Add it to the pile! Newly-sworn in U.S. rider Lucienne Bellissimo and the 14-year-old Dyri added another stamp to their collection this weekend at Stable View’s Spring International & H.T., collecting the wire-to-wire win in the US Equestrian Open qualifier CCI4*-S division on a score of 27.7.
Those who have followed Dyri over the last few seasons will know that his partnership with Lucienne has been an exercise in trust and patience. After a truncated CCI5* debut last year at Kentucky, during which Lucienne opted to retire on cross country with the horse’s best interest in mind, she went back to the drawing board a bit. It’s normal, really, for horses to step down a level or two between major runs to ensure their confidence is peak and to reduce the top level wear and tear on their legs. Lucienne chose to go all the way back down to the Preliminary and CCI2* level after experiencing a few more runs with blips. Now, a year on from that re-approach, she’s beginning to really reap the fruits of that labor.
“I think the things that make him great are also the things that historically have given us occasionally a day of ‘okay, we need to go home and regroup,’” Lucienne explained. “He’s careful, he’s conscientious, he takes himself quite seriously, and he’s a little insecure — but he’s also a very genuine, quality animal that I have very, very high hopes for beyond the wins he’s already had.”
Lucienne also mused that Dyri’s slightly later-than-traditional start in the sport (he didn’t do his first FEI competition, at the 1* level with Germany’s Dirk Schrade, until he was 8) as well as his breeding (sired by Diarado, out of the Thoroughbred King Milford’s La Calera) lent themselves to some additional quirks to overcome. “He’s by Diarado, and I think that tends to be a little bit the way that stallion stamps his stock there,” she said. “On the one hand, they can be very flashy, moving and quite fabulous jumpers, but on the other hand, sometimes I think their brains can be a little bit slow to process, so they’re careful, but they can also be a bit slow to assess things. So, specific to Dyri on cross country, historically, ABC combinations, ABCD combination cross country — unless he’s very much in front of your leg and understands the question — he might just a little bit stop pushing and trying by the time he gets to a C element, if something’s asking a lot of him. This year, having dropped him back down to two-star to regroup, to three-star to regroup, I feel as though he’s actually now really starting to understand to keep pushing through his body when his brain doesn’t necessarily 100% know what’s being asked of it.”
And it was evident this weekend at Stable View: Lucienne describes Dyri as much more “in the bridle” that he had been in the past on cross country, something she credits both to his increased confidence and also his ongoing fitness accumulation. They also were completely unfazed when another competitor crossed directly in front of them ahead of a big open corner combination — something Lucienne says Dyri would likely have spun around and lost his marbles at in the past. All of that led to the pair catching the optimum time (6:54) on Helen West’s 4* track and solidifying their eighth win going back to August of 2025.
“Through the winter, I’ve done a lot of just homework with him, just bounce training and things for muscle memory that just speed him up a little bit as he’s looking,” Lucienne said. “I’m doing the best I can to try and get him so he’s capable of reproducing these sorts of results.” But all that said, the ever-competitive rider knows there’s still more work to be done if she wants to truly stand up to the formidable competition overseas (and of course within the U.S. itself).
“I’d like to get that down to some of these European results, where people are on a 22!” she said, sharing that her next run is at the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S during Defender Kentucky week (also a US Equestrian Open qualifier), where she’ll hope to build on these results ahead of a planned European trip that will either include a CCI5* run at Luhmühlen in June (Germany) or a CCI4*-L at Strzegom in Poland.
“It’s almost been a little bit like fate that it didn’t go through,” she continued, noting that she had considered selling Dyri on to another professional. “I feel like my little guy is suddenly come into a whole new chapter, which I’m really excited about. I’ve got a huge emotional attachment to him, because we have had some of my best results together. So I like to say I’m quietly optimistic that he’s on the up again, and I think they can bloom late in this sport — 15, 16, 17 — while still producing world-class results. So I’m hoping he’s going to be one of them.”
Allie Knowles and Montpellier Scais. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
Kentucky-based Allie Knowles has put in the work producing a new generation of horses to the upper levels, and she capped off the latest in a good spring campaign with Montpellier Scais (a 9-year-old Anglo European gelding owned by Allie’s longtime supporter, Katherine O’Brien) with a second place finish in this weekend’s 4*-S on a score of 35.0. This weekend was the fourth Advanced/second 4*-S for Montpellier Scais, and Allie said she benefitted from taking her first ride, LS Crown Royal (also a rising star 8-year-old for Allie), out on cross country ahead in the order. “That was a really nice opportunity for me to see how it was riding and how the distances were so when I went out on Montpellier, which was only his second four-star, I knew a bit more about the track,” she described in a press release sent by Stable View. “I knew to put the pedal down and I knew there was an opportunity to move up. I kind of put his feet to the fire. It’s definitely the fastest I’ve run him and he was all business. I can’t even describe how proud of him I am. This was the first time he came out and I was like, ‘let’s go win this.’ Both of them just cruised around like champions.”
Waylon Roberts and Fernhill Salt Lake. Photo by Haley Boothe / Impulsion Media.
Representing Canada and his traditional speed when it counts, Waylon Roberts cruised home as the first one to make the time on cross country with Andrea McAllister’s Fernhill Salt lake to end the weekend in third overall on a score of 36.1. Fernhill Salt Lake is 11 this year and has done his entire FEI career to date with Waylon in the irons, dating back to 2022. Waylon also took a “drop back and build up” approach after first moving the Irish Sport Horse gelding up to the 4* level in 2024, and now he’s secured two podium finishes at the level since they returned to it. Waylon also took home eighth with Nicholas Cardamone’s Sieve Callan Alpha and 11th with Carol Riley’s Chevalier.
“I couldn’t be more excited for all three of them,” Waylon told the Stable View press team. “The course rode so smooth. I think Helen [West] did a fantastic job. The track really felt like a cross country track out there. It was challenging enough at times but then it wasn’t over the top, because we’re still early in the season preparing for four-Long formats. I thought it was just a great day of sport. This was a big day getting these three MERs at the level. Now all three of them are qualified to go four-Long. I think the plan is going to be to go show jump at Progressive Show Jumping [in Aiken] on the grass in a couple weeks and then aim them at the four-long at Tryon. Then we have the Bromont four-Long in our back pocket.”
Looking to the current US Equestrian Open standings after Stable View, Lucienne will net 60 points for her efforts, finishing both first and ninth with Dyri and Kitsch Couture HPK, respectively. This will give her a season total of 140, which will leapfrog her up to second place in the points standings behind U.S. Olympian Caroline Pamukcu with 145 points to date. Boyd Martin will remain on his season total of 95 points after withdrawing his two 4*-S mounts this weekend; unrelatedly, he had a fall with Mo Chroi in the 3*-S but confirmed to EN that he is “all good” and will live to fight another day. You can view the US Equestrian Open standings here.
Full scores from Stable View can be found here.
Stable View Spring International & HT, CCI4*-S (SC, USA): [Website] [Scores] [Live Stream Replays]
