She’s traveled from California to Quebec for this competition, and her mount Ringwood Magister is making a statement.

This morning’s dressage competition at the Bromont CCI*** in Bromont, Queb., was a showdown between two very different women with reputations for being flatwork aficionados—Olympic veteran Mara Dean and California young rider Tiana Coudray. While Dean topped the field in their last match-up, at the Jersey Fresh CIC*** in May, today, June 12, was Coudray’s day to shine.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else shining early this morning. Coudray and Ringwood Magister entered the arena amidst a pesky veil of fog that hung low over the mountains surrounding the Bromont International Horse Park. But the judges seemed to be able to see Coudray and her 8-year-old gray Irish Sport Horse clearly enough to place them at the top of the 17-horse field with a mark of 44.4.

“It was like something out of The Lord of the Rings or something,” Coudray, Oraj, Calif., joked. “He really nearly blew up when I first went in to the [final warm-up area], and then the footing was a little bit difficult this morning because of the rain we’ve had. It was kind of like, ‘Enter at A. Jump the pond, then halt.’

Coudray, 20, was thrilled with her young horse’s progress and performance, however.

“He was just really good all the way through and really had very few mistakes,” she said. “I feel like he’s developing the strength. His half-passes were much stronger than they’ve been in the past few months. He’s progressed even further from where he was just a few weeks ago.”

Dean, who won the dressage with High Patriot at the Jersey Fresh CIC*** and eventually placed second there overall, is now the current runner-up here. She scored a 46.5 this morning. Corinne Ashton and Dobbin sit third with a 50.0, but Buck Davidson is just .8 behind them with May I Tell Ya.

Kristin Bond, the last rider of the day in the CCI** division, took over the lead in that division with Are You Ready (42.9). Close behind her is the winner of last year’s inaugural Bromont CCI***, Sharon White. She rode into second place today aboard Rafferty’s Rules (47.6), and Phillip Dutton and Dario claimed third with 48.4. Madeline Blackman and Meadow Sparrow were the only pair to not complete the CCI** dressage; they were unfortunately rung out by the judge during their test.

In the 32-horse CCI* division, Kelli McMullen-Temple topped the leaderboard with a score of 42.4 aboard Veelion. Boyd Martin, in his first competition as a U.S. rider, placed second with Minotaur du Passoir (46.1), and one-star first-timer Olivia Todaro currently stands third with Cosmic Girl (48.5).