Wellington, Fla.—March 27

When Adrienne Lyle and her team made the choice to scratch her Grand Prix mount, Wizard, from the Palm Beach Dressage Derby CDI-W during week 10 of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, Lyle was understandably bummed; Lyle and the 15-year-old gelding were trying for their final qualifying score towards the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final (France). But Wizard, owned by Peggy Thomas, had been cast in his stall the day before the jog and suffered some minor injuries to his legs.

“We made the decision to scratch and not try to get him through it if he wasn’t 100 percent,” Lyle said. “It was hard to go home and sit out for a couple week, with everyone wondering what’s wrong. And to come back and do well—I was really thrilled with him.”

Not only did Wizard cap the end of the 2014 winter season with a CDI***** win, he and Lyle also posted their highest Grand Prix score of their career, a 74.16 percent.

“I think that was the ideal way for me to end my season,” Lyle said. “That was my best Grand Prix score I’ve had on him in our career, and I think the most rideable combination; he had energy, and he was listening to me.”

Lyle is planning on showing in the Kentucky CDI*** on her way to Gladstone, N.J., for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games trials.

Fellow American Tina Konyot and her stallion Calecto V were second in the class, scoring 72.72 percent.

“I was happy,” Konyot, who is headed to the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final, said. “I was trying to get a little cleaner Grand Prix. I’ve had several shows with so many mistakes in my Grand Prix so I was much, much happier with Grand Prix—until the end.

“He stopped very, very early. He did his final halt, salute, and there was no budging it; it was like the Titanic,” she joked. “It just caught me a little bit by surprise because he can go further than that. But he said, ‘I’m done,’ and I was happy with my test. I had a very, very nice canter tour. I was thrilled with my canter tour. Also, my trot tour was quite nice.”

Mikala Gundersen and My Lady rounded out the top three, and Gundersen was happy with her test because she saw improvement.

“Lady was very rideable for me today, very soft and supple. I could have had a little more energy from behind, but I had a lot of really good movements,” said the Danish rider who’s based in the United States. “There were some that I worked very hard on to get better, and I looked at my scores, and I can see they got better.”

Full results available on Fox Village.

Other tidbits from Thursday at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in its final week:

• Paula Matute on Firmamento Ymas was victorious over her brother, Juan Matute, Jr., on Dhannie Ymas in the FEI Junior Team competition.

• In the Grand Prix CDI***, Tiva Nana, owned by Marissa Mastranardi and ridden by Ashley Holzer of Canada, took first; second went to U.S. rider Laura Graves and Verdades, and Canadian Megan Lane on Caravella came in third.