March 16, 2024 
With seven out of eight international victories earned since January and her first five-star title, Felicitas Hendricks American tour at the 2024 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) this winter couldn’t have gone much better.
And it’s ending on high note.
The German rider contested her second-ever five star in Wellington, FL this week and took her first-ever five star win in Friday’s Douglas Elliman Real Estate Grand Prix Freestyle on a score of 77.245%. She was second in Wednesday’s CDI5* Grand Prix as well on a score of 71.283%.
A month shy of her 24th birthday, Hendricks is currently ranked no. 26 on the senior World Rankings and poised to crack the top 25 next month with 13-year-old gelding Drombusch OLD, a horse she’s developed over the past seven years.
“I’ve had him since he was six. I bought him from my uncle and trainer Christoph Koschel who thought that he might be the right match for me, and he turned out to be right,” shared the reigning European Under-25 Championship gold medalist.
“It’s been a long journey, but it was very rewarding and I couldn’t wish for a better dance partner. It’s even more special because we’ve gone all the way together.”
Hendricks’ disco-inspired freestyle included double pirouettes into canter half-passes and finished with a metronomic passage and a one-handed piaffe to halt.
“Drombusch has a great passage, which really feels like being on a cloud,” she smiled.
Raphael Netz (24), also of Germany, is the only other rider under age 25 currently ranked in the world top 30 on the senior world rankings. Netz is world no. 15 and turns 25 this month.
