The US Dressage Finals were held last weekend, October 30 to November 2, 2025, at the World Equestrian Center (WEC) in Wilmington, Ohio, and three Maryland riders came home with top honors: Sarah Pyne won the Adult Amateur Fourth Level Freestyle Championship on her former event horse Dirhon C; Lucy Tidd DVM won the Third Level Adult Amateur title on Kayla; and Alexa Briscoe won both the Adult Amateur Second Level and the Adult Amateur Third Level Freestyle championships on Lincolntime.

Sarah Pyne

Sarah Pyne, who recently moved to Maryland from New York, won the AA Fourth Level Freestyle Championship with a score of 72.9%.

The victory did not come easy. Three years ago, Pyne was not sure whether her partner, the 13-year-old German Holsteiner Dirhon C (Diarado x Rhonda C (Esteban)) would even be able to continue competing, much less have a successful dressage career. Jump Media reported in a press release over the weekend:

“On Christmas morning we found him panting with a temperature of 107.3 degrees,” explained Pyne of the now 13-year-old Holsteiner. “We called all the vets and ruined everyone’s holiday; we threw everything at him. For about six weeks we couldn’t lead him out of the stall because he would try to collapse. He had EHV-5 [equine herpes virus] and, as a result, he doesn’t have very good lung capacity now, so after six years of eventing together, we switched sports.”

Those challenges make the victory even sweeter. According to Jump Media, Pyne said that “every time we set a goal, he meets it, and we have to get creative and come up with another one. I’m just excited he’s alive.” Pyne says Dirhon C still “gets nebulized and we still jump a little to keep his brain happy and mix it up, but at this point, he gets to do what he wants to do.”

Lucy Tidd

Small animal vet and Grand Prix rider Lucy Tidd, who owns Locks Edge LLC in Poolesville, and her 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood Kayla (Ferdeaux x Dendy (Metall)), beat out 24 starters to win the Third Level AA title with 68.958%. Tidd told Jump Media that while Kayla is “a lot of fun, like a little sports car,” she can get “really hot and anxious” so the two “spent the last year going back to work on the basics.”

“She’s the toughest horse I’ve had; she really makes me think and try to be creative, so it makes this result that much more special. She’s a beautiful little thing with lots of opinions — she’s all mare.”

Tidd keeps her horses at home and fits in riding around her veterinary practice by doing a lot of her riding at dawn. “It’s a lot of early starts, but we get some beautiful sunrises.”

Tidd is hopeful that Kayla can reach the Grand Prix. “She has the talent, if I can get her mind to stick with me. Jeremy said she was put here to teach me patience, and we are both trying really hard to learn it.”

Alexa Briscoe

Alexa Briscoe of Poolesville traveled to Ohio with one horse (her seven-year-old Hanoverian Lincolntime (Londontime x Wilanka (Weltmeyer)) but came back with two championship titles — the Adult Amateur Third Level Freestyle Championship with a 71.15% and the Adult Amateur Second Level with a 71.032%.

Briscoe purchased Lincolntime during the COVID-19 pandemic based on a video taken of the horse in Germany. She credits her trainer Becky Langwost-Barlow for spotting the horse and realixing it would “a good fit” for Briscoe.

Briscoe is based in Poolesville where she works as a detective and collision reconstructionist in the Montgomery County Police Collision Reconstruction Unit. She told The Chronicle of the Horse  

“We do the notifications, which means it’s our job to knock on someone’s door in the middle of the night and tell them their loved one is dead. It’s one of the worst moments that you can imagine in anyone’s life. … Having horses is such a gift, because when you’re riding, you can really focus on that one thing, which helps with letting go of everything else.”

Briscoe traveled to Ohio by herself and ended up winning two of her three championship classes. She told The Chronicle that “Obviously, it’s always fun to show with friends and have people, but being on basically vacation with your horse alone for five days and just hanging out with him—it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Photos by Sue Stickle Photography