Morin-Graham, Chumley, Mason, Calao Take First Titles at 2025 USDF Dressage Finals

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2025 USDF Finals

On the first two days of competition out of four at the 2025 USDF Finals, Christina Morin-Graham, Lauren Chumley, Heather Mason, and Christine Calao took the first set of FEI level titles.

The show, which offers $125,000 in prize money, takes place at its new home at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) in Wilmington, OH, on 29 October - 2 November 2025.

The USDF Dressage Finals is the annual American dressage championships hosted by the United States Dressage Federation (USDF) mostly for amateur and non professional dressage riders. The USDF Finals were first held in 2013.

Inter II AA: Christina Morin-Graham Kicks Off Winning Spree

Christina Morin-Graham was the very first Championship class rider of the entire 2025 Finals as the pathfinder in the Intermediate II Adult Amateur Championship on Thursday morning. Her 66.961% performance on her own 15-year-old Oldenburg mare Mondlicht was more than enough to keep her atop the leaderboard throughout to deliver her first Finals win, with the reserve champion finishing almost five percentage points adrift.

Morin-Graham — who has eight championship class rides this year — bought Mondlicht five years ago from Germany and was advised that she would not make a grand prix horse.

“They said she was too hot for the one-tempis and wouldn’t be able to do the piaffe/passage,” explained Morin-Graham, who topped the same class at the Region 8 Championships on the Sarkozy x Ravallo mare. “I was happy to have her as a small tour horse, but over the years we’ve done a lot of growing together, and here we are doing big tour.”

A week before leaving on the nine-hour journey to WEC – Wilmington from her home base in Malvern, PA, Mondlicht pulled a shoe off in the field and had a slightly swollen leg. Morin-Graham, who works full-time as a partner in a private equity firm, decided to give her a full week off, only schooling her the day before the championship test. That careful management paid off.

“I got on yesterday, and she felt super,” added Morin-Graham, who trains with Mason. “She loves getting ridden; she loves work. I adore her, though she’s definitely an alpha mare and very opinionated. You have to get her on your side and then she really gives you her best.”

Grand Prix AA: Morin-Graham On a Roll

Leading from the front is becoming somewhat of a tradition for Christina Morin-Graham at the 2025 Finals. On Thursday, she topped the Adult Amateur (AA) Intermediate II on Mondlicht from first draw, and on Friday she repeated the feat, heading up the AA Grand Prix as first to go on her other big tour horse, the 16-year-old Damon Hill daughter, DSP Dauphin. She scored 68.696% for the win and also slotted in as runner-up on Mondlicht with 66.92% — an echo of the two mares’ results at the Region 8 Championships.

A couple of hours later, Morin-Graham nabbed her third winner’s blanket of the show when she rode her own 12-year-old Jazz mare, Ici De La Vigne, to the top of the leaderboard in the Intermediate I AA Championship with 66.912%.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime day,” said the ever-positive rider from Malvern, PA, who is also a driving force behind the organisation of Dressage at Devon. “I’ve never won anything at Finals before this year. Last year, I brought Dauphin — trailered her myself, so I know nothing happened on the journey — and she was schooling fine for two days and then went head-bobbing lame. We have no idea why, but I had to scratch from everything. Last year really taught me to appreciate just getting in the ring. Having a sound horse and getting in the ring is a gift.

“I’d been working on the partnerships with both my mares and keeping their energy up,” she continued. “There's room for a lot of improvement still, but it’s all on me. There’s nothing more that I could have asked from them.”

Morin-Graham is also attending the show as an owner, having passed the reins on two of her horses, Laurencio and Merlin, over to up-and-coming riders Ava Harry and Catherine Esibill.

“I love that I get to be a cheerleader and see them out there doing it,” added Morin-Graham, who works full-time as a partner in a private equity firm. “It’s fun that those horses that taught me so much at the lower levels are now giving back to other people. It’s great that they get the chance to come and show here. The facility is exceptional, especially given the weather this time of year. The footing’s great, the stabling is fantastic, and there’s a lot of emphasis on horse welfare, which is great. There’s a real positive energy.”

Inter II Open: Leeloo Dallas Delivers Again

Lauren Chumley and Leeloo Dallas continued their smooth glide up the dressage totem pole, winning the Intermediate II Open Championship with 68.48% in a class of 14 starters. The duo won the Prix St. Georges title at the 2023 Finals and the Intermediate I Freestyle last year.

“This is Leeloo’s first year at I-2, and I’ve had some really good and some not-so-great rides,” said Chumley of the nine-year-old mare by Gaspard De La Nuit DG x Negro. “She’s never naughty, but she’s green at this — she’s only been doing this level for, like, 30 seconds. She was good in the test, but she was amazing in the warm-up, so that was a feeling of what’s to come. I can’t wait until I can have it all in the ring.”

Chumley has trained Leeloo Dallas up the levels herself since buying her unseen as a foal from her breeder Racheal McKinney in Arizona. Initially, she couldn’t afford her, but when her price was reduced, she was able to cobble together the funds.

“When she arrived, I realized I’d never asked how big she was,” added Chumley. “She’s a hair under 16.1hh now, which is actually fine as I’m not that tall.”

Chumley, who made the nine-hour drive from her winter base in Pittstown, NJ, is “endlessly grateful” to her coach Michael Bragdell, who finished fourth in the same class. This was Chumley’s second visit to WEC – Wilmington with Leeloo Dallas. Since coming to prominence with Finals wins, Leeloo Dallas has attracted some hefty offers from potential purchasers.

“I’m not wealthy and this money would change my life, but I don’t care; she’s not for sale!” concluded Chumley.

Prix St Georges Open: Mason Hones Her Craft

Finals specialist Heather Mason wasted no time with getting her winning groove on at this year’s show, bagging another title that will be heading back to New Jersey. On the eight-year-old Manuskript (by Jazz x Krack C) — the joint youngest horse in the class — she clinched the Prix St. Georges Open Championship with 70.392%, the only plus-70%.

Intermediaire I Open: $15 Horse Triumphs

The only gelding to break through the mighty mares in the morning classes was Christine Calao’s Freshman SHS — a nine-year-old gelding she bought for $15 as a weanling. The pair from Texas headed up the Open Intermediate I Championship with 68.676%, despite the Fürstenball x Sandro Hit son having had his fair share of setbacks.

“It’s a fluke that I ended up with him,” explained Calao, who breeds a few horses herself each year and likes the temperament and paces Fürstenball brings to the table. “A breeder near me had him as a yearling and thought he was stallion quality, but he was blind in one eye with a detached retina, so she didn’t think he was worth anything. I liked him and bought him for $15.

“I tried to sell him a few times; as a two-year-old because he was gangly, and then again as a four-year-old because he was so straightforward that I thought he would be easy to sell,” she added.

Calao has found methods to cope with his blindness, such as using constant voice aids on the lunge when his blind side is to the inside. Other than that, he has required little special treatment and has continued to thrive as the work has become harder. He is no longer a sales horse.

In the spring of 2025 Freshman SHS fell in the trailer en route to a competition and ended up with some deep cuts and scrapes. Vets were concerned he may have a hole in the tendon as he had a deep fetlock cut. They also mentioned that fractures of the neck or hip are common after such accidents. Remarkably, vets informed Calao that he had “dodged every bullet that you could possibly dodge” and that he would be just fine.

“He’s super talented and very sensitive, with a very good brain,” added Calao, who trains with Lehua Custer and Leslie Morse. “Now, he’s as close to a golden retriever personality as you can get, and he’s schooling all the grand prix. He’s a machine, he’s a rockstar, and he’s a barn favorite.”