WELLINGTON, Fla.--Germany’s 23-year-old prodigy Felicitas Hendricks extended her unbeaten streak on Drombusch OLD to six when she won the individual gold medal in the FEI Nations Cup CDIO3* Grand Prix Freestyle on Friday, Feb. 23 at the Global Dressage Festival..
Felicitas Hendricks on Drombusch OLD (Photo by Susan Stickle)Sweden’s seven-time Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén won silver on Devanto, with Frederic Wandres of Germany winning the bronze on Total Recall.
Under the floodlights of the ‘Friday Night Stars’ evening session in the Equestrian Village International Arena, Hendricks and Drombusch’s routine to lively, upbeat disco music scored 79.1%, their highest senior Grand Prix Freestyle score.
As Hendricks brought the 13-year-old Destano gelding in to the final center line, the knowledgeable and vocal audience clapped along, adding even more spring to Drombusch’s final piaffe.
“This still feels unreal, I’m definitely not getting used to it,” said Hendricks, who trains with her uncle Cristoph Koschel. “I’m very grateful to have a horse that wants to do it every single time and he never disappoints. He’s always ready to go and today was one of the best feelings I’ve had in the ring so far. He was super fresh, which I think you could see in the extended canter, but I couldn’t help smiling about it because I want him to be fresh and happy."
“WE WANTED fun party music for Drombusch, so I chose music my mum used to dance to in the club. Every time I listen to it I fall in love with it even more. He’s not just my show partner, he’s also my best friend in daily life,” said Hendricks.
Despite having competed at AGDF every year for over a decade, Vilhelmson Silfvén was still impressed by the atmosphere on Friday night as she scored 7.415% on Devanto.
“What an atmosphere tonight!” said Vilhelmson Silfvén, who rode to her well known ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz’ freestyle, with an adapted floorplan. “It was electric and Devanto felt that too. He was eager to go when he got in, I had to manage to control everything, but I got a super feeling from that, so it was fun to ride. The Friday nights are a super opportunity to ride in a championship atmosphere. It’s such good practice and amazing to ride here on Friday nights, even though it’s not always easy.”
Last to go, Wandres on Total Recall, the youngest horse in the class , scored 77.08% to win the bronze medal.
Wandres borrowed the horse just to compete in the Nations Cup.
“I had fun! I wasn’t fighting for a team place or anything so, there was no pressure on this ride, and I think the horse had fun too," said Wndres.. "I think the horse has a lot of talent for the collected work, the piaffe/passage so he can show even better than he did tonight, but it was his first time.”
He rode to a freestyle soundtrack that he has previously used for his top horses Bluetooth and Duke of Britain.
The floorplan carries the maximum degree of difficulty of 10.
Only four riders contested the CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle, and first-to-go Yvonne Losos De Muñiz of the Dominican Republic scored an uncatchable 75.235%.
The result marked the culmination of a remarkable comeback for the now 19-year-old Aquamarijn.
The mare by United tore a muscle in her hind leg backing off a trailer in the summer of 2022, and Losos De Muñiz rehabbed her with gymnastic exercises in the field.
The therapies were so effective that she decided to bring her back to the competition ring.
Monica Burssens of Mexico on Elfentanz and Micaela Mabragaña of Argenina on Bradley Cooper both scored 70.21%, but Burssens’ higher artistic score gave her second place, making Mabragaña third.
“I’ve never had a ride like that with her,” said Losos De Muñiz, who has been competing Aquamarijn at grand prix level for eight years. “I got her through the grand prix but she was dragging me around and wouldn’t listen. Every time I go in there, I don’t know what I’m going to have, I’ve never had the same ride twice. Tonight she said, ‘Yes ma’am, how much do you want and how high do you want it?’ She was amazing.”
Of Aquamarijn’s recovery, Losos De Muñiz said, “We were just trying to get her well enough to retire her, so we were playing with all these gymnastic things, like poles to teach her to use the other muscles, so we restructured the muscles. She liked it so much that we decided to keep going with her, and she sometimes moves better now than she did before. To be here compared to where we were a year ago, it’s totally unfathomable. She’s 19 going on 5; she’s got more energy and life and character to her now than she ever did.”
The pair will represent the Dominican Republic at the Paris Olympics this summer, and will fly to Europe in April to prepare.
From the 16 starters in the Prix St. Georges CDI1*, Canada’s Naima Moreira Laliberte’s international debut on Jaliska LD scored 73.48% to win.
Both the second and third placed riders posted new career high scores.
Jennifer Williams scored 71.323% on Babylon Berlin, and, at their second ever CDI, Quinn Iverson on King’s Pleasure placed third on 71.226%.
“The first time I sat on her as a 4-year-old I thought, ‘Either she’s going to kill me or we’re going to be amazing’ — it was so much power, something I hadn’t really felt before in a young horse,” said Laliberte of Jaliska. “You don’t want to rush horses like that because you need that power through the levels, and for a grand prix horse, and it’s a quality I look for.
“We really had to take our time with her. When we got her she lacked a lot of confidence in life towards certain environments and triggers. So we went back to kindergarten to desensitize her and show her things and make her walk on tarps. Things like that are so important when they’re young, I like to do that with all the young horses,” said the 27-year-old Laliberte, who bought the horse from Alice Tarjan. “She’s very low mileage, but she’s such a sweet girl.”
Laliberte is from Montreal, where her family has a farm, but she has spent the majority of the past two years training in Spain with Jordi Domingo and in Florida with Ashley Holzer.
She has four horses with her in Wellington this season, and hopes for a Canadian team place for the Paris Olympics.
