Living the childhood dream – Christian Simonson and Rocky hit the world stage
Christian Simonson, at 23, is living his childhood dream in the FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Fort Worth,Texas – where he finished second with Indian Rock last night on Day 1.
“It is a real childhood dream come true,” Christian said earlier this year at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, after he and ‘Rocky’ burst on the scene with a win in the opening Friday Night Stars Freestyle in January. “It’s something I’ve written down as one of my big goals from a long time ago.”
The dream began to take shape in April of 2025 when Christian first competed with Indian Rock, a 13-year old stallion owned by Heidi Humphries of Zen Elite Equestrian and a horse that Christian had also dreamed about for some time, having first seen the 2013 KWPN stallion in the flesh in November 2024.
“He’s always been a horse that I’ve known about and I’ve always really admired,” said Christian. “I remember really vividly the first time I sat on him. He just has an immense amount of power and one of the things I remember for the first time was his character. It just felt like he would try so hard for you and he would absolutely give his all. And that for me is like the best feeling you can ever have as a rider – when you have a horse that truly has so much heart.”
Christian grew up in California, taking up dressage as a 10-year old, and later cutting his teeth in the competitive arena with a Lusitano pony called ‘Rudy’. “I just really, really liked it,” he said. “I just love hanging out with horses, spending time with them, spending time with animals. And so that’s what I loved before knowing even what a Grand Prix in dressage was, or even knowing how to string those words together.”
Christian had admired Rocky from afar on live streams and recalled watching him compete at top international level with his previous rider Holland’s Emmelie Scholtens. “I thought, wow, what an amazing horse,” Christian said. “He’s so expressive and so elastic, but I never thought that, well, I would one day be riding him.”
Christian’s dressage trajectory took an upward turn when he went to work for USA Olympic medalist, Adrienne Lyle in 2018. She mentored him and he looks up to her for inspiration in the sport. “Every day I’m like, how do I make sure I can learn as much as I can from her and try to show the best I can for her and the horses as well,” he said.
One of the most important lessons learned, Christian said, came from watching Adrienne speak at a press conference, making the most of any opportunity to learn. “I was kind of curious what she would say,” said Christian. “She was talking about competing and she said it’s my job to protect the horse from the pressure around that. It’s like your job as a rider to give them the best experience they can and to help them and hold their hand throughout the test. That’s been really, really helpful.”
Christian reiterated those thoughts in last night’s press conference having taken second place with a score of 75.413 percent behind Olympic medalist Britain’s Becky Moody and Jagerbomb who claimed the win with a test scoring 76.76.
FEI World Cup Dressage Final competition continues on Saturday night when riders perform their Grand Prix Freestyles. “I can’t wait,” Christian told reporters last night. “I’m really excited to show our music and our floor plan. And I’m just happy to be here.”
Freestyle competition, with the musical component, is always a crowd pleasing event and the atmosphere in the Dickies Arena is likely to be highly charged. Rocky’s personality is aligned for that. “He’s one of the few horses I’ve ever interacted with that is so similar at home as he is in the shows,” Christian said. “A part of his absolute magic is he’s just so dependable. During the freestyles there’s a lot of people. He grows to the occasion and I’m really fortunate that there’s been a couple times where he clicks all together at the last minute and he just is like, ‘okay I’m gonna do my job and I know what to do’. And that’s the most rewarding feeling. He’s really special that way.”
This could be interesting: