March 13, 2026 
Three-time 2024 Paris Paralympic gold medalist Fiona Howard underwent kidney surgery in December 2025, spending seven weeks in the hospital.
Last week, at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, she set three new world records.
The world number one ranked para-dressage rider, 27, stepped into the stirrups of her coach’s Kate Shoemaker’s Olympic bronze medalist Vianne just days before the CPEDI, and produced Grade II world records in each of their three appearances.
They logged a winning 78.85% in Friday’s CPEDI3* Para Grand Prix A Test. They delivered an 80.444% in Saturday’s Grand Prix B Test, scoring a perfect 10 from every judge for the stretching walk half circle. And they produced 84.934% in Sunday’s Grade II Freestyle, winning by a margin of more than 18 percentage points.
The 10-year-old Vianne (Vitalis x Ramiro’s Bube) has been campaigned by Shoemaker, Howard’s long-time coach, since February 2024, in both CPEDI and able-bodied big tour international classes.
“I’m super grateful to Kate for the opportunity to ride this horse. It was an incredible week, and it’s all testament to her training, her coaching and the team of the three of us coming together. To walk away with three world records is incredible,” said Howard, who has dystonia, a neuromuscular disease that causes her muscles to contract and twist involuntarily.
“Kate has known me for a long time now and she’s helped prep my horses, ride them and coach me. She knows me and my disability very well and that shows in her ability to make this team of me with Vianne so quickly. Each day, our confidence together grew, and that was reflected in the scores. I was having so much fun.
“We didn’t know what this whole season was going to look like, and I’m taking it day by day and feeling grateful and thankful that I can do this.”
Howard will return to Europe—where her own competition horses are based—at the end of March to resume her campaign for selection for this summer’s FEI World Championship in Aachen, Germany.
