WELLINGTON, Fla.--Kevin Kohmann on Dunensee won the FEI Nations Cup CDIO3* Grand Prix Special on Saturday, Feb. 24, the second and final set of individual medals at the Global Dressage Festival.
Kevin Kohmann on Dunensee.(Photo by Susan Stickle)Kohmann was overcome with emotion to win the gold medal.
Michael Klimke on Domino 957 scored 67.766% to win the silver medal.
At just 20 years old, Erin Nichols won bronze on Elian Royale, scoring 67.128%.
“It was super standing up there, I’m speechless right now,” said Kohmann, who switched nationalities from his native Germany three years ago. “This is my second time riding a Nations Cup for the US and I had tears during the anthem."
“I am so thrilled to have won even though today wasn’t really the test that I wanted it to be,” he said of the small mistakes in his performance. “He had a bit more go, so we’re going to change the strategy for our next warm-ups, for day number two especially. It seems that the horse has so much energy, which is great, but it was too much today for me to manage through the test, so we missed the suppleness and looseness that we normally have.”
THE 15-YEAR-OLD Dünensee’s time with Kohmann began a decade ago when his now wife Devon Kane bought the horse for herself as a 5-year-old.
“He kept growing and growing, then I ended up with him because I’m a tall, strong guy,” said Kohmann, 35. “Then he went to a bunch of other tall, strong guys, and then almost 10 years later he was back with me. I still have the first sales video I made with him, he was already doing his tempi changes.”
“A year ago, I didn’t believe that I could show the horse,"said Kohmann. "I couldn’t ride one clean line of changes at home, but Devon and trainer Christoph Koschel told me, ‘Yes you can, just do it.’ We went out there and they were right, it was good enough. From that moment on, we started trusting each other. Now I walk into the barn and his ears are straight forward, it’s so nice. He’s the sweetest horse on the planet."
“I didn’t think we could even ride a test, and now we’ve done Nations Cups and will probably do the World Cup this year; I don’t know what the limit is. This horse is going to stay in the family forever now, he’s earned his spot,” said Kohmann, who plans to compete the horse in next week’s FEI World Cup™ qualifier.
Susan Pape of Great Britain added to her excellent results this season, winning the Grand Prix Special CDI3* on Harmony V-Plus with a personal best score of 72.936%.
Ariana Chia of Canada on Guateque IV scored 70.298%, eclipsing their previous best by almost 3 percentage points to place second.
Canadian Jill Irving on Delacroix 11was third with 69.809%, another personal best.
Pape’s score marked a new high score for V-Plus in this test, and they remain unbeaten in AGDF 7, which is just the fourth CDI for the horse at big tour level.
“It felt absolutely amazing today,” said Pape. “We had a ‘nice’ grand prix, but I thought seeing as he’s listening so well in the arena, today I gave it a bit more energy to see how responsive he was, and he was absolutely marvelous. He’s very concentrated in the ring and that’s something very nice to have upfront.”
“I have incredible support, not only from my family but from all my trainers, my husband Ingo, Michael Klimke and Gareth Hughes, as well as my groom Antonia. It really is a team effort to get here.
“And the opportunity to be in Florida helps V-Plus a lot too because at home it’s drizzly and cold and you’re in the indoor all the time. Here you have sun and open space, and that helps a lot,” she said of the horse she has been riding since he was bought by her sponsors Leslie and John Malone of Harmony Sporthorses for €1.2 million at the PSI Auction in December 2018.
