WELLINGTON, Fla.--Kevin Kohmann on Dünensee won the FEI World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle on Friday night, March 1 during Week 8 of the Global Dressage Festival, and with the win secured his place in the World Cup Final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in April.
Kevin Kohmann on Dunensee (Photo by Susan Stickle)The 35-year-old Kohmann, who is having a good season with Dünensee, scored 75.07%.
Riders in the final group of horses had to contend with heavy rain, but Susan Dutta and Ellen McCarthy of Great Britain placed second and third despite the downpour.
Dutta on Don Design DC scored 72.8% to place second., and McCarthy was third on the youngest horse in the class, Brave Heart, with a score of 71.855%.
There are three starting spots allocated at the FEI World Cup Final to the North American League, and Anna Marek and Ben Ebeling already have two of them.
Kohmann now joins that list and will head to his first World Cup Final.
“Tonight’s test started off really well with my halt, but then the next movement screwed me and I said to myself ‘Kevin, just ride safe!’"said Kohmann. "I got a little ahead of the music, but my horse was 100% with me. He really helped me out, so thank you Düne.”
“I PUT THE pressure on me tonight, but it all worked out,” said Kohmann. “I can’t believe it. If you had told me this would happen a year ago, I would have said that you’re crazy. It’s a shock to me. I am thrilled and I love this horse.”
Kohmann is undecided whether Dünensee will compete in another show before the final, but he will now enjoy a well deserved rest.
“I had to warm up in the pouring rain and my horse got a bit tense with that." said Dutta. "He also doesn’t like going last because all his friends leave the warm-up, so that brought a bit of tension too. And then when I went into the arena he was a bit surprised by the camera on the side, so I had to deal with that. So it started off a bit tense, but he was honest and I’m proud of him. A year ago I couldn’t have done this with him.”
Dutta has recently started training with Jürgen Hoffmann, and they have been focusing on the basics.
“It’s a new partnership and I’m very happy with it,” she said. “I’m having a really good time and it’s all about the classical basics; to ride my corners and to have everything really correct and a nicer looking contact and bring my lessons into the arena.”
On the same day that McCarthy’s trainer Charlotte Dujardin was winning at Lier CDI, the 27-year-old British rider recorded her first podium finish in her first season competing in Wellington.
“I’m really happy,” she said. “It wasn’t my best freestyle score with him, but he’s still really green and he’s never seen anything like this. I’ve only had him for two years. He was the first horse I tried at Henri Ruoste’s place in Germany, and before I had him he didn’t do a lot of competing, so he still has to take everything from training and put it in the arena. I fell in love with him straight away, and he’s so fun to ride. We had a couple of little wobbles, but he was totally with me.”
“I visited last year and knew I wanted to come and do this one day, so I sold a horse to be able to come here,"said McCarthy. "Hopefully I’ll come back next year with more horses.”
The Palm Beach Derby returned for its 41st anniversary edition on Friday.
The knock-out contest pits riders head-to-head to ride a Prix St. Georges on an unfamiliar horse with just five minutes to warm up before tackling the test in the main arena.
Erin Nichols, 20, and the reigning Palm Beach Derby champion, the 27-year-old German rider Anna-Christina Abbelen, won the semi-final knock-out rounds earlier in the evening.
Nichols, drawn first, had a tricky ride on Kohmann's A Cappella, scoring 58.383% in her first appearance under the lights.
Abbelen scored 69.081% on the mare to win the class and successfully defend her title.
“I’m quite familiar with that breeding and I think that helped,” said Abbelen. “As we have just five minutes, you can’t practice all the transitions, and you have only one walk to canter in the test, so I thought I would try to go around the edge and come in off the left lead too.”
“I think A Cappella had a bit of an opinion today," said Nichols. "She was unsure and I couldn’t give her as much confidence as I would have liked. It was my first time riding under the lights, and my first time riding a test after five minutes.”
