Wellington, Fla.—Jan. 29

It was a chilly night in Wellington, Fla., but Canadian rider Belinda Trussell wasn’t feeling it. Her ride for the CDI-W Grand Prix freestyle, Anton, provided plenty of heat for the both of them, firing his way to a win on a score of 75.02 percent.

“Anton was really hot,” Trussell said in her opening remarks at the press conference following Friday’s freestyle win, her second win in as many days after topping Thursday’s CDI-W Grand Prix, also with Anton.

“I was really hoping to just keep every thing in control, and keep our harmony together, and he was great,” Trussell continued. “I was really riding a rocket, but he’s such a good boy and he loves his job. He goes in there and he does his best, and I’m so thrilled for these two wins. I’m sitting here in utter shock among this company.”

That company included second place finisher Alison Brock aboard Rosevelt and the third place pair of Shelly Francis and Doktor.

Brock in particular was very proud of how Rosevelt handled himself under the lights and in the presense of a great crowd turnout, because things haven’t always gone so swimmingly under similar conditions.

“I personally have been kind of very nervous to do freestyles here, I had a bad experience last year under the lights where he got incredibly freaked out,” Brock said. “And I am really sensitive about putting my horses in experiences that scare them, I think its terrible.”

Brock said she was able to successfully avoid freestyles until U.S. chef de equipe Robert Dover talked her into doing a demonstration performance at the Washington International Horse Show.

“Robert was like, ‘you have to go, and it won’t count. Do it,’ and I did that and he was really good, I couldn’t believe how he handled that environment,” Brock said, which included midnight crowds of schooling hunters and ponies in the notoriously small warm-up area.  “I thought you know what, you just need to bite the bullet and do it.”

Do it she did—Brock was a crowd favorite for the night, pulling off a particularly tricky series of movements with one tempi changes and pirouettes, getting a score of 73.900.

Very last to go in the ring on Friday night was Doktor and Shelly Francis—their performance was good enough for third place on a score of 73.400.

“My little Doktor was just a little nervous, but he tried really hard, and he’s getting to the point where he’s getting quite dependable for me in the arena,” Francis said of her Freestyle performance. “I kind of just have to get my act together and maybe start squeezing just a little bit.”

Francis noted that she wasn’t pulling out all the stops quite this early in the season, especially with the weighty international tournaments ahead.

“[I wanted] to kind of get through and ride the choreography a little smoother, because sometimes I get a little carried away charging around,” Francis said with a laugh. “But he felt awesome, he just does what I want. He’s really a cool little horse.”

Though the class is a CDI-W, meaning points count toward qualification for the 2016 World Cup Final, all three riders said their main focus right now is the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, not the World Cup.

Always hometown crowd favorites Laura Graves and Verdades had another uncharacteristic ride in Friday’s freestyle following a shaky Grand Prix test Thursday. “Diddy” crow hopped up in the piaffe a couple of times, and broke into the canter during one of the trot movements.

Graves elected to return to the barns and not ride for ribbons (she received sixth on a score of 72.00 percent).

Check back with the Chronicle at www.coth.com on Saturday for more coverage of the third week of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.