Meet Christian Simonson
Christian Simonson is an elite US Dressage Rider based in the United States.
His main passion is the sport of Dressage yet Christian has many interests that he likes to pursue when he has some downtime. He obtained his student’s pilot license at the age of 15, is an avid mountain biker, downhill skier, and has his open water PADI scuba certification. He studied at the University of Texas, Austin where he completed a degree in Business.
Christian discovered Dressage at six and quickly became the protégé of USDF Gold Medalist, Gail Hoff Carmona.
By the age of thirteen, Christian started showing at a National level and began training with Olympian Jan Ebeling in Moorpark, California.
He won both the Gold Team medal and Silver Individual medal in the 2016 Adequan / FEI NAYC, and the Silver Individual medal at the 2017 Adequan / FEI NAYC. Additionally, he was awarded the USDF Bronze and Silver medal that year.
In 2018, Christian joined Olympic Dressage competitor, Adrienne Lyle, and now spends his summers in Greenwood Village, Colorado and his winters training in Wellington, Florida.
He won the first ever Young Rider, Team Bronze medal after being selected to represent the US on the Young Rider European Tour at Hagen, Germany at the Future Champions Nations Cup, as well as a second place individual finish. Once back in the States, he represented Region 7 at the Adequan / FEI NAYC in Traverse City, Michigan where he won triple Gold medals in the FEI YR Team, Individual, and Freestyle with his mount Zeaball Diawind, shattering all previously set records.
At Wayne, Il where at Lamplight Equestrian Park where he continued his winning streak and became the 2021 US Young Rider Champion.
In 2022, after qualifying again for the European Young Rider tour, Christian won the 2022 Palm Beach Derby Small Tour and set a new freestyle record for that competition.
Christian and “Son of a Lady” were also invited to represent the USA at CHIO Aachen 2022, where they ended up on the podium with a third place in the Musical Kur with a 75%. Christian also set two new United Stated Young Rider records after competing at “Future Champions” at Hof Kasselman two weeks prior.
In 2023, Christian Simonson and Son of a Lady became number one in the small tour World Rankings.
In Wellington, he was the youngest rider ever to make the CDIO Nations Cup team. Christian and Son of a Lady also won the CDIO3* Small Tour Freestyle at the same event. He competed again in Aachen with Son of a Lady where they achieved a podium placing in U21 and in Hagen.
They were selected to represent the US at the Pan American Games, where Christian was the youngest rider to represent the United States at the Games. Together with the team, they brought home the Gold Medal.