By ILSE SCHWARZ
VERDEN, Germany, Aug.9, 2026–
All eyes were on Charlotte Dujardin and her black stallion, Secret Agent, but U25 rider Tessa Cole, on a mare, Odi Murona (Blue Hors Farrell x Johnson TN),managed to stay 0.3% in front of Charlotte and win the World Championships. She was in complete disbelief, wiping away happy tears as she exited the Arena. Tessa has been riding Odi Murana since she was 3 years old, and they have such a clear partnership. She was selected to ride in the 6yo championships in 2025, but the FEI had a rule that prohibited young riders competing in their championships to compete in open Championships too. Fortunately that rule has been changed as Tessa was just competing in Budapest at the European U25 championships.
Odi Murano is an elegant, feminine mare that does all of the work required at this level with a sense of ease. She is maybe not as extravagent in her gaits as a few, but she is so harmonious in the work, so happy! Beautiful half passes with good bend, very good pirouettes of nice size with good sitting. Clear adjustibility between collection, medium and extended in all three gaits. Lovely clear and balanced, moving forwards transitions that maintained an uphill balance. Her frame stayed open through all the work, the canter was active with plenty of lift.
When the commentary started and the first words were “Wow Tessa, this is really the way we want to see the horses presented” the crowd went a little crazy with applause and the commentator said “You deserve this applause”.
After going through the basics of why the scores were what they were (trot 9.5, walk 8.5, canter 9.0, submission 9.5) she got to perspective and said “I think we have said enough, so we loved it, 9.5” technical score of 74.429 and 75.286 for a total of 83.429%
Charlotte Dujardin and her incredibly good looking Hannoverian stallion, Secret Agent, Secret x De Niro, followed Odi Murano and we knew there was not alot of room for there to be any errors or tension. Secret agent was expressive, uphill, powerful and beautiful in the connection through all of the trot work showing good bend in the shoulder in and half passes, incredible transitions back to collection after the extensions. And then they walked. I swear the stadium held their collective breath. The extended walk had decent ground cover, and most importantly, correct rhythm. Then it came time for collection and Secret Agent (James) tightened his back just enough that the rhythm was affected. Despite Charlotte riding really good walk pirouettes, I think we all knew that it was probably not possible to win.
Regardless, she produced a beautiful canter tour with small balanced pirouettes, with James taking a good amount of weight on the hindlegs. Amazing uphill, big, soft changes and maybe she had done enough?? Trot 9.6, walk 7.0. Sigh, they are tough on rhythm issues, as they should be. Canter another incredibly high score, 9.5, submission 9.5 and then because of the walk, perspective 9.3. technical scores of 74.857 and 78.000 and we knew it would be incredibly close. But she is .3% behind the first placed combination. 83.115%
Charlotte is still ecstatic with her, yes she owns him, horse. He has never seen any spectators at a show, or stayed over at a show more than one night, and he coped magnificently. And in her opinion :”this is SO MUCH harder than the Grand Prix”. We all had to laugh.
Third was the elegant wonderful mare Brandtbjergs Divya (Hesselhoj Donkey Boy x Blue Horse Don Olymbrio) ridden by the only 20yo Theresa Rosenkilde. They bought Divya after the World Championships in 2025 and the twenty year old rider is doing an absolutely incredible job with this talented mare. They scored 80.979% with fantastic comments and no doubt we will see alot more of this combination. Theresa is planning on using Divya as her young rider horse for 2027.
Results:
| Rank | Competitor | Score | E | H | C | B | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Tessa Kole (NED) Odi Murona | 83.429% | 74.429 | 92.000 | 75.286 | ||
| 2. | Charlotte Dujardin (GBR) Secret Agent | 83.115% | 74.857 | 89.800 | 78.000 | ||
| 3. | Theresa Rosenkilde (DEN) Brandtbjergs Divya | 80.979% | 74.857 | 87.600 | 73.857 | ||
| 4. | Mafalda Galiza Mendes (POR) Belcanto HB | 80.465% | 72.143 | 89.000 | 71.714 | ||
| 5. | Lara van Nek (NED) Obsession Taonga | 79.843% | 69.857 | 88.400 | 72.714 | ||
| 6. | Ann-Christin Wienkamp (GER) Schatzmeister MZ OLD | 79.322% | 70.714 | 87.000 | 72.571 | ||
| 7. | Senta Kirchhoff (GER) Dribbler | 78.643% | 72.000 | 85.000 | 72.571 | ||
| 8. | Dinja Van Liere (NED) Red Viper | 78.200% | 70.571 | 85.400 | 71.429 | ||
| 9. | Greta Heemsoth (GER) Felice FRH | 77.100% | 69.714 | 84.200 | 70.286 | ||
| 10. | Jeanna Hogberg (SWE) Severucci HT | 76.565% | 71.429 | 83.200 | 68.429 | ||
| 11. | Carina Scholz (GER) La Jolie SW OLD | 76.486% | 69.571 | 83.400 | 69.571 | ||
| 12. | Mathilde Juglaret (FRA) Finest Pearl des Paluds | 75.322% | 69.143 | 82.000 | 68.143 | ||
| 13. | Charlotte Tollhopf (GER) Galleria’s Fancy Fergie FRH | 74.372% | 66.000 | 81.600 | 68.286 | ||
| 14. | Estelle Wettstein (SUI) Fortunello KWG CH | 73.408% | 69.286 | 77.600 | 69.143 | ||
| 15. | Nina Verina Braun (GER) Sullivan ABN | 73.372% | 65.857 | 80.600 | 66.429 | ||
 Find details on Equestrian Hub |
