Faces of Dressage
The unique elegance that is the sport of dressage has returned to Wellington once again with the 2022 Adequan Global Dressage Festival, where some of the best horse-and-rider combinations can be seen in action. While classes exist for all levels, the most popular are the top-level Grand Prix events to the amazing Musical Freestyle classes. Dressage is often called “ballet with horses.” This comparison helps people understand the extraordinary level of dedication, training and effort it takes for a rider and horse to become one in a sport dating back centuries. Many of the top dressage riders are here this winter, including Adrienne Lyle, Sabine Schut-Kery and Steffen Peters, who won the silver medal last summer in Tokyo. From elite, international dressage to the sport’s more introductory levels, to the uplifting sport of para-dressage, all levels of this unique discipline are on display here in Wellington. In Faces of Dressage 2022, we highlight just a few of these riders.

Steffen Peters
German-born Steffen Peters, who competes for the U.S., began riding at age 7, and by age 15 was competing at the international level. After receiving his first horse, Udon, at age 16, he began seriously training in dressage. It was aboard Udon that Peters won the team bronze when he represented the U.S. at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Peters has represented the U.S. at numerous other international competitions, including the World Equestrian Games in 2006 and 2010, when he secured bronze medals, and 2018, when he took silver. He returned to the Olympics in 2016 and helped the U.S. to the bronze medal in team dressage. At the Olympics last summer in Tokyo, Peters and Suppenkasper helped the U.S. win team silver. He is a regular at the AGDF in Wellington.

Adrienne Lyle
Adrienne Lyle was raised on a small cattle farm in Whidbey Island, Washington. She originally rode western, then switched to English at age seven. She tried eventing before dressage became her calling. Lyle was a member of the silver medal team at the 2002 Cosequin Junior Dressage Championships and the bronze medal Region 6 team at the 2004 North American Young Rider Championships. Career highlights include competing in the 2012 Olympics in London and contributing to a fourth-place team finish at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in France. Lyle and her mount Salvino qualified for the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, where the U.S. team won the silver medal. At last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, Lyle and Salvino again led the U.S. to the team silver.

Nick Wagman
Nick Wagman is a California-based rider with big wins on the Wellington circuit. He represented the U.S. at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup in the Netherlands and the FEI Dressage Nations Cup France with his longtime partner Don John. Also in 2019, Wagman won the USEF Developing Horse Grand Prix National Championship with Ferano and the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship with Don John at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions. With Don John, Wagman collected second-place finishes in the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special during week five of the 2020 AGDF. Wagman also collected victories during the 2021 AGDF, including the CDI3* Grand Prix during week five and the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special during week eight.

Yvonne Losos de Muñiz
Born to Canadian parents in Nigeria, Yvonne Losos de Muñiz rides for the Dominican Republic, her home since 1990. She became the first Dominican rider to participate in the Olympics when competing at the 2016 games in Rio. Her career began early with support from her parents before formal training in Germany. Listed among the best riders in Latin America, Losos de Muñiz won bronze at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio, repeating the feat of the 2003 Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo. Prior to that, Losos de Muñiz won individual gold and bronze as a team in the 2002 Central American Games in El Salvador. A regular on the Wellington circuit, she was back representing the Dominican Republic at the Olympics last summer in Tokyo.

Kevin Kohmann
Kevin Kohmann grew up around horses in Germany. His success started with ponies, where in 2002, he won the pony regional championships. After that, Kohmann was regarded as a talented young professional and recruited to the U.S. to work under top trainers. This gave him the opportunity to ride more difficult horses. It was soon apparent that Kohmann could take even the most difficult horses and turn them into successful and willing partners. During this time, he managed to show several horses at the Grand Prix level. Kohmann joined the Diamante Farms training team in 2014, and he remains based in Wellington. He was part of the winning German team in the 2021 AGDF Nations Cup CDIO3*. Now an American citizen, he plans to ride for the U.S. in the future

Camille Carier Bergeron
Camille Carier Bergeron is a talented Canadian dressage rider. She has been a regular at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington since 2015. That year she rode in the FEI Pony with Monte Carlo and the FEI Junior with Lowelas. In 2018, she was part of the Canadian team that won the North American Young Rider Championship. Bergeron, riding Acouer, served as the anchor rider for Team Canada, which won 2021 CDIO-U25 Nations Cup at last year’s AGDF in Wellington. Also last year, she claimed the 2021 Florida International Youth Dressage Championship and earned the overall high point combination with a score of 73.629 percent riding Sound of Silence 4, a horse she has been working with since 2017.

Alice Tarjan
Alice Tarjan, a dressage rider from New Jersey, has had a stunning few seasons, both at the AGDF and elsewhere. She capped last year’s season by winning the Lövsta Future Challenge/Young Horse Grand Prix Series Final, making it the second year in a row that Tarjan won the prestigious honor. The 42-year-old has a history of success competing her own young horses through the levels. In 2020, she took home multiple titles from the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions, including the Markel/USEF Developing Horse Grand Prix Dressage National Championship with Donatella M. She was reserve in the same class with Harvest. Last summer, she won the 2021 U.S. Grand Prix Championships, undefeated aboard her mounts Candescent and Donatella M.

Beatrice de Lavalette
U.S. Paralympian Beatrice de Lavalette was born in France but now lives in Wellington. Growing up in a horse-loving family, she started riding early, studying both dressage and equitation. Her entire life changed on March 22, 2016, when, at age 17, she was critically injured in a terror attack at the Brussels airport. Suffering massive internal injuries, burns, a spinal cord injury and the amputation of both lower legs, she worked her way back into the saddle of her beloved mare, Delegada X. She has since become an accomplished para-dressage rider, competing in her first show in April 2017. As a member of U.S. Para Dressage Paralympic Team, de Lavalette represented her adopted home country at the Paralympic Games last summer in Tokyo aboard her mount Clarc.

Rebecca Hart
Rebecca Hart was born with a progressive genetic disease that causes her muscles to waste away, but this disability hasn’t stopped her from becoming an elite dressage Paralympian. Hart, who has hereditary spastic paraplegia, has competed in Wellington and around the world, including four Paralympics and three World Equestrian Games. She won the bronze and silver medals at the 2018 WEG in Tryon. Hart, who lives year-round in Wellington, is a regular in the para-dressage classes at the AGDF. She frequently represents the United States at top para-dressage events, such as the Perrigo CPEDI3* at the Tryon International Equestrian Center last October. Last month, Hart was on the team sent to compete at the CHI Doha in Qatar with her mount El Corona Texel.

Kelly Layne
Kelly Layne is an elite Australian dressage rider based out of Wellington who competes regularly at the AGDF. She is an international competitor with dozens of CDI starts at the Grand Prix level in Australia, Japan, Germany, Austria and here in the United States. Layne is the daughter of Helen Anstee, a Grand Prix rider, FEI judge and breeder of dressage horses. Her riding career started before she could walk, and by the time Layne was 12 years old, she was the Under 12 National Dressage Champion twice on two different horses. Layne rode in her first Grand Prix at age 18. She has worked with a number of top trainers, including Ulla Salzgeber. Layne represented her native Australia at the Tokyo Olympics and is back in action this winter in Wellington.