The longtime pair of Raymond Helmuth (Cambridge, Iowa) and his own Kendro (Globetrotter x Genderose), a 2015 U.S.-bred Dutch Warmblood stallion, earned their national champion title after a second-place finish in the dressage, a winning marathon, and the only double-clear cones round in the FEI3* Single Horse division.

Advanced Single Horse National Championship

“I love Tryon. I like the footing and the obstacles, and Kendro has always done well there,” said Helmuth. “He seems to just like it there.

“He’s definitely a stallion,” said Helmuth. “He has a bit of an ego. Nobody would realize it, but he’s got a bit of a ‘You’re not going to tell me what to do,’ thing. That comes with challenges, but he’s always showing me that he’s got more to give. He was a little spicy in the dressage ring, which caused us to not get quite the score that we could have, but I wasn’t upset. I just knew that it meant we’d have to go back to basics and work on building our partnership.”

The marathon and cones phases at Tryon showed off the strength of Helmuth and Kendro’s partnership.

My Day

“The more difficult the obstacles are, the better he drives,” said Helmuth. “He wants me right there with him, and if I’m right there with him, he gives me every ounce. He loves cones. He always pulls it off, like he knows it’s the last day. He has this attitude of, ‘This is my day. I got you. We’re doing this.’ It’s just a really amazing feeling.”

Helmuth has his eye on qualifying to compete at the FEI World Championship in 2026. In the meantime, Kendro will get some downtime at home before starting preparation for next year.

“He’ll have a week or two off, and then we might do some ridden dressage and possibly some jumping shows this fall. I do a lot of cross training,” said Helmuth. “And then we’ll start to plan for the Florida season.”

Full Results

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