Christine Traurig on USA Team Road to LA28 Olympics – Part 2
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Jan. 2, 2025
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
The World Cup Final is the first championship under new rules for prospective American riders requiring minimum scores to qualify for funding for the round trip to Switzerland for the horse, rider and groom. The amount paid by the organizer is not likely to cover even half the cost.
Kevin Kohmann on Dünensee and Adrienne Lyle on Helix. Both rider and horse combinations have been close to the minimum scores required for help with funding to compete at the World Cup Final in Basel, Switzerland in April.
Photos: Ken Braddick/DRESSAGE-NEWS.com
Kevin Kohmann and the 16-year-old gelding Dünensee that competed at the 2024 Final in Saudi Arabia is currently atop the North American standings.
Olympic team partnership of Adrienne Lyle and the 13-year-old KWPN gelding Helix came close to the minimum in the pair’s victory at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala last month, the sole qualifier for the duo so far.
Four more qualifiers for the World Cup based on the Grand Prix Freestyle remain at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, the home town of both riders. North America gets to send three rider and horse pairs to the Final scheduled along with jumping and vaulting in Basel, Switzerland April 1-6. Of the countries other than the United States in the region, no Canadian has competed at a dressage Final since 2013 when two filled the two spots available at the time. Mexico has not yet qualified a rider for the dressage final.
North America has similar qualifying rules to Europe–points are earned by placing in qualifiers and not the score itself. With a small number of entries–on occasions one or two–in California, riders receive the same number of points for places at shows in Florida, for example, where there are usually many more competitors.
Support from US Equestrian for Americans is important as the Swiss organizer apparently will cover costs up to a total of $15,000 for each combination–not enough to meet half the expenses for horse, rider and groom.
Christine Traurig, leader of U.S. dressage coaching through the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, explained to dressage-news.com details of the program up to the Los Angeles Games.
With 19 international level competitions starting this week in the U.S.–14 in Florida, five in California–through early May, Christine said, “I do feel strongly that we have to designate specific shows to be observation events in Florida and California for horse and rider combinations aiming to make the short list to compete in Europe in 2025. For me it is important as chef d’equipe that the riders know we expect you to compete at designated CDIs so that the riders also are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and compete against each other.”
Two would be in California and at least one at each of the three Florida show grounds of Wellington, Ocala and Terra Nova near Sarasota on Florida’s west coast.
“I find that very important,” she said, “not just people can just say ‘I go there, I go there’. No, I want to see the group there, there and there. Those observation events give us a little bit more of an idea how realistic our short list of eight combinations is coming together before going to Europe.
“For the World Cup Finals in Switzerland, my goal is to have combinations qualified which are scoring 72% plus in the Grand Prix and 78% plus in the freestyle.
“We have to start making statements now and we have to really… we have to kick ourselves in the butt a little bit.
“We cannot any more participate in these top international competitions, such as the World Cup Finals which, in my opinion, are increasing in value and status. We’ve got to work so hard to make a statement. I think the World Cup finals in Switzerland is a very important event for us.

“So then we are looking as a main target event for 2025 at the CHIO Aachen from June 30 through July 6. My goal there is, and maybe I’m stepping up a little bit too high, but I want to finish in the top five in the Nations Cup.”
To prepare for Aachen, Christine said, a head-to-head competition of all combinations from across the country should be staged, most likely at TerraNova, the first week of May to determine the short list for Europe.
The short list would include four riders for the Aachen Nations Cup team plus possibly two places in Aachen’s CDI4* and two others to go to other events.
The goal is to have a training camp first in the United States and another in Europe.
And, she said, “we have to train our horses and we have to build a greater pool of horses to draw from for championship teams.
“As we have experienced in Paris, we have to train our horses for more challenging venues,” such as in Aachen and at the Paris Olympics where enthusiastic crowds clapped and cheered throughout the rides.
Or, as Marcus Orlob who rode Jane on the Olympic team said spectators at American shows need to be offered free beer, bratwurst and fries to produce atmosphere and ignore the “Sahh” demands for silence.
Christine gave as an example Global’s Friday night freestyles under the lights in Wellington could be included in designated observation events with a Grand Prix or Special.
“The freestyle is an entertaining aspect for the spectators, but if we communicate to the public, including the spectators who love to come Friday nights, have a nice dinner and socialize, how important it is that that is a supporting aspect for the development of the sport, that the spectators also realize it’s important that you guys are there on Friday night for the Grand Prix because it’s part of developing the horses in challenging environments,” she said.
“We have to just try really, really hard to get our horses used to that. Otherwise, we are not protecting the horses by not doing so. We are actually exposing them to a high level of stress when that environment comes on as a result.”
She may also encourage some combinations to compete at European indoor shows, such as Stuttgart, Germany where there are large crowds and spectators are close to the riding arena, as they are at Aachen,
The newly created $250,000 US Open series leading to LA28 and centered on CDI3*-plus events in the United States with a 2025 year-end final at Thermal, California is a prime feature. The series is focused on the Freestyle, that Christine describes as a U.S. version of the World Cup Final.
The year of 2026 includes the World Cup Final in Fort Worth, Texas April 8-12 and the World Championships in Aachen, Germany Aug. 10-23.

“I really feel strongly we want to have two combinations going to the World Cup that can score 74%-plus in the Grand Prix and 80% in the freestyle,” Christine said. “It has to be a goal and riders and coaches have to get on the bandwagon there and say, ‘yes, we have to edge our way into that 74 percent plus range’, because below that our chances are too slim.” Riders and horses from several nations are now routinely achieving those levels, she pointed out.
The World Championships in Aachen will likely include two head-to-head competitions before the short list of eight combinations is named to go Europe.
With the majority of the current top prospects for Europe based in Wellington, Christine speculated, it’s likely both will be in Florida as a prospect from California could go to Florida on the way to Europe.
“I know it’s an effort,” she said. “We all realize that. But without these efforts, and the logical steps that it takes to develop that short list, name the short list, and have clarity on the short list, the West Coast will have to come east and that all of them go further east to Europe.”
The schedule of competitions in Europe ahead of the championships and for combinations not selected for the team are still to be decided.
“It is very important that you place those riders (not on the team) in good shows,” she said, “because I feel that when riders have the chance also to compete as individuals and they go to different shows it really promotes their development internationally, more so than just in a team environment at a Nations Cup.”
The World Championships competition of up to four members on a team and will be decided by the best three scores of each nation in the Grand Prix.
“It is really important that we have strong representation in Europe in numbers of riders,” she said.
Part 3–The final lead up to Los Angeles