USA’s Adrienne Lyle and Salvino danced their way through the grand prix freestyle CDI4* at Global Dressage Festival’s “Friday Night Stars” to post the highest ever score recorded at the show – 85.58%. Entering the arena to Carly Simon’s Let The River Run, the stage was already set for a performance that proved hard to differentiate which came first – the music or the movements.
Adrienne, who scored two 10s for piaffe and another for music, said: “It was hands down the best feeling I’ve ever had in the ring in my life. Salvino just feels unbelievable. This is such a fun place to show. The crowd’s amazing and enthusiastic. The competition was super tonight; it was a magical evening.”
Adrienne had updated the freestyle music, put together by Terri Gallo, since last performing to it with Salvino at Aachen in July 2019.
“Salvino had a rest after Tokyo, and he’s back and he truly feels better than ever,” said Adrienne of Betsy Juliano LLC’s 15-year-old stallion by Sandro Hit, with whom she was on the Olympic silver medal-winning team. “To end on this high note here for our Wellington season is really wonderful.
“We’re hoping to head to Europe and do a selection show there with our sights set on trying to qualify for the team for the dressage World Championships [in Denmark in August], which would be our big goal. He’s proven that he doesn’t need to go a whole lot. He’s always there when we want him to be, so we’ll respect that of him.”
The previous record of 84.975% had been held by USA’s Laura Graves and Verdades since March 2018.
Bruce Springsteen, who personally approved the use of his music, also featured in Adrienne and Salvino’s crowd-pleasing performance, which included a curving line of 17 clean one-time changes.
Compatriot Sarah Tubman pulled off a personal best of 78.205% on First Apple, Summit Farm’s 12-year-old by Vivaldi, to claim second place. Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu and All In — who represented Canada in Tokyo — took third with 77.01%.
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