U.S. Para-Dressage Team Wins World Championship in Commanding Fashion; Germany Celebrates

By the end of the first half of the team competition in para-dressage, the U.S. had already established a commanding lead. This was thanks to Fiona Howard on Diamond Dunes in Grade II (79.30), Marie Vonderheyden on Fan Tastico H in Grade I (76.375), and Rebecca Hart on Floratina in Grade III (73.533). These three were the ones who had won gold for the U.S. in Paris in 2024. Nevertheless, it was the latter who ultimately provided the discard score. That’s because the team’s victory was sealed today by the newly crowned Grade IV world champions, veterinarian Kate Shoemaker and the beautiful gray mare Vianne. They won the class with a superbly harmonious and technically sound performance, which the judges scored at 80.460 percent.

This brought the U.S. total to 236.135 percentage points—leaving the German team no chance of surpassing that score, even though they also set personal bests. In the end, Germany finished with 229.875 percent, taking silver. And the bronze went to the defending champions from the Netherlands, who finished this World Championship with 227.639 percent.

Silver for Germany

Today was the decisive day for the German team. Heidemarie Dresing and her horse Poesie had set the bar high yesterday in Grade II with a score of 77.733 percent, but this time they finished second behind Fiona Howard and Diamond Dunes, whom they were still able to beat in the individual competition.

Mispelkamp

Today, Regine Mispelkamp —who, by the way, competed with a broken metatarsal—kicked things off on Highlander Delight’s in Grade V. After the Grand Prix had been marred by some tension in the individual standings, things went better for the pair today. They were rewarded with a score of 75.737 percent.

Mispelkamp was happy—with just one small downside: “It was great! At one point I thought: Why didn’t I manage to do it like this on Thursday? But he was just great—he listened to me. Once, briefly, when we walked in, he glanced over at the corner, and then I said, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay.’ ‘Light’s’ seemed convinced by that. ‘He just went along with it so well.’”

Brandt

After the first two competitors, it was still largely unclear who would win the medals behind the U.S. In addition to the Germans, the defending champions from the Netherlands and Denmark also had good chances. So there was quite a bit of pressure on the newcomer to the team, Helen Brandt with Vulkan Vegas IB. In the individual competition, both had fallen short of their potential. But when the team medals were on the line, they both rose to the occasion. Brandt kept her cool and, as she later reported, trusted that her gelding “had really settled in Aachen”. The strategy paid off. With their score of 73.297 percent, they ensured that the team was guaranteed at least one medal. The ride by Anna-Lena Niehues and Vive l’Amour would determine what color that medal would be.

Niehues

To put it simply: The two of them showed truly strong nerves. They had to enter the arena right after Shoemaker and Vianne’s 80 percent score, but they didn’t let it faze them at all. With a new personal best of 76.405 percent, they secured the silver medal for the German team. This success is all the more remarkable given that Niehues and the sensitive, nine-year-old Vainqueur daughter had to leave the 2025 German Championships in Balve early because the mare was simply still too scared in the arena.

Things are very different now: “It was simply magnificent; it was a great feeling, and the result speaks for itself,” Niehues said after her ride. “She used to react rather nervously to things like the stadium or the huge applause. The fact that she enjoyed it so much now—and says, ‘This is my thing; I’m really up for doing this with you’—just shows that the path we took last year was the right one and an important one.”

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the satisfied national team coach

, was full of praise for her team: “I’m really, really happy with everyone; they put on an amazing performance here.” There will also be more medals up for grabs tomorrow in the free skate, for which all four German pairs have qualified.