Six Olympians to Start in Wellington $150,000 CDI5*
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Jan. 18, 2026
The Global Dressage Festival CDI5* to be staged in Wellington this week has six Olympians from four nations of the 13 starting riders and another five with records in World Cup Finals and other championships.
The top rated event with $150,000 in prize money comes the same week as the extraordinary interactive masterclass by Kyra Kyrklund, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Jan Brink at Global.
Marcus Orlob with Jane of the U.S., Frederic Wandres on Germany’s 2024 gold medal team and Chris von Martels were in the Paris Games in 2024. It was the second Olympics for Chris.
Ashley Holzer, a bronze medalist from 1988 when riding on one of four Olympics for Canada before switching to ride for USA, Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén of Sweden with seven Games on her résumé (the same number as Isabell Werth and Anky van Grunsven) and Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu of Canada in Tokyo are the other Olympians.
U.S. riders Kevin Kohmann will be on Dünensee that he competed in 2024 and 2025 World Cup Finals, Anna Marek on Fayvel that she rode in 2024 Final and Geñay Vaughn on Gina her mount from 2025 and Germany’s Michael Klimke with World Cup championship appearances in 1990, 1991 and 1996 are entered.
Susan Pape of Great Britain who rode horses in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 World Young Horse Championships is also scheduled to start in the CDI5*.
The Grand Prix is scheduled for Thursday, the Grand Prix Freestyle on Friday night under lights and the Grand Prix Special Saturday.
The interactive masterclass organized by Carol Cohen’s 3 Graces Dressage and Global Dressage Festival will be held Wednesday night.
The Wellington CDI5* was first staged in 2009 with the creation of Global. The only other CDI5* scheduled in the Americas is the US Open that was instituted for the inaugural final last year.
