Felicitas Hendricks Wins World Cup Qualifier on Opening Week of 2024 Global Dressage Festival

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2024 CDI-W Wellington - Week 1

European Under 25 Champion Felicitas Hendricks has proven she can stand her ground in the senior division as she won the World Cup qualifier on the opening week of competition at the 2024 Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida.

The much anticipated first ‘Friday Night Stars’ evening of musical freestyle competition took place on 12 January 2024 and brought ten performances on a balmy night in front of reasonably filled stands during Lloyd Landkamer Memorial week.

The Global Dressage Festival, which hosts seven weeks of CDI competition, runs through March 31. In the ongoing battle to rezone the dressage show grounds into a residential area, it is unclear whether this year's show management is in the hands of Global Equestrian Group (the company that bought the show dates in 2023) or Wellington Lifestyle Partners (the company that owns the land).

Hendricks Stands Her Ground

In the week’s highlight class, the World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle, the podium finishers all came from the final three combinations, spearheaded by a spellbinding performance of power and grace from Germany’s 23-year-old Felicitas Hendricks. She rode her own 13-year-old Drombusch OLD (Destano x Dimaggio) to 78.49%, the pair’s second highest score to date.

Already in 2023 Hendricks alternated between the Under 25 and senior division, competing at both CDI-U25 and CDI/CDIO shows throughout the year. In the summer, however, she chose the 2023 European Under 25 Championships as her target and scored a team and individual gold medal. This year she started in the senior ranks in Wellington and Hendricks put on a masterfully mature display with Drombusch, her partner of seven years.

“This is huge for me because I did my first senior classes here last year and I never thought that I would be here in this position today,” beamed Hendricks, who has been a regular at AGDF since her debut season as a junior in 2015. “I was just happy if we got through the grand prix and now I’ve won this class — it’s unreal.”

GDF Director of Sport Thomas Baur said, “Felicitas is a perfect example of what Global can do: she came here in 2015 as a junior, and left as number-one junior in the world after the season. Now she’s back here winning grand prix. You cannot compare that to anywhere else in the world, which is what makes it really special here.”

Marek and Kohmann Complete Top Three

Anna Marek picked up 20 valuable points towards qualification for the 2024 World Cup™ Final (April 16–20 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) on Fayvel. This was just the pair’s third CDI show together. The horse was formerly competed at the level by his adult amateur owner Cynthia Davila, but when she was injured Marek took over the reins. It went so well that Davila and Marek’s coach Ann Gibbons suggested she keep the ride for the year.

“Anne said that if we were going to really do the senior Grands Prix, we’d need a harder freestyle,” said Marek, who is based near Ocala. “We worked with Karen Robinson and I told her that the horse is so handy he can do some really cool stuff. So we put together this really complicated freestyle and it’s like a walk in the park for him. He’s like a little bouncy ball — he doesn’t even think it’s hard.

“I had no idea what to expect,” added Marek of Fayvel’s ‘Friday Night Stars’ performance. “He went under the lights in Ocala, but the atmosphere is way quieter up there, so I didn’t know how he’d handle it, but it was so much fun.”

Another rider coming fresh from high-scoring performances in Ocala and handling the electric atmosphere in AGDF’s stadium arena was Kevin Kohmann, who also trains with the horse’s former rider, Christoph Koschel.

“It’s way more quiet up there; the energy here, I hadn’t experienced it with my horse like this,” he explained. “I actually really loved it, and next time I’ll know what to expect. Dünensee was awesome, what a cool guy.”

Kohmann knew the horse as a five-year-old — when he could already do tempi changes — but he then went to Europe and the pair only relinked much later, making their CDI debut a year ago.