January 13, 2024 
Germany’s Felicitas Hendricks had goals in mind when she shipped her horses from Europe to Wellington, Florida for the 2024 Adequan Global Dressage Festival, her eighth consecutive winter season in the U.S.
Making the jump from senior class debut to World Cup winner in the space of a year wasn’t on her radar, however.
“This is huge for me because I did my first senior classes here last year and I never thought that I would be here in this position today,” said 23-year-old. “I was just happy if we got through the grand prix and now I’ve won this class—it’s unreal.”
Hendricks took the W in both the FEI World Cup Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle, riding to a personal best score of 70.652% on her 13-year-old Drombusch OLD (Destano x Dimaggio) on Thursday and to a 78.49%, the pair’s second highest score, in Friday’s Freestyle.
“He was on fire but 100% with me and 100% focused. I think that’s also kind of rare,” she said of their Friday performance. “Sometimes when horses are so electric and so on fire they start looking at stuff and being not 100% concentrated but he was there and he wants to give it all and he was really trying his heart out again.”
But while Hendricks didn’t expect to win, perhaps she should have.
The U25 rider made her senior Nations Cup debut in Wellington in 2023 and helped Germany to the team gold medal. In July, the pair took team and individual gold at the U25 European Championships in Pilisjaszfalu, Hungary. Now, they’ve captured their first World Cup title.
It’s a partnership that has grown up together. Previously owned by Germany’s Christoph Koschel, Hendricks purchased the Oldenburg gelding as a six year old when she was 16. The pair has developed up the ranks together, with Koschel’s help.
“Christoph trained him with me up the way and that’s why I know him so very well, because I know him from a very young age. He knows me. He knows how I feel. I know how he feels, so that helps a lot, for sure,” said Hendricks.
“Honestly, I am very lucky that Christoph told me this is going to be the right horse for me. I was a young girl, not really knowing exactly what I was doing and where I was going.
“I just believed him.”
With three legs remaining in the North American League season, The World Cup returns to Wellington February 7 and March 3.
