Mar. 15, 2026
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Dünensee was just a youngster when bought by Terri Kane of Diamante Farms for her daughter, Devon, to compete. But he just kept growing, too big for the slightly built Devon. A lot of training by Kevin Kohmann didn’t help. So they decided to sell the horse.
One trainer or rider after another tried the horse in both the U.S. and Europe. No sale. So Dünensee was brought back to Wellington, Florida. Christoph Koschel, who had ridden on German medal-winning championship teams and was a coach of Kevin, began competing the horse on both sides of the Atlantic. Still no buyer.
Every time Kevin sat on the horse, he told Devon and Terri, “No, thank you. It’s not my ride. I hated the feeling, just like I always did. I cannot do a straight line of changes on him.”
When Kevin finally gave in to suggestions from the Kanes and Christoph to get in the show ring, he was shocked. Dünensee knew exactly what was needed.
“He did all the changes the first time ever for me, and from that moment on he did that for me,” Kevin recalls. “I knew what a big heart he has. He has Lots of things not going for him, but the heart is what makes him so special.
“This horse never stops, he always keeps going even when he didn’t feel good.
“This horse I think we’re communicating on a bit of a different level.”
The horse that refused to leave the family will be on the way in the next few days to his third straight World Cup Final, this time in Fort Worth, Texas.
Verdades ridden by Laura Graves is the only other American horse to do the same, at least this century and perhaps for the history of the annual championship.
“It makes me so proud that I got to develop a special relationship with a horse like Dünensee, only a very few horses. To be exact, only my pony Sally.
“If anybody would’ve told me that this horse would go three times to World Cup finals … I would’ve told everybody. that’s crazy, that will never happen.
“The thing is the horse maybe doesn’t know the Kanes are from Texas and how much this means to them.
“Dünensee means everything to us. He will never be leased out. Even if we have 10 bad tests we will just keep going.
“He will tell us when he’s done. We will recognize it early enough because we owe him that and we also owe him that he will never ever ever leave our family.
“We’re gonna have fun like we have every day. He already has done everything for me that he could possibly do. Even if that doesn’t work out tomorrow, he has more than exceeded expectations.
“I can only say, ‘Thank you’.”
