Felicitas Hendricks Tops World Cup Grand Prix to Kick Off AGDF 3

Felicitas Hendricks & Drombusch OLD. Photo ©susanjstickle.com

Horses who traveled to Florida for the winter season did not have to acclimate to the weather on Thursday, January 23, as the opening day of week three at the 2025 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington brought unusually low temperatures in the mid-50s and a chilly wind. None of that fazed 23-year-old German rider Felicitas Hendricks as she and Drombusch OLD (Destano x Dimaggio) produced a 72.457% test — with a high score of 73.696% from Dutch judge Monique Peutz-Vegter — to top the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix, sponsored by Douglas Elliman Real Estate. It was the identical score that the pair put on the scoreboard exactly a year ago, a personal best, to top the same World Cup™ Grand Prix in 2024.

Second and third places in the 15-strong class were filled by US riders: Ocala-based Anna Marek notched up 71.239% riding her 2023 Pan American Games team gold medal mount, Janet Simile’s 15-year-old gelding Fire Fly (by Briar Junior), while local rider Kevin Kohmann guided Diamante Farms’ Dancier 16-year-old, Dünensee, to 70.37% and third place. 

“Drombusch is a good boy all through the test and showed some great work,” said Hendricks, who tweaked her warm-up plan to fit the weather. “He did great canter half-passes, but I made a little mistake where I was a bit quick and he had a small trip, but I was very happy with him overall. I knew I’d have very good competition here in Wellington, so I would never come here and take a win for granted — you have to work for every single one of those. I get equally excited about every good test.

“We kept Drombusch nice and warm before I got on and I wanted to give him his time to really warm up in this cold, to get his muscles to loosen up a bit. I already knew getting on that he might need a couple of minutes longer than he usually does.

“I’m lucky enough to have a horse that’s consistent in everything, in the way he thinks and in his way of going,” she added of the 14-year-old gelding she has ridden for the past three years after taking him over from her uncle and trainer Christoph Koschel. “He proves over and over again how consistent he is, and he knows exactly when it’s showtime, because then he’s extra good and says, ‘Let’s go!’”

by Alice Collins

Wellington International
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