MW Verrazzano, MW Virtuous, Deambulo PWD, Rosebank VH Win 2025 U.S. Young Horse Championships

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2025 U.S. Dressage Championships

The 4-year old MW Verrazzano, the 5-year old MW Virtuous, the 6-year old Deambulo PWD, and the 7-year old Rosebank VH became the winners of the young horse championships held at the 2025 U.S. Dressage Championships in Wayne, ILL.

The "Festival of Champions" took place at Lamplight equestrian center on 18 - 24 August 2025.

4-YO: MW Verrazzano

Charell Garcia earned another tricolor ribbon to take back to Maplewood Warmbloods thanks to a victory in the 4-year-old class with MW Verrazzano (by Viva Gold out of Weiss Schwarz (by Sir Donnerhall)), a 2021 U.S.-bred Oldenburg stallion owned by Jennifer Vanover. Garcia said that Vinny showed his good character early in his show career, handling windy, challenging weather at qualifying competitions with no trouble.

“He just kept four feet on the ground and was just focused on his job,” said Garcia. “That’s how he is, both at the show and at home. He’s really trainable and really rideable. He gives you a secure feeling. And especially for a stallion, he’s kind of a puppy dog. He’s a really fun stallion to work with—he has that expression to him, but he has a mellow side to him as well.”

“Vinny” has two half-siblings competing in other young horse championships at this year’s FOC, all homebreds out of Weiss Schwarz (better known as “Weezer.”)

“The mom breeds really well-minded and willing horses,” said Garcia. “You can tell that they’re all from her, and they have the same expression. They all really have her brain and rideability.”

The reserve champion, VP Ice Man (Blue Hors Monte Carlo TC x Ziesto), a 2021 Dutch Warmblood stallion owned by Valiente Partners LLC and ridden by Laura DeCesari (Tuscon, Ariz.) impressed the judges with his second go at the USEF 4-Year-Old test, earning impressive marks across the board including a 9.0 for the canter.

“I was first to go in the preliminary test, and I thought he felt amazing,” said DeCesari. “I kind of just let him go and went with him, and I think I let him get a little flat. My coach, David Wightman, told me, ‘Hey, be careful not to just throw him away during the whole test. You’ve got to keep a little contact.’ And that seemed to help with the second test. He kept a little bit more balance and engagement. But in his mindset, he was just so relaxed the whole ride and totally with me.”

DeCesari started working with Ice Man about a year and half ago.

“I found him in Holland as a 3-year-old and I started him myself,” she said. “I co-own him with Susan Arbuckle, and without her support, I wouldn’t have been able to get him. She’s an incredible person—she just cares about the horse and me. It’s an incredible feeling to have that on your side.”

One thing that has changed in Ice Man’s life since joining DeCesari’s stable is his name.

“My husband, Tyson Clark, who’s been his groom for the whole horse show and is my biggest supporter, is the one who named him,” she said. “He came with the name Rembrandt, and there are plenty of Rembrandt’s out there. We named him Ice Man because we love Top Gun, and because he’s so focused. My husband would always say that he has ice in his veins.”

Lindsey Holleger and her own and Carol Brunsting's KWPN mare Real Surprice (by Valverde x Apache) finished in third place with an overall score of 82.800 points.

5:YO MW Virtuous

Earning high marks across the board, including a 9.0 for the trot, MW Virtuous (by Valverde out of El. Sp. Pr. Rheporter), a 2020 U.S.-bred Oldenburg stallion owned by Jennifer Vanover and ridden by Charell Garcia (Middletown, N.Y.) won Saturday’s FEI 5-Year-Old Final test and secured the overall national championship.

“He was bred by Jennifer Vanover and Maplewood Warmbloods, and he grew up on the farm. She’s done everything with him,” said Garcia. “I started working with him last year, and he was here (at Festival of Champions) last year as a 4-year-old, and I had a really fun time with him. He grew up a lot over the last year with strength and everything. He really showed up this week.”

Fall-like temperatures and breezes picking up at Lamplight on Saturday afternoon may have affected some of the young horses, but MW Virtuous showed his maturity.

“I thought that would be a little challenging at the beginning,” said Garcia. “But he was like, ‘You know what? If you help me, then I’ll help you.’ And we just went through the test together and he stayed with me. I was really proud of him.”

Garcia said her ride in the 5-year-old preliminary test was good but knew there was more to give. They were third with 82.400% in that test.

“Today he did it. It was really fun to see him stepping it up and giving it that other little bit that I know he has,” she said. “I really love this horse. He’s playful. I call him my little clown because he just has fun. He makes a joke out of everything. When you walk him around, he is curious about things and always wants to explore what’s around him. That’s also what you feel under saddle in training him. He’s really curious when we try something new. He’s like, ‘I’m game; let’s do this.’ And then once he gets it, he’s like, ‘Gotcha. Just sit there and I’ll take care of you.’ So, it’s really fun working with him.”

After earning second place in both tests, Templeton’s Milano (Morricone I x Florenciana), a U.S.-bred Westphalian gelding owned and ridden by Justin Giles (Heber City, Utah) was named reserve national champion for the 5-year-olds. This year was the pair’s first trip to Festival of Champions, and “Cookie” handled the travel from Utah and the atmosphere at Lamplight with ease.

“I bought him as a 3-year-old and started him myself,” said Giles. “From the first day I got on his back to today, he’s been the same horse day in and day out. He gives me the best feeling in the ring, and I couldn’t ask for a better horse to partnership within this journey. He handles my nerves like a champ. It’s a true pleasure to perform with him and to be on a stage like this with a horse that I started.”

The judges awarded Cookie scores of 8.0 or higher for all collective marks in the preliminary test and high scores in the final test, including a 9.0 for the walk.

“I feel like we are headed in the right direction,” said Giles. “I think an increase in balance and constantly building up our partnership and harmony is first and foremost in my mind in our training.”

Third place went to Laura DeCesari on Amy Leslie's KWPN bred Peaky Blinders EDI (by Ladignac x Ampere) with an overall total of 81.320 points

6:YO: Deambulo PWD

The national championship for 6-year-olds saw a familiar face in the champion’s blue cooler at the end of Sunday’s FEI 6-Year-Old Final Test. Deambulo PWD, a 2019 Hanoverian gelding (by Don Martillo x Fahrenheit) owned and ridden by Petra Warlimont (Evergreen, Colo.) was the 5-year-old champion at Festival of Champions in 2024. This year, she repeated the feat in the 6-year-old class.

“We’ve been working on progressing towards the 6-year-olds and trained with Christine Traurig and Hannes Baumgart in Germany with online lessons,” said Warlimont. “I try to keep him up to where he needs to be since I don’t have help in Colorado, but thanks to modern technology, it’s good, and he’s been doing really well. He’s doing all the right things. He’s so big and it’s impressive that this horse can just go into this little rectangle and do so well, so I’m super excited.”

Although there were some bobbles in the final test, which Warlimont attributed to his being a bit tired at the end of a long week at the show, “Dewey” still earned high marks for his gaits to add to his impressive total score of 88.200% in the FEI 6-Year-Old Preliminary Test.

“In his brain and in his balance, he’s so mature,” said Warlimont. “When I tried him as a 3-year-old, he had that balance already, which is why I scrambled all my money together to try and purchase the horse, because I’d never felt that before. In the canter, he was so balanced in both directions even as a 3-year-old, and it’s just continuing to get better as we go. His body is still growing, he’s not finished, but he’s a massive horse and when you ride a 10-meter circle, he balances himself. That’s how he is naturally.”

This year’s 6-year-old reserve national champion is Oliver R Tambo SV (Just Wimphof x Spielberg), a 2019 Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Deborah Alfond and ridden by Mary Lauritsen (North Salem, N.Y.) “Ollie” earned composite scores above 82% for both of his tests and was the winner of the FEI 6-Year-Old Final Test. Lauritsen was able to fix some gaps after the first test to come back stronger in the second.

“We felt really prepared coming into the competition,” she said. “The first day, I admittedly didn’t feel our normal connection in the ring, and that was really disheartening to me. The horse was there, and I felt that I needed to rise up to him. Today, after two days to decompress and train with Christine [Traurig], I came in with so much more confidence.”

Some positive coaching helped Lauritsen and Ollie get back the spark that has made their relatively new partnership a successful one.

“I was hard on myself after the first day, and Christine told me, ‘Don’t think about yesterday; think about tomorrow,’” she said. “That was some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten from a coach—let go of past results and really focus on riding the horse that I have here and now. She’s so supportive and she believes in my horse so much. We had a great training session yesterday where she helped me find the freedom again and find the connection that I lacked the first day. I’m so grateful to her, and grateful to the [USEF Dressage] emerging program, which we’re involved in, to receive that training. So yesterday felt like just another day in the office, which gave me the cool, calm collected feeling that I could do this and really show up for him.”

Charell Garcia picked up her third medal of the week by finishing third overall aboard Jennifer Vanover's Oldenburg gelding MW Mastermind (by Morricone x Sir Donnerhall) on an overall average of 82.080 points.

7:YO: Roseband VH

With wins in both rounds, Katie Duerrhammer (Greenwood Village, Colo.) and the Swedish warmblood stallion Rosebank VH (by Revolution x Dalwhinnie), owned by Kylee Lourie secured the overall championship.

The Final Test contributed 60% of the overall score with the remaining 40% coming from Thursday’s FEI 7-Year-Old Preliminary Test.

Duerrhammer and Rosebank VH scored 78.518% in the preliminary round and won the Finals test with 82.815%, a score based on an 92.20 mark for gaits, submission and perspective and 73.429% as technical mark. The chestnut stallion got a 10 for trot.

“Usually his canter is the higher scoring gait,” said Duerrhammer. “We’ve been tweaking some things over the summer with his trot, and I feel like he’s gotten a lot stronger. What I think really sells him in all of his gaits is his overwhelming harmony. Hearing a 10 and hearing that he’s improved that much and that everybody is seeing him for the potential I know he has, is really exciting.”

Duerrhammer and Rosebank have been partnered since the summer of 2023 and this was their first major competition as a pair.

“He is just the most incredible character you could possibly want. He just tries his heart out all day long,” she said. “I haven’t ridden the preliminary test very much, and so I was a little nervous going into it because he’s a younger horse, and usually they like to really know where they’re going. But he stuck with me the whole time and tried really hard and had no mistakes. What I’ve been learning about him is he really wants to do the right thing. He’s shown me, especially this year, that if I do my job right and ride him like our plan and don’t override and get in his way, he’ll do the rest. That was exactly what my coach Adrienne Lyle and I planned going in today, was to keep it the same and turn up the heat on the trot a little bit, and then just let him do his job at the canter. He took me the whole way through, and it’s one of those rides I’ll remember for a long time.”

Second place in the final test went to Christopher Hickey (Wellington, Fla.) on the Hanoverian gelding Saskatoon OMF (San Amour I out of Dolce Nera), owned by Cecelia Stewart. Their final test score of 78.200% moved them into reserve champion position overall. This year marked the third consecutive Festival of Champions outing for Saskatoon and Hickey, and the talented young gelding has made notable progress in that time.

“He’s always a very good, well-behaved horse at home, but we have a very quiet, private place,” Hickey explained. “In the beginning, he’d get to horse shows and he’d become undone and was very overstimulated, which took me by surprise because he was such a good boy at home. Each year that he’s been here, he’s been more and more calm and relaxed. He is quite a sensitive horse, and sometimes that hurt us in the early years, but now we can appreciate that sensitivity—he can be sensible and trained and still sensitive. It's special for me and Cece, his owner. We bought him when he was a foal, so we’re very excited and proud to have him from foal though FEI levels.”

With two third place finishes in the 7-year-old tests, Christian Hartung (Vacaville, Calif.) and the US-bed Hanoverian stallion Velantis N (by Vitalis x Floriscount), owned by Christiane Noelting, secured the third spot overall after scoring 76.365% and 76.800%, twice for third plae.

This year was the first time the stars aligned for Velantis and Hartung to make the trip to Festival of Champions.

“This was his first trip away from the West Coast,” said Hartung. “I was a little bit worried about the humidity and how he’d cope with that, but he was perfectly fine.” The judges awarded high marks to Velantis for all three gaits in both tests, including a 9.0 for his walk in the preliminary. “I really appreciated that [the judges] enjoyed his canter,” said Hartung. “The walk was a lot better than I’ve had in the past. He really started loosening up here on the second one.”

“I was there when he was born; we’ve had him since he was a baby and I have been riding him since he was three, so it’s just amazing to see the journey that he has taken,” he added. “He’s really relaxed—that’s just his character. He’s not fazed by this environment. It’s just amazing to see.”