When Paralympian Kate Shoemaker rode Vianne at the Doha CPEDI (Qatar) in February, their new partnership was put to the test. Their first ring familiarization took place in the dark, and they were the only para-dressage pair in a ring predominantly being used by Grand Prix horses.

“She’s the only para horse that’s come to the warm-up because there’s so much tension in the air,” recalled Shoemaker. “And then they start taking down the lights around the arena and changing the bulbs and then popping them back up. Well, Vianne’s just like, ‘OK, no problem.’ And from that moment I was like, ‘This is special.’

“She barely knows me three weeks, and here we are in a terribly tense environment, and everybody’s looking at Vianne, like, wow, that horse just doesn’t mind anything,” she continued. “And in that moment, I gained so much confidence from her.”

Going into the Qatar competition, Shoemaker told herself she’d take two shows to evaluate her partnership with the 8-year-old U.S.-bred Hanoverian mare (Vitalis—Raureif, Ramiro’s Bube), bred by Catherine Haddad and owned by NorCordia USA. But by the end of the show, where they won all three of their Grade IV classes, Shoemaker suspected she’d found her horse for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

It was a feeling that solidified at their next competition, the CPEDI at Fontainebleau (France) in April, where they earned a pair of individual wins as well as gold with the U.S. team. That show was also the first time Shoemaker beat the reigning world and Paralympic medalist Sanne Voets of the Netherlands.

“It was also a very special moment for me in that it was a first to be there alongside Sanne, holding our own so to speak,” she said. “So that was that was just really exciting.”

The pair showed twice more this spring at Mannheim (Germany) and Hagen (Germany), winning all but one of their classes in their quest to be named to the U.S. Para Dressage Team for Paris. On July 11, they were named to the team.

“Our team is ranked world No. 1, but we know we have very fierce competition going up against us in Paris,” she said. “Yes, we’re dreaming of gold medals, but we know we’re going to have to really go in there and ride for every single point, and it’s really going to have to go Team USA’s way every step of the way for it to even be a possibility, because there’s so many powerhouses in the sport, and of course they’re going to be bringing their A game.”

A Third-Generation Homebred

Vianne is the product of U.S. dressage rider Catherine Haddad’s breeding program, which she started while living in Germany for two decades. Vianne’s bloodlines trace back to Haddad’s foundation mare Elfenschien (Figaro—Elfengold, Goldstern).

The gray mare’s dam, Raureif, was one of two mares Haddad brought back to the U.S. Haddad started Raureif (Ramiro’s Bube—Elfentanz, De Niro) under saddle, but the mare had an injury in the field, so Haddad bred her. Though the mare recovered, she produced such a nice foal that Haddad chose to continue breeding her. Raureif produced six foals for Haddad before being sold in 2020.

Haddad chose Vitalis (Vivaldi—Tolivia, D-Day) as Vianne’s sire hoping to produce a loftier trot combined with the temperament of his offspring.

“My reasoning there was to get a little bit more scope in the movements, and I was super excited when I got Vianne,” Haddad said. “I thought it was the best foal she’d made so far.”

Vianne lived at Hilltop Farm in Colora, Maryland, until age 2, when she went north to Haddad’s farm in Califon, New Jersey. In the mare’s 3-year-old year, Haddad started Vianne under saddle with the help of Hope Beerling, who’d come from Australia to work under Haddad. Beerling had the ride for the next four years.

While Vianne had a fantastic temperament and was exceptionally rideable, Haddad recalled that her gaits as a young horse were unremarkable.

“Right before the 5-year-old championships, which we somehow managed to qualify her for, we found her second trot, which is typical in the Vitalis line,” Haddad said. “It takes them some time to work up to being able to push through the body and trot. And when we found her second trot, it was like, ‘Wow, now that’s a horse!’ And that whole gymnastic muscle-building program, that came with training her as a 5-year-old and getting her trot to come through from behind, then improved her canter and also put an overstride on her walk. So by the time she was 6, we had an international prospect on our hands.”

Vianne and Beerling were second in the Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage National Championship for 5-year-old horses at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions (Illinois) in 2021. By 2023, they’d qualified for the 7-year-old championship at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Ermelo, the Netherlands, where they finished 10^th.

“Ermelo was really the highlight of my breeding career, and it was a real coaching win for me as well because it just solidified everything that I believe about breeding and training horses, and because I had bred the mare myself and trained the mare from the ground myself, and the student,” Haddad said.

Following the championships, Haddad sent Vianne to train with Danish Olympian Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour with the eventual plan of aiming her toward international Grand Prix classes.

“Cathrine Dufour is a fantastic trainer who follows many of the same principles that I do, a trainer that I really trust,” Haddad said.

After a few months Vianne looked ready to compete at Intermediaire II, but a discussion between Haddad and Shoemaker sent her on the Paralympic path.

‘Easy From The Start’

Vianne first caught Shoemaker’s eye while she was competing in the young horse program. Shoemaker became enamored with Vianne and told Haddad what she saw was on par with the horses she was seeing at the German young horse qualifying competitions.

“I always just thought, ‘Wow, that is good riding, good training,’ watching her and Hope together,” Shoemaker said. “You know when you watch a pair, and you’re just like ‘That’s how it should be done: beautiful, harmonious riding.”

In August Shoemaker saw Vianne for the first time in person, during the world breeding championships.

“At that time I had no idea that I would ever have the opportunity to sit on her,” Shoemaker said. “I was just in love with her, and I really, really enjoyed the way that Hope rode her. Because it’s just so harmonious, and the partnership aspect was so palpable. That’s why we’re doing dressage, because we want to be at one with our horse. That was just something that really was inspiring to me, and something I wanted to emulate in all of my riding as much as I could.”

At the beginning of 2024, Shoemaker retired her team bronze medal winning partner from the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics, Solitaer 40, and in a conversation she had with Haddad, Haddad offered to let Shoemaker try Vianne. At 8, Vianne wouldn’t be ready to aim for the Paris Olympic Games at Grand Prix, but she could be a candidate for the Paralympics, where she’d still be on the world stage while competing at a level that wasn’t as physically difficult, Haddad said.

Three days later, Shoemaker visited Laudrup-Dufour’s stables to ride Vianne for the first time.

“It was just so incredibly easy from the start,” Shoemaker said. “You know, you just sit on a horse, and everything just works, the communication fits from the first step, and whereas a lot of horses, they have to spend this time saying, OK, let’s learn each other and the communication.

“Especially with me, being that my right side has partial paralysis combined also with spasticity in other areas, it can be very hard for some horses to not get confused or stressed when I first start riding them, just because they’re like, ‘What is she doing?’ ” she continued. “Vianne is a very sensitive horse, but she was not bothered by that. In fact, she kind of just gave me a bigger trot, and she was like, ‘I think you want this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine!’ And then when she realized that those were a little bit extra spastic moves, and then she was like, ‘Oh, OK, I don’t have to try so hard.’ ”

It was a feeling Shoemaker had never experienced on a horse, she’d said, but with that easy familiarity, the pair began their Paralympic journey.

Haddad, who has been the reserve rider at two FEI World Equestrian Games, was emotional when she learned that one of her homebreds had been named to the team.

“I really did get a lump in my throat. I think I actually burst into tears when I read that they had been nominated for the team, even though I expected it after their great results,” she said. “It’s a very emotional moment for me, a very happy moment for me. I’m super excited to see my horse go in that venue, couldn’t be happier for Kate. It’s just a highlight all around.”

The Paris Paralympics will take place Aug. 28-Sept. 8, with para-dressage happening Sept. 3-7.