U.S. riders came out swinging last week at the Covalliero Dressage Days in Hagen, Germany, kicking off their European season with wins across the board. They swept the top four spots in the CDI3* Grand Prix, while the U.S. para dressage team clinched second behind the Netherlands in a hotly contested CPEDI3* team competition.

Kevin Kohmann topped both the Grand Prix (71.37%) and Grand Prix Special (69.17%) on his partner, Dünensee, a 16-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Dancier—Doublette, Davignon I) owned by Diamante Farms. Kohmann and his wife, Grand Prix rider Devon Kane, who also competed at Hagen, are back in his native Germany for the season to work with his dressage trainer and longtime friend, Hubertus Schmidt. Kohmann said that in his recent riding under Schmidt, something new clicked between him and “Denzel.” 

The secret? “Basically Hubertus is telling me every day to do less,” Kohmann said. “I’m doing too much—me, the rider. We’re basically doing less, and our scores are going up.”

Instead of physically pushing for more expression, Kohmann is working on finessing the connection for more harmony.

Kohmann is excited to be getting feedback from spectators and judges alike that he and the horse are working in closer harmony. While that shows in flashier moves like the piaffe, passage, trot half-pass and pirouettes, he really feels the progress in what he calls the “most difficult gait”: the walk.

“If you look over the last few months, since mid-Florida season to now, there’s a trend in the walk,” he said. “It’s gotten better every single show.”

Kohmann jokes that his plan to do less also may have backfired a bit in the Grand Prix Special. For the first time in international competition he had a “brain fart” and went off course. Still, the rest of the test was strong enough to earn the pair first place. 

He’s hoping to take on CHIO Aachen (Germany) with this less-is-more approach. Kohmann reunited with the horse in 2023, after he had languished on the sales market in the U.S. and Europe. He didn’t connect with Denzel under saddle until Christoph Koschel encouraged him to give the gelding a try in competition. Kohmann was worried they would be doomed to fail—on a public stage—but instead, he felt the horse’s energy shift in front of judges. 

“I got on this horse, and I begged him, ‘Do not let me look like an idiot,’ and he didn’t. He made me look really good!” Kohmann said.  

In that turning point, he began to understand and appreciate Denzel’s competitive spirit. The gelding will only allow for so many days off before he’s piaffing during a hack around the farm. The rider says that the two of them have a lot in common, and it’s not just their enthusiasm for dressage. 

“He speaks both languages,” Kohmann said of the German-bred horse. “He lived half his life in Germany, just like me actually. I love that!”

Dutta Dominates Freestyle

Susan Dutta is also in Germany for the summer with seven of her horses, and was pleased to start her season with Don Design DC (Der Designer—Sevantine, Sir Donnerhall) by earning blue in the Grand Prix freestyle (71.78%), a win she credits to the work they’ve put in with a new trainer, Stefan Wolff. 

“He’s done a really good job of helping me get this horse more rideable, and just working on the basics and the frame and just really digging down deep into that,” Dutta said “So it all pays off.

“He’s a very sweet horse,” she continued of “Oscar.” “He goes as well as you ride him, and I appreciate that, because that means as I improve, so does he, and vice versa.”

Even if she’s far from her base in Wellington, Florida, Dutta sees Hagen as a kind of home away from home—and that’s especially true for Oscar, who was bred by Hof Kasselmann in Hagen.

“It’s actually very nice, because this is my home town,” Dutta said. “This is where I spend my summers, is right here in Hagen, right on the Kasselmann grounds. I bought the horse from Kasselmann, so it’s nice to win in your backyard.”

Also having a strong start in Hagen were Kasey Perry-Glass and Diane Perry’s Heartbeat W.P., who finished second in both the Grand Prix (69.45%) and the Special (68.68%).

Dutta said that spirits were high in the American stabling at Hagen, where many of the U.S. competitors began their European tour.  

“I think that we’re so lucky that we have such a great group of people,” Dutta said. “It was a lot of fun. Everybody was really rooting for each other.” 

Fiona Howard, who won two of her three tests in the CPEDI3*—including earning a personal best of 77.93% in the Grade II FEI Para Grand Prix Test A—on her Paris Paralympic partner Diamond Dunes (De L’Or—Wibella, Wolkentanz), also was buoyed by the enthusiasm of the other U.S. competitors. 

“We were stabled next to the able-bodied Americans, as well,” Howard said. “It was nice to have all the Americans together, and everyone was super supportive and really made an effort to watch each other if they could.”

With only three riders and no drop score, the para-dressage team of Howard, Cynthia Screnci and For Memory 4, and Kate Shoemaker on Vianne, led by Chef d’Equipe Michel Assouline landed in second overall. The only real negative of the weekend, Howard said, was a moment of bad luck with the weather just as her Saturday test began, though she still earned a 77.05%.

“The skies opened, it was a torrential downpour and strong winds,” Howard said. “I halted, and I literally felt like the wind was trying to blow us over.”

Following the show, Howard returned to the U.S. for a surgery, but is looking forward to returning to Europe later in the season. She’s especially excited about continuing with her young horse, Ferguston, a 7-year-old Hanoverian (Finnigan—Wolkje, Wolkentanz) whom she competed for the first time in the CPEDI2*. Already, the young horse is surpassing her expectations, and she’s glad that Hagen judges recognized his talent, as well. 

“He had above 75% the first day and above 76% the second day, so I was over the moon with him,” she said of “Fergie.” “He also dealt with all the weather so well. He definitely blew me away, honestly, and it was really nice to see that the judges really liked him and rewarded his gaits.”

Howard has high hopes that the U.S. team will continue its strong streak. Screnci performed well on a new horse at her first European show. Shoemaker and Vianne swept their classes in a large Grade IV division, capping the weekend by notching a new personal best of 81.72% in the freestyle.

“It was our first European show back since Paris, and we had a new combination, so it was really cool that we were able to deliver that performance,” Howard said. “And we also didn’t have a drop score, so I think it proved that we’re pretty consistent.” 

See full results here.