Dressage-News

Oct. 20, 2025

When the three top dressage competitors and trainers present Dressage Infusion in Wellington, Florida Jan. 21 they will bring the experience of riding in 12 Olympics and a host of other championships that have earned them global acclaim.

Kyra Kyrklund from Finland but who lives in England has six of those Olympics with six different horses on her resumé, at Moscow in 1980, 1984 Los Angeles, 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2008 Beijing. Her four World Equestrian Games included the first at Stockholm in 1990 on Matador where they took the silver medal and the following year became World Cup champion when ridden in one of Kyra’s eight European Championships.

In addition to Cathrine, Kyra has coached numerous equestrians from countries around the world over the years. Allison Brock, on the U.S. bronze medal team at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016 based herself in England for 1 1/2 years in 2011-12 to work with Kyra and her husband, Richard. Ali has arranged several clinics with Kyra in Wellington over the years.

Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour of Denmark is a rare talent–three Olympics on three different horses, Cassidy at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Bohemian at Tokyo in 2021 and Mount St. John Freestyle in Paris in 2024.

She has accomplished the extraordinary of 90% at Grand Prix Freestyle on two of those horses–Bohemian in 2022 and Freestyle three times in the past 11 months and the pair have competed in only six musical performances so far.

Cathrine began her equestrian life on ponies and competed in her first European Championships when she was 13. Five years later, after moving up to Juniors, she rode the Danish Warmblood gelding Cassidy at the Europeans and progressed up the levels. The first championship medal-winning performances came at the Europeans in 2017–a year after making her nation’s Olympic team at Rio de Janeiro. She and Cassidy placed third in the Grand Prix, Special and Freestyle at Gothenburg, Sweden. She was already competing Bohemian at Small Tour and after moving to Grand Prix led Denmark to fourth place at the Tokyo Games. At the same time she was developing Vamos Amigos for owner Sarah Pidgley to be turned over to her daughter, Annabella, who was a Junior rider. Cathrine rode Vamos to first place in the 2022 World Championships and second in both the Special and the Freestyle to lead Denmark to team gold, after becoming reserve champion at the World Cup in Leipzig, Germany earlier in the year.

Freestyle, a mare, at 16 appears to improve with age and with the second top rider aboard (Charlotte Dujardin of Great Britain rode her at the Tryon World Equestrian Games in 2018 for team and individual bronzes). After success in Paris, the pair have produced freestyle scores of at least 90% three times in the last 11 months as well as first place at Grand Prix and runner-up in both the Special and the freestyle at the highly competitive European Championships less than two months ago.

Jan Brink and his partnership with Bjorsells Briar was one of the most enduring in high performance dressage–three Olympics, three World Equestrian Games and eight World Cup Finals, three of them 2005, 2007, 2009 at Las Vegas. He won the championship at the premier World Equestrian Festival in Aachen, Germany in 2005.

Since Jan retired the Swedish Warmblood from international competition after the 2009 World Cup he has focused on coaching and business. His students have included many young riders, including as the Swedish youth coach, and of Rebecca Cohen, the daughter of Carol Cohen-Hodess of Wellington, Florida and is an international competitor. Jan has spent decades training for Kyra Kyrklund.