Genay Vaughn and Gino win the Grand Prix at the US Equestrian Open Dressage Final with 69.544%

Genay Vaughn of Elk Grove, Calif., and Gino won Friday's FEI Grand Prix CDI5* at the US Equestrian Open Dressage Final in Thermal, Calif., with 69.544%, according to a US Equestrian release. The final's champion is decided tonight, Saturday, in the Grand Prix Freestyle.

The Grand Prix result

These are the top three as printed in the release. We have not checked them against the official result page, so treat them as the organizer's reported scores.

The margin between first and second was 2.066 percentage points, and four of the five judges placed Vaughn and Gino first, per US Equestrian. Second and third were separated by 0.195. Ten combinations started the Grand Prix, which US Equestrian describes as the qualifying class for the Freestyle. The release says all three podium finishers advance to tonight's final.

A wording point

US Equestrian's release says the Grand Prix win "crowned" the second-ever Open Dressage Final champion. Its companion release says the Freestyle is the class "determining" that champion. We read the Freestyle as the deciding class, since it is the one the organizer calls the final's highlight, but the two releases are not worded the same way.

How Vaughn got here

The Final caps the US Equestrian Open Dressage Series, which ran across 25 qualifying events nationwide in 2026, per US Equestrian. Riders earned points for placings in FEI Grand Prix Freestyle classes at CDI competitions, with points down to 15th place. Vaughn and Gino qualified with three podium finishes, an average of 76.05% and 45 points, which put them eighth in the series standings.

That 76.05% came in Freestyles, a different test from Friday's Grand Prix, so it should not be set against 69.544% as a drop or a gain. The series winner was Kevin Kohmann of Wellington, Fla., with 65 points and a 75.81% average over four qualifiers, according to the release. It does not say whether he is riding in tonight's class, and we did not confirm it.

Vaughn told US Equestrian the Thermal horse park is a hometown venue for her. She said Gino has been in her family since he arrived from Europe at age six, and that her mother picked him out. Those are her words as quoted by US Equestrian.

Tonight's Freestyle

• Class: FEI Grand Prix Freestyle CDI5*, Desert International Horse Park, Thermal, Calif.
• Stream: ClipMyHorse.TV livestream from about 8:00 p.m. ET (5:00 p.m. PT), per US Equestrian.
• First ride: about 8:30 p.m. ET (5:20 p.m. PT).
• Vaughn and Gino: fifth in the draw order, with music by Barry White, Luther Vandross and Earth, Wind & Fire, and choreography by Terri Gallo, per the release.

The Freestyle result had not been published when we wrote this. We will not report a champion until US Equestrian does. Earlier US Equestrian coverage we have published: screwworm and horses. More shows are on our equestrian calendar and results page.

Sources: US Equestrian press releases, Vaughn and Gino Dance into Freestyle and Road to the Final Ends in Thermal, read Nov. 14, 2026. We were not on site. Scores are as reported by the organizer.