The U.S. came into the FEI Para Dressage World Championships as the top nation in the discipline, and it is leaving the same way after taking the team gold medal Saturday.
On Friday, Fiona Howard with Diamond Dunes and Marie Vonderheyden on Fan Tastico H earned the best scores in Grades II and I respectively.
Kate Shoemaker and Vianne, the stars of Grade IV, produced the highest individual score of the team competition in Aachen with a mark of 80.460 to complete the job in style the next day and clinch the gold on a total of 236.135 for the squad that also includes longtime Grade III competitor Rebecca Hart.
Kate Shoemaker and Vianne. (FEI Photo)
Even better, Kate was the only rider to score more than 80 percent in the competition that involved teams from 20 countries.
The U.S. had a comfortable margin over the home side, as Germany wound up second with 229.875. The Netherlands was third on 227.639, Denmark fourth with 228.867 and Great Britain fifth on 222.379. It’s worth noting that Great Britain once dominated the Para standings, a reminder than no sporting status is ever eternal.
Chef d’Equipe Michel Assouline acknowledged that as champions from the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, the team was under pressure. That makes the desire to win even more of a task.
“We know from a sport perspective that maintaining your strength is probably the hardest,” he observed.
“We did it. But we also prize our horses, very much so. We want to look after the horses so well and make sure they are happy horses. Yes, we are thirsty to win the gold for the world championship because it was a first for us, so we wanted to have that — but not at the expense of the horses.”
Michel pointed out, “I think everybody could see that in the performance, the horses were really happy horses under extremely high standards of harmony, so we’re happy.”
The triumph was not without drama.
Kate revealed that there was “a bit of a moment” just as she was getting ready to enter the arena, when Carla Onrubia Roman of Spain fell from Valerio, who spooked as he and his rider were leaving the ring.
“She fell off right where we needed to cross by each other,” Kate recalled.
“I never had that experience with my horse, having a loose horse next to her,” Kate revealed.
But Vianne, fabulous mare that she is, handled the mini-crisis.
“She looked over there, said, `Are you guys okay? And then, she was like, `Okay, it’s fine,’ ” Kate reported.
“And then Michel said, `Get in the arena.’ I was like, `Yes sir.’
“I was so proud of Vianne in that moment, because she just went in the ring and said, `We go do our thing now and everything’s okay.’
“It was really, really special to me that she had that much confidence in me, to go in with that much excitement and still put in a really good test.”
Click here for team results. Click here for individual Grade IV results.
