Team USA made history at the Paris Paralympic Games today, winning the country’s first team gold medal and ending Great Britain’s nearly 30-year reign at the top of the sport.

Entering Paris as the No. 1-ranked team in the world, the U.S. riders were under pressure to deliver upon expectations, and they did, holding off a strong Dutch squad to take the top spot on the podium. The team medal adds to the United States’ already impressive tally of two gold and one silver medals from individual competition.

The team’s final score of 235.56 put it safely clear of the Netherlands, which took silver with a score of 232.85. Germany finished in bronze position with 223.75, just edging out Italy, which had to settle for fourth with 223.16 points. (See final team scores here.)

“It still feels surreal,” said Rebecca Hart, who is appearing in her fifth Paralympics as the team’s most veteran rider. “It was the cumulation of years and years and years of work, and I was so wildly proud of all of these girls, because it was a group effort to get this done, and it wouldn’t have happened without each and every one of us putting our best foot forward out there.”

As a rider who has been involved with the U.S. high performance para-dressage program for more than 20 years, Hart has been part of its evolution from also-ran to gold medalists. Asked what she hopes the team’s history-making performance at this year’s Games will do for the program, she didn’t mince words:

“What I’m really, really hoping that this success and these medals bring for para is the recognition and the equality of the multiple disciplines within our federations, and realizing we are valuable and we can deliver when we need to,” she said. “I think that will help just grow the sport more, bring in more sponsors and horse and people, and that is what I’m hoping for, for the future.”

“What I’m really, really hoping that this success and these medals bring for para is the recognition and the equality of the multiple disciplines within our federations, and realizing we are valuable and we can deliver when we need to.”

Rebecca Hart, five-time Paralympian

Howard Earned The Day’s Top Score

Rookie Paralympian Fiona Howard lead the way Friday at the Palace of Versailles as the only rider to hit 80% at these Games when she earned exactly that score. The world No. 1 Grade II rider and gold medalist from Tuesday’s individual competition scored a personal best with a fluid team test aboard Diamond Dunes, an 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding (De L’Or—Wibella, Wolkentanz) owned by Dressage Family LLC and Hof Kasselmann.

Howard said her favorite part of the test was “from the first halt to the last halt.” 

“As soon as we started the first trot—even just trotting around the ring—I really was like, ‘He feels really good.’ I went in there, and I remembered what my team said, just trust him,” she said. “What a feeling when you can just trust your horse, and he kept giving and giving. 

“At the end, my muscles were really tired, and I just was like, ‘Keep going, buddy!’ and he was like, ‘I’ve got you,’ ” she added. “He’s incredible; he’s amazing.”

Howard didn’t realize just how good her score was, however, or that she was the first—and ultimately the only—rider to hit 80%.

“I came out of the ring, and I was like, ‘that felt really good,’ but you never know,” she said. “Whatever the score was when I was coming out, I was super proud of him. He felt amazing; he did everything I could’ve asked, so then seeing it reflected on the scoreboard was just the cherry on top.”

The former reining competitor, who is the newest member of the U.S. squad, only paired with her horse “Dunes” six months ago, but fell in love with his “biggest heart” from their first ride.

“The first ride, I could tell he really wanted to try hard for me, but he just didn’t quite understand what I was wanting, so I spent most of the first ride just walking because I didn’t know how to ask him to trot,” she recalled. “By ride No. 2, it just got better and better. We went to our first show after three or four rides, and he just—he got it. As soon as he knew that’s whatever I wanted, he just gave it to me, and he tries so hard.” 

Howard was introduced to international para-dressage and trained by her Paris teammate, Kate Shoemaker. (Shoemaker sat out the team competition, in which only three riders compete for each country, after an uncharacteristic spook left her as the only U.S. rider without a medal in the individual rounds.) Now both women ride with Germany’s Nicole Wego-Engelmeyer.

“When I first started para, [Shoemaker] really kind of took me under her wing and kind of showed me the ropes and really helped me, and she helped find my other horse, Jagger,” Howard said. “Right from the get-go, she was like, ‘You can go to Europe, you can show in Qatar, like, you can do this, and I believe in you.’ She’s just been a huge support since the beginning of my para FEI career.”

Wego-Engelmeyer is a more recent addition to Howard’s team, but one she values deeply.

“She rides at the barn that owns Diamond Dunes,” Howard said. “She’s been with us since the beginning of the journey with Diamond Dunes. She’s been incredible and really helps me, and she loves my horses as much as I do. She’s just a huge part of the team, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her.”

Trunnell Put US On Winning Path

The Paralympic competition is organized into five grades which riders are divided into based on their level of physical ability. For the team competition, Grades IV and V, which compete in the large dressage ring, go first, before a small ring is set up for the other grades to compete. Each country’s three riders may be in different combinations of grades, so some countries—those like Norway, which had riders in Grades IV, V and I—were done competing just as other countries, like the U.S., whose riders were in Grades I, II and III, were getting started.

Roxanne Trunnell, competing in Grade I aboard Fan Tastico H, was the first U.S. rider down centerline on Friday. She entered as the most decorated Paralympic rider in U.S. history, after earning individual silver Tuesday aboard “Fanta,” and now adds team gold to her collection of two individual golds and team bronze from Tokyo. 

She turned in the second-best score in Grade I with a 77%. Four-time world championship gold medalist Sara Morganti of Italy was the best in that group, earning a 79.45% aboard Mariebelle that lifted her country with a hair’s breadth of medaling. (Italy ultimately finished fourth by just under 0.6 points to bronze medalists Germany.)

Trunnell was pleased with her test aboard Karin Flint’s 7-year-old Oldenburg Fan Tastico H (Fuerstenball OLD—Wehmut, Weltmeyer).

“[I] just really concentrated on him marching,” she said, noting how well the young horse handled the big atmosphere at the Palace of Versailles. “He’s so cool at only 7; it’s just going to get better and better.”

Hart Handled The Pressure

Hart, who on Tuesday earned gold—the first individual Paralympic medal of her career—found herself riding in the anchor position for team medals, as her Grade III group was the last division of the day. Medal favorites Great Britain and the Netherlands, as well as Italy, which was in medal contention after its first two riders, also had competitors in that group, creating an exciting finish to determine the podium.

Hart’s fellow Grade III medalists from the individual round, Natasha Baker and Dawn Chorus of Great Britain and Rixt van der Horst and Royal Fonq of the Netherlands, both rode before her, with van der Horst scoring 78.06% to put the Dutch in the gold medal spot just before Hart’s test.

“There’s always some pressure when you have that last [spot],” Hart said. “Because I am a math person, and I was doing all of the figures all day long, realizing what I was needing to score to do that, and I wanted that personal best and to bring it home for our team. Because you do feel that pressure, especially when [your teammates] laid down phenomenal rides. It’s like, ‘OK, can’t let them down now!’ ”

Hart knew would need to get close to van der Horst’s score to put the U.S. in front. Instead, she bettered it, scoring 78.56% aboard Rowan O’Riley’s 16-year-old Hanoverian mare Floratina (Fidertanz 2—Rubina, Rubin Royal OLD) to earn the high score of her group and seal a golden finish for the United States.

The medal also puts “Flora” in the unusual category of having won gold medals in both able-bodied and para-dressage international championships, as the mare was also on Canada’s gold-medaling winning dressage team at the 2019 Pan American Games with previous rider Lindsay Kellock.

Hart said she first heard about “Flora” through a friend who is a Grand Prix rider and trainer.

“A friend of mine, Lauren Sprieser, called me and said, ‘I have the perfect horse for you,’ ” Hart recalled. “I wasn’t really looking in that moment, and she said, ‘No, it’s Flora; you really need to come sit on her,’ and I said, ‘I will be there tomorrow.’ … She’d always been a professional, able-bodied horse, but she’s so giving, she so wants to work for you.”

Assouline Lauded For Victory

The U.S. team riders were unanimous in their praise of Chef d’Equipe Michel Assouline, who left the juggernaut British team in 2017 to lead the United States. He was hired with hopes he could recreate the British squad’s success in America—and the team’s Paris results thus far have achieved that goal.

“I think it’s all Michel,” Trunnell said. “He got us in shape. He’s very strict. I think all his experience has helped us.”

Howard also credited the coach for believing in the riders and the culture of confidence he’s instilled throughout the entire international para-dressage program. 

“We have an incredible support team behind us, everyone from trainers, vets, farriers, our federation, everyone is behind us 110%,” she said. “And obviously we have an incredible team coach, Michel. I think it’s really the teamwork: We all support each other and we push each other, and we’re there for each other in the ups and downs, and I think that plays such a big role in it.”

Next up for all four U.S. riders will be Saturday’s freestyle, which concludes Paralympic equestrian competition. All four are riding movie soundtrack-themed freestyles, with Trunnell’s freestyle set to “Lion King,” Howard’s set to “Avatar,” Shoemaker’s set to “Forrest Gump” and Hart’s to “Driving Miss Daisy.”

The freestyle competition begins with Grade IV, in which Shoemaker will compete, at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time, followed by Grade V beginning at 4:57 a.m., Grade I, which includes Trunnell, beginning at 6:39 a.m., Grade II, which includes Howard, at 8:06 a.m., and Grade III and 9:33 a.m. The action will be livestreamed on NBC’s Peacock.