WELLINGTON, Fla.--The U.S. Para Dressage Team, anchored by record breaking scores from Fiona Howard, won the gold medal on Sunday, March 8 at the Global Dressage Festival CPEDI3*.
Fiona Howard on Vianne (Photo by Centre Line Media)The U.S. team, led by Chef d’Equipe, Technical Advisor, Michel Assouline and Team Leader Laureen Johnson, scored 446.238 points to beat second-placed Canada’s 389.503 points.
Howard, riding a new mount, Vianne, is a Grade II competitor.
At this show last year, Howard scored a new Grade II Freestyle world record of 83.276% on Diamond Dunes.
This year, Howard, 27 years old, rode Kate Shoemaker’s Olympic bronze medalist mpunt Vianne, the horse she had only begun riding just days before the CPED.
She scored Grade II world records in each of their three appearances, scoring a winning 78.85% in Friday’s CPEDI3* Para Grand Prix A Test, followed on Saturday with an 80.444% Grand Prix B Test, with all three judges awarding at least 80%.
They scored a perfect 10 from every judge for the stretching walk half circle.
On Sunday, Howard scored her third world record in as many days with 84.934% in the Grade II Freestyle, with a winning margin of more than 18 percentage points over the second-placed combination.
THE RESULTS would have been a spectacular achievement for any combination, let alone for a horse and rider making their competition debut.
The U.S. Para Dressage team (Centre Line Media)Moreover, Howard, who won triple gold at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, was hospitalized for seven weeks this winter after undergoing kidney surgery in December 2025.
Until now, the 10-year-old Vianne has been campaigned by owner Shoemaker, including in able-bodied big tour international classes.
Shoemaker, who was on the winning U.S. Team in Wellington on Supreme, is Howard’s long-time coach.
“Because I’d never shown Vianne before, I didn’t know what to expect, but Kate told me that I can totally trust her, and I trust Kate,” said Howard, who has dystonia, a neuromuscular disease that causes her muscles to contract and twist involuntarily. “I’m super grateful to Kate for the opportunity to ride this horse. It was an incredible week, and it’s all testament to her training, her coaching and the team of the three of us coming together. To walk away with three world records is incredible."
“Kate has known me for a long time now and she’s helped prep my horses, ride them and coach me," said Howard, who is the World No. 1 para dressage rider across all grades. "She knows me and my disability very well and that shows in her ability to make this team of me with Vianne so quickly. Each day, our confidence together grew, and that was reflected in the scores. I was having so much fun. We didn’t know what this whole season was going to look like, and I’m taking it day by day and feeling grateful and thankful that I can do this.”
Howard will return to Europe, where her own competition horses are based, at the end of March to resume her campaign for selection for this summer’s FEI World Championship in Aachen, Germany.
Howard was the overall champion in Week 9’s CPEDI, while the reserve championship went to her teammate Marie Vonderheyden, who dominated the Grade I classes.
Vonderheyden rode Fan Tastico H to three wins, culminating in a personal best of 78.489% in Sunday’s freestyle class.
“The freestyle test was well organized compared to the first day,” said the 34-year-old. “We are building good momentum and we’re a real team. Fan Tastico is a very nice guy and always open to everything.”
Vonderheyden is a former FEI level event rider for France, but a fall in 2015 left her with traumatic brain injuries and in a coma.
The injuries she suffered have left her with seizures, tremors and hemiplegia, as well as memory issues.
Following multiple brain surgeries and extensive therapies, she returned to the international ring in 2019 under the U.S. flag in the para ranks.
Like Howard, she is also aiming for the 2026 FEI World Championships.
Roxanne Trunnell was the fourth member of the winning U.S. Team, riding Rumour Has It to three third place\ finishes in the Grade I classes.
Danish individual Grade V rider Line Thorning Jørgensen rode Blue Hors Zee Me Blue to three wins.
“This was an amazing opportunity for me to ride my friend’s horse, and I hadn’t ridden him before I came here,” said Jørgensen, whose left leg was paralyzed in a riding accident in 2001 in which a horse fell on her. “I’ve been on this para path since 2002, so it’s been many years, but this show was so fun.
“This was my fifth or sixth ride on Zee Me Blue, so we don’t really have a partnership, but he’s just such a nice horse. I use a whip for the left leg, and he was such a gentleman. Being able to compete here was wonderful—like self-care for me,” said Jørgensen.
