Erin Nichols Finds LA Olympic Hopeful in Kind Pleasure

Dressage

U.S.A.

American Grand Prix rider Erin Nichols has found her new L.A. Olympic hopeful in Kind Pleasure in The Netherlands. Dutch based trainers and sales agents Riccardo Sanavio and Nicole Osterwald matched Nichols to the Dutch warmblood.

Kind Pleasure is a 9-year old KWPN gelding by Governor out of Charlotte Rogerson's Swiss Grand Prix team horse Famora (by Blue Hors Zack x Krack C). He is bred by Wouter Plaizier.

Femke de Laat

The bay gelding has been trained by Femke de Laat since 2019 when he was a 4-year old.

The pair was seventh at the 2019 Pavo Cup Finals and got selected to represent the Netherlands at the 2020 World Young Horse Championships, which got cancelled due to corona. A year later their dream came true when Femke rode down the centerline of her first World Young Horse Championships on Kind Pleasure in 2021. They finished 8th in the consolation finals. In 2022 they were named second reserve for the Dutch WCYH team.

The pair went on to become Brabant regional champion and 2022 Dutch Indoor reserve champions at Z2 level. In 2023 he moved up to small tour level

Erin Nichols

Dutch based Italian Riccardo Sanavio and Nicole Osterwald kept Kind Pleasure on their radar and matched him to American Erin Nichols.

"We met Erin last year when she was competing in Europe and placed 3rd in the Young Riders' tour in Aachen," Osterwald told Eurodressage. "Erin is an amazing talent and we became very good friends."

Nichols has been competing her number one Elian Royale (by Johnson x Amidou) in the senior Grand Prix tour in Wellington, Florida, this year hoping to collect sufficient scores to be nominated for the European tour where the U.S. Olympic team will be picked.

Sanavio and Osterwald

Sanavio and Osterwald have brokered their second L.A. Olympic hopeful to an American dressage rider.

In January they matched Steffen Peters to the KWPN gelding Lombard and now they connected Nichols with Kind Pleasure.

"We really appreciate the amazing job Femke did with this horse," said Nicole. "Riccardo had been following the successful career of kind Pleasure for couple years and he knew right away that’s a horse for Erin for the WEG‘s and Los Angeles."