As the sun shone over Ermelo (NED) on the final day of competition, the FEI Para Dressage European Championship 2025 got underway.  Once again, the Grade II gold medal went to Heidemarie Dresing and Poesie 143 of Germany, scoring their best ever competitive mark together of 80.973.  “It’s amazing. I wanted to achieve a score of 80 today and we succeeded, so I am very happy, and it gives us the hattrick!” said Heidemarie Dresing of Germany.  This 10-year-old mare now puts Heidemarie in the enviable position of having two European Champions in her stable, having won in Riesenbeck with Horse24 Dooloop, ahead of what will be a home games in Aachen at the FEI World Championships 2026.

(Photo:  Heidemarie Dresing (GER) rides on Poesie 143. FEI European Championship Para Dressage 2025. © FEILeanjo de Koster)

Familiar with the silver medal this week, Katrine Kristensen and Goerklintgaards Quarter claimed it once again with a score of 78.374.  “I’m feeling great, one more silver medal, it’s fantastic! It’s incredible to be at a Championship again, I’m very thankful to have him compete with me even though he is 17 now and I am pregnant again. So now I can go on maternity leave happy,” she said of their third medal of the week.  “He was really with me again today. Throughout the whole week he has been very focused on me and his job in the arena, and today we rode so well with the music and to the tempo, so I was very satisfised with him this morning.”

Katrine Kristensen (DEN) rides on Goerklintgaards Quater. FEI European Championship Para Dressage 2025. © FEILeanjo de Koster

It was Great Britain’s Jemima Green who secured her second bronze medal of the week with her seven-year-old Oldenburg gelding, Fantabulous, scoring a personal best of 76.307.  “I’m so proud of him, it was the most confident he has felt all week and it was really quite enjoyable to ride,” she beamed as she spoke of their performance.  “I’m slightly kicking myself because I didn’t feel like our medium trot was the strongest and I had the opportunity to repeat it but then got anxious and questioned myself, so I didn’t go for it, so I feel like I let him down a little bit by doing so.”  To score two medals at their first Championship is no mean feat, however. “I’m in complete shock and overwhelmed by the outcome. It’s just such a privilege to have such a lovely horse.”

Once more Latvia’s Rihards Snikus and King of the Dance gave a crowd-pleasing performance set to up-beat medley of Latvian and Latin American tunes to take the gold again on a score of 80.674.  “The horse was in another rhythm to what he usually is at home, and Rihards could feel that he was tired today, but they did so well,” his sister, Elene, said of their performance today.  “We both love it [in the arena],” Rihards said, on what is his favourite day of competition, and it was clear that being a DJ gives the athlete an incredible sense of tempo as he and the 17-year-old Latvian warmblood rode perfectly in time with the music.

Rihards Snikus (LAT) rides on King of the Dance. FEI European Championship Para Dressage 2025. © FEILeanjo de Koster

For the third time this week, finishing just behind her long-time rival was world number one, Italy’s Sara Morganti riding Mariebelle for a score of 79.827.  “I’m very happy with the medal and the horse, although I was a bit tired today, so it wasn’t so simple to ride. But she was very good and, as usual, she was very kind with me,” Sara said of their test set to a medley of pieces from different musicals. “I love Rihards. He’s a wonderful rider with a brilliant horse, and this friendly rivalry makes for a fantastic competition. “Standards are so much higher now, both for the horses and for the athletes, than when I started in 2009. When I won the bronze medal in Kristiansand, Norway, I did very little to prepare, as you didn’t have to back then to be successful. “Now I train every day, ride two horses and am in the swimming pool every evening. It’s not only the horses that are in training. There’s a greater level of professionalism in the sport now, which can only be a good thing.”

Great Britain secured yet another bronze with Mari Durward-Akhurst and Athene Lindebjerg scoring 77.140.  “It was a really good test, she was so enthusiastic we got a bit ahead of the music, so we finished slightly early but overall, it was amazing,” Mari said of their performance, set to music from the movie Pearl Harbour. “I’m really happy to take home another medal. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet how much we’ve achieved this week!”

When All Is Said And Done

After a week of incredible competition in Ermelo, there has been a true changing of the guard in Para Dressage sport, with new team and individual champions crowned at the pinnacle of European competition.

Quotes from the week can be found HERE.