how the rideability is. He’s a very hot and sensitive horse. So I’m just showing to get experience for next year. But he shows so much potential in the ring. He’s an incredible horse to ride. I feel so fortunate to be able to ride such an animal,” she said of the horse that is owned by .

Erin Nichols of Yorba Linda, California and the 16-year-old Elian Royale placed third on 73.795%.

Kevin Kohmann of Wellington on his two-time World Cup partner Dünensee remains atop the North American League standings with 52 points.

Benjamin Ebeling also of Wellington picked up 12 points from a fifth place finish in Friday’s Freestyle to stand second on 49 points.

Christian Simonson moved into third place with his second victory to boost his total to 40 points. Brittany is in fourth place on 35 points.

However, with five qualifiers remaining–three in Wellington and two in California, one at Thermal next week and the other at Del Mar, the outcome may change as the three best scores count but they can be superseded by fresh results.

Results:

World Cup CDI-W Grand Prix Freestyle

RankCompetitorScore

1 Christian Simonson (USA) Indian Rock 78.840%

2 Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu (CAN) Jaccardo 75.115%

3 Erin Nichols (USA) Elian Royale 73.795%

4 Ellesse Gundersen (USA) Quintessential 4 72.350%

5 Benjamin Ebeling (USA) Bellena 71.790%

6 Michael Klimke (GER) Harmony’s Dante’s Peak 71.110%

7 Jennifer Williams (USA) Babylon Berlin 68.645%

8 Jodie Kelly-Baxley (USA) Grayton Beach 68.000%

Photo: Christian Simonson of USA on Indian Rock winning Ocala World Cup Freestyle qualifier. © 2025 Ken Braddick/Dressage-News.com