Qualifier 3 Preview: Get Used to Hearing About Indian Rock

Qualifier 3 of the US Equestrian Open of Dressage takes place this week in Wellington, with nine combinations set to contest the freestyle. The field includes the winners from both December qualifiers, bringing Christian Simonson and Indian Rock together with Geñay Vaughn and Gino in the same class. The points available are modest, but the field is strong enough to make this a useful early-season reference.

This is the first Wellington qualifier of the 2026 season. The calendar says “Qualifier 3,” but the context feels closer to that of an opening weekend. The Adequan Global Dressage Festival is where winter campaigns actually begin, and the scores posted here hold their relevance longer than anyone plans for at the start of January.

Indian Rock Sets the Bar (Again)

Christian Simonson and Indian Rock enter as the clear statistical leader. Winners of Qualifier 1, they also hold the highest freestyle average in the field at 79.871 percent, supported by a personal best of 82.095.

That makes the framing simple: Qualifier 3 is Simonson’s to lose. Another test in the low 80s would also lift Indian Rock’s career freestyle average to 80 percent, a mark no other Series horse has reached. The pair is only eight months into their partnership, but they’ve clicked quickly. Many riders struggle to access a horse’s previous peak; Simonson appears to have found it almost immediately.

The field size this weekend caps the points for a win at twenty, but it would make Simonson the Series’ first two-leg winner of 2026. As long as he continues to perform at this level, Indian Rock remains very good at making life inconvenient for everyone else.

Gino Steps Back Into the Florida Conversation

Geñay Vaughn’s return to Florida is one of the more telling developments this week. She and Gino arrive off a win at Qualifier 2 in California, where they set a new personal best of 76.415 percent. That score raised their freestyle average to 74.053 percent.

Vaughn has wintered in Florida before, but she skipped the circuit last season. Being back now reads as a clear intention for the season—she’s gunning for something big. Instead of easing into the year regionally, she’s opting to line up against the strongest domestic combinations right away.

A solid mid-70s score here would suggest the California result was not simply a product of geography, which is often the unspoken question.

Lord Django’s Question of Form

Caroline Darcourt and Lord Django remain the obvious wildcard. They hold the second-highest freestyle average in the field at 75.382 percent and the second-highest personal best at 78.170.

That personal best came at this venue in 2023, in Lord Django’s Grand Prix Freestyle debut, but he has not returned to that scoring potential since. Results since then have been more uneven, though recent form suggests some upward movement. Their most recent freestyle, a 75.135 percent in Stockholm last November, points to a combination working its way back toward that earlier standard.

It’s the kind of record that invites pause. The ability is clearly there. But whether Wellington in 2026 becomes the place where Lord Django reconnects with his peak—or simply confirms steady upward progress—will be one of the more interesting threads to follow this weekend.

Filling Out the Class

Several experienced combinations round out the field. Chloe Gasiorowski and Sam Donnerhall bring a freestyle average of 73.372 percent with a personal best of 77.160, suggesting both range and variability. Ashley Holzer and Hawtins San Floriana sit at a 72.571 percent average from a smaller sample, which at this stage mostly means “still defining the baseline.”

Susan Dutta and Don Design DC arrive with one of the deeper records in the class, logging 13 freestyle starts and a 71.611 percent average. Tiago Ernesto and Hobbit Interargo are earlier in that process, with limited FEI freestyle data but a personal best of 70.575 percent that at least puts a number on the board.

Michael Klimke’s start aboard Harmony’s Fado marks the horse’s FEI debut. The goal here is experience, not heroics. Everyone involved would likely settle happily for “uneventful and informative.”

What This Weekend Is (and Isn’t)

With nine competitors, Qualifier 3 is not a points bonanza. Anyone with real leaderboard ambitions will still need repeat appearances later in the season.

What Wellington does offer is clarity. It gives early comparisons, sets reference scores, and starts answering questions that will come up again in March, April, and beyond. For an early January stop, that’s doing its job.

For Sport Department questions, please contact Christy Hawkins at USEquestrianOpen@usef.org.

For media inquiries about the US Equestrian Open Series, please contact Carly Weilminster at cweilminster@usef.org. 

For sponsorship opportunities, contact Layson Griffin at lgriffin@usef.org.