The Dominican Republic is not a nation that pops up often in equestrian sport, but Yvonne Losos de Muñiz is flying the flag for this small country in dressage. We find out more about her…
When Yvonne Losos de Muñiz competed at the Rio Olympics in 2016, she was the first rider from the Dominican Republic to take part in a Games in any discipline. She rode the Belgian warmblood Foco Loco W, then aged 11, to finish 59th.
Yvonne has reached two World Cup Finals to date, having competed Foco Loco in Paris in 2015, and more recently represented her country at the 2019 Final in Gothenburg, Sweden, riding Aquamarijn.
She is gunning for a place at the 2021 Final, due to be held in Gothenburg in April, having campaigned alongside Carl Hester for a reversal of the FEI’s rule change re-allocating a place at the Final from a non-league rider to a rider from the Western European League. This change was reversed earlier this week.
“Miss World”
Yvonne Losos de Muñiz was born in Nigeria and grew up in Kenya before moving to Germany as a teenager to train at the state stud at Marbach. Her family subsequently moved to Canada before she made the Dominican Republic her home after marrying Eduardo Muniz. She also holds a Canadian passport.
Yvonne became great friends with Carl after they shared a house during the Sunshine tour in Spain in 2000. Carl has since been a strong supporter of her dressage career, and has nicknamed her “Miss World”.
The grand prix rider is currently based in Florida, and she has been enjoying a super run of form during the 2020-2021 World Cup season with top horse Aquamarijn, a 16-year-old KWPN mare by United. The pair won the Wellington qualifier in December with 79.63%, and were second in the January qualifier with 78.17%.
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Yvonne Losos de Muniz DOM riding Focoloco W, during the grand prix of the dressage competition at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Deodoro near Rio, Brazil on 10th August 2016
Yvonne was her nation’s first equestrian to win a medal at the Pan Am Games when she took bronze on home soil at the 2003 Games at the Palmarejo Equestrian Center — a property built by her and her husband Eduardo Muñiz for the event — in Santo Domingo.
She quit dressage for a couple of years after losing an appeal over a place to ride at London 2012 with Carl Hester’s world and European team silver medallist Liebling II, but returned to international competition in September 2014 after being asked to reconsider by the Dominican Republic Equestrian Federation.
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