Rodolpho Riskalla always puts his heart and soul into his performances, but today’s grade IV freestyle at the Orifarm Healthcare FEI World Para Dressage Championships was even more emotional than usual.

Tears filled the Brazilian rider’s eyes as he rounded the corner onto his last centre line, because this was the conclusion to his beloved horse Don Henrico’s last ever dressage test. The Don Frederico stallion, who is out of a Lauries Crusador mare, is 19 now, and will be retiring after the World Para Dressage Championships – not that he looked as though he needs to stop competing. But Rodolpho is keen to let the horse bow out on a high, and that he certainly did as he claimed his second individual bronze medal of the week.

It was a captivating test set to Latino music, their routine filled with complex sequences and featuring flowing half-passes plus flying changes every five strides.

“It’s been a roller coaster week between the preparation and coming here, but he was so good to ride today,” said an emotional Rodolpho, who said that, after quite bit of build up over the week, this was the last ride he had dreamed of for this horse.

“I’m really pleased and overwhelmed. I’m emotional that is was his last championship test, but also so happy that he gave me so much. What more could I want? It’s been amazing.”

Over the past five years, Don Henrico has lifted Rodolpho’s career into another dimension, winning him double world silver in 2018 and individual Paralympic silver in 2021. The stallion belongs to Gestut Schlafhof, a training and competition centre in Germany, where Rodolpho first tried him after a tip-off from Schlafhof’s owner Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff.

“When he came to me, he was difficult in the beginning, and we have had tough times because he’s very sensitive. But he’s always been there for me and he knows when he’s here for a big thing and he gives his heart for me. We’ve built an amazing bond.”

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The first individual champion of the Orifarm Healthcare FEI World Para Dressage Championships results, presented by Elsass Fonden, has been decided in the grade IV division. The 2018 gold medallist Sanne Voets of the Netherlands has claimed back-to-back world titles as she continues her domination in grade IV with the 14-year-old Demantur RS2 NOP.

Demantur has great ability to open and close within the pace, maintaining pleasing balance and rhythm. Their flowing canter loops were a highlight of this solid, clean test for the pair.

“I’m just really pleased with how he felt,” said Sanne of the Vivaldi son. “He was really so soft and so focused.”

“He always tries to give me the feeling of, ‘Hey, we got this. We’re a team, we did this before and we can do this again’. But the other side of working together for so long and having won so much already, is that the pressure keeps rising and you never get used to that.

“Yesterday I decided just before I went to bed that the results are what happens, but it’s just a test. I just want to be the best rider I can be for my horse now.”

This is the pair’s sixth senior championship, having won gold – and a rainbow of other medals – at every past Paralympic, world and Europeans.

Sanne may have taken the gold on 76.75% but she was very nearly pipped by her own teammate Demi Haerkens with EHL Daula, who came close to stealing the lead in the World Para Dressage Championships results. Their final score, a tidy 76%, was enough for a decisive silver, however, at Demi’s first championship.

“She gave me everything,” Demi said of the 14-year-old mare. “I really hoped for a medal, so it’s great everything came together.”

The Gribaldi daughter showed her scopey trot, keeping real power and expression while maintaining rhythm and balance, to open their test with a plus-77% trending score. There was little to split Demi and Sanne in terms of marks, with the pair bang on the same trending score in the latter stages of Demi’s test.

What is even more exciting is there look to be more marks to come from Demi. EHL Daula had a few walk steps into her halt, which was not quite square, and there did not appear to be a huge difference between the extension and collection in the walk.

The pair’s canterwork was joyful to watch, with both Demi and the mare looking to delight in the feeling of power and quality of performance they were producing.

In bronze was Brazil’s Rodolpho Riskalla, at his 19-year-old stallion Don Henrico’s final championship. They scored 74.93%.

Gestüt Schafhof’s stallion is a rocking horse with a Formula One engine. He showed lift and spring through his active trot work, complemented by elegant canter work in a stunning frame.

The duo were trending just behind Sanne through their clean test, ending with a powerful final centre line. Rodolpho punched the air with a huge grin to cheers from his supporters in the kiss and cry.

“I am overwhelmed. He’s always doing everything for me and once again he was there and so relaxed,” said an emotional Rodolpho, who won his first medal at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, and plans to retire this Don Frederico son following the World Para Dressage Championships this year.

“It’s amazing to have a horse that at every championship I can count on. He can be difficult, he is sensitive, but when we prepare and we go he is fine and he is happy to do it.”

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Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round

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There was a protest today (Saturday, 22 September) over the medals in the Adequan-sponsored para dressage grade IV individual freestyle at the World Equestrian Games (WEG) in Tryon, USA.

Brazilian chef d’equipe Rodrigo Bezerra Braga lodged the protest on behalf of rider Rodolpho Riskalla, who took the silver on Don Henrico behind the Netherlands’ Sanne Voets (NED) on Demantur NOP.

The protest stated that, contrary to article 8421.2.4.7 of the para equestrian dressage rules, Sanne had executed one sequence change of four-tempis, instead of five-tempis.

Following a review of the official video footage of Sanne’s test, the ground jury unanimously agreed that there was no attempt by Sanna at a deliberate sequence change of four tempis and that she had in fact made a mistake at the end of the movement, which they had taken into account in their original scoring.

As a result, the protest was denied and the placings remained unchanged, with Sanne in gold, Rodolpho in silver and the home side’s Kate Shoemaker in bronze with Solitaer. Sanne scored 79.645%, with Rodolpho on 77.78% and Kate on 73.23%.

There was drama in the grade III freestyle today too, when the penultimate competitor, Britain’s Natasha Baker took a fall near the start of her test on Mount St John Diva Dannebrog.

The para dressage at WEG concluded this afternoon. The individual showjumping final and the cones phase of the driving will take place tomorrow to finish the 2018 WEG. Britain has one rider in showjumping, Amanda Derbyshire on Luibanta BH. She is currently lying in 15th place.

Article continues below…

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Keep up to date with all the final day news from Tryon on horseandhound.co.uk

Horse & Hound’s bumper magazine reports from WEG are in the issues dated 20 September (dressage and eventing) — on sale now — and 27 September (showjumping and para dressage).

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For Brazil’s Rodolpho Riskalla, winning an individual grade IV silver medal with Don Henrico at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon is the euphoric culmination of years spent adjusting to a new life.

In 2015, as a 31-year-old grand prix dressage rider with the Rio Olympics in his sights, Rodolpho relocated to Paris hoping that training and competing in Europe would boost his chances of competing at a home Olympics. But in August that year, he returned home to Sau Paulo to be with his family after his father died, and while there contracted bacterial meningitis.

He spent a month in a coma, lost his right hand and some fingers from his left, and had both legs amputated below the knee.

“Life changed for everyone, but the first thing I asked the doctor when I woke up was whether I would be able to ride,” Rodolpho told H&H. “It was actually when I went to visit my grand prix horse for the first time since my illness, before I had prosthetics and was still in a wheelchair, and his owner asked when I would be able to ride. I joked and said, ‘How about now?’, but then they lifted me on board, and that was such a great feeling.”

Despite having to adapt everything about his riding, Rodolpho returned to France and immediately switched his focus to para dressage. Incredibly, he achieved his dream of riding in Rio just eight months later, at the Paralympics. There, he finished 10^th individually with the horse he describes as “my best buddy ever”, the Weltmeyer gelding Warenne.

He’d had a taste of the world stage and, with Warenne retired after Rio, Rodolpho needed a new horse. Enter the stunning chestnut Don Frederico stallion, Don Henrico (pictured, above), offered to Rodolpho by the German Olympic gold medallist, Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff.

“Henrico is a really sensitive stallion, but I’ve had him for a year now and I really know him,” said Rodolpho, who works for Dior in Paris alongside his riding, and also now competes the 15-year-old Henrico in able-bodied dressage at international small tour.

“This medal means everything, after all the years of work,” said Rodolpho, who couldn’t hold back the tears when he realised his 73.37% was enough for the silver medal. “It shows that you never know what can happen in life, but that good things can always come out of the bad.”

The full report on the para dressage from WEG will be in next week’s Horse & Hound magazine, out Thursday 27 September, including exclusive analysis and expert opinion

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Details of the horses and riders who have been selected for long-lists, short-lists and confirmed para dressage squads at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina (11-25 September 2018) will be added to this page as they become available.

Teams are made up of a maximum of four riders per nation. Teams must include at least one grade I, II or grade III rider and cannot include more than three riders in any one grade.

Great Britain

• Sophie Wells on C Fatal Attraction (gr V)
• Lee Pearson on Styletta (gr II)
• Erin Orford on Dior (gr III)
• Natasha Baker on Mount St John Diva Dannebrog (gr III)

Germany

• Steffen Zeibig on Feel Good
• Elke Phillipp on Regaliz
• Angelika Trabert on Diamonds Shine
• Regine Mispelkamp on Look At Me Now

The Netherlands

• Sanne Voets on Demantur
• Rixt Van Der Horst on Findsley
• Nicole Den Dulk on Wallace NOP
• Frank Hosmar on Alphaville NOP

Denmark

• Line Munk Madsen on Hønnerups Beebob
• Stinna Tange Kaastrup on Horsebo Smarties
• Tobias Thorning Jørgensen on Bruunholm Caribian
  
• Susanne Jensby Sunesen on CSK’s Que Faire

USA

• Rebecca Hart on El Corona Texel
• Angela Peavy on Royal Dark Chocolate
• Kate Shoemaker on Solitaer 40
• Roxanne Trunnell on Dolton

Brazil

• Marcos Fernandes Alves on Vladimir
• Sergio De Oliva on Coco Chanel M
• Vera Lucia Martins Mazzilli on Ballantine
• Rodolpho Riskalla on Don Henrico

Portugal

• Sara Oliveira Duarte with Daxx Du Hans
• José Augusto Neves with Vendetto C
• Inês Teixeira with Giraldo Sernadinha
• Ana Isabel Mota Veiga with Convicto

Japan

• Sho Inaba with Femme Fatale
• Tomoko Nakamura with Djazz F
• Katsuji Takshima with Emora C VD Wijdewormer
• Soshi Yoshigoe with Brown Sugar

Italy

• Federico Lunghi with Laudario
• Sara Morganti with Royal Delight
• Francesca Salverde with Muggel 4
• Maurilio Vaccaro with Bonaire Van De Mottelhoeve

Belgium

• Manon Claeys with San Dior 2
• Barbara Minneci with Stuart
• Eveline van Looveren with Feleva
• Ciska Vermeulen with Rohmeo

Canada

• Lauren Barwick with Engelbrecht
• Winona Hartvikson with Ultimo
• Jody Schloss with Lieutenant Lobin
• Roberta Sheffield with Bailaor

France

• Estelle Guillet with Magic Des Meuyrattes
• Jose Letartre with Swing Royal ‘Ene HN’
• Cloe Mislin with Don Caruso
• Vladimir Vinchon with Tarantino Fleuri

Hong Kong

• Fleur Schrader with Jockey Club Sarago Raphael
• Tin Chi Timothy Tsang with Jockey Club Cethegus M
• Pui Ting Natasha Tse with Baxo

Finland

• Katja Karjalainen with Dr Doolittle
• Jaana Kivimäki with Legolas
• Pia-Pauliina Reitti with Supremo

Austria

• Pepo Puch with Sailor’s Blue
• Julia Sciancalepore with Heinrich IV

Australia

• Emma Booth with Mogelvangs Zidane

Czech Republic

• Anastasja Vistalova with Dominique

US Virgin Islands

• Lee Frawley with P’S Panta Leone

Saudi Arabia

• Ahmed Sharbatly with Cassandra

Latvia

• Rihards Snikus with King Of The Dance

Mexico

• Ignacio Treviño Fuerte with Batik

Singapore

• Laurentia Yen-Yi Tan with Fuerst Sherlock

Sweden

• Louise Etzner Jakobsson with Zernard

In the meantime, you may be interested in the following:

Bluffers’ guide to para dressage at WEG

Horse & Hound tells you all you need to know to enjoy the para dressage competition at WEG

Who will make the British para dressage team for WEG? H&H’s dressage editor gets out her crystal ball…

The British para dressage shortlist for this September’s World Equestrian Games (WEG) contains a mix of old names and new

Horse & Hound will have reporters working at the Tryon venue throughout the Games keeping our readers up to date with the latest news throughout the competition.

Olympic champion Nick Skelton has collected another accolade – winning the best athlete category of the FEI awards.

Nick’s groom Mark Beever (pictured with Nick and Big Star in Rio) was also among the winners at a gala dinner in Tokyo on 22 November, taking the best groom award.

“I would like to thank the FEI for this most fabulous award”, Nick said. “I’ve had an incredible year and this award makes it even better. I would like to thank the team that is behind me and Big Star for all their hard work and patience.”

The FEI said Mark received multiple nominations, more than anyone else in his category, from grooms, riders and “the wider equestrian community”.

“Beever is very well respected by his peers and his dedication to Big Star is beyond question, as he caters to his every need, ensuring the horse is happy and settled down before he looks after himself,” said an FEI spokesman.

Rodolpho Riskalla, who had intended to compete in the Olympic dressage for Brazil in Rio but contracted meningitis in 2015, was the winner of the “against all odds” award.

Rodolpho lost both feet and “most of his fingers” as a result of the bacterial infection.

With less than a year before the Games, Rodolpho learned to ride again with prosthetics, and represented his country in the Paralympics instead.

“To win the FEI awards, it’s like the Oscars, it’s like being a superstar”, he said. “But also, to win against all odds represents exactly what happened to me this last year.

“Before this I never believed a human being could be so strong and adapt so quickly.It’s something that’s come from inside, it’s like the Olympic spirit.”

Germany’s 22-year-old Sönke Rothenberger, who was on the gold medal-winning team in Rio, said he was “honoured” to win the rising star award, while the FEI solidarity category went to the Moroccan national federation, for its creation of “solid foundations for the development of the sport and related employment in the sport in Morocco, as well as increasing awareness and promotion of the sport nationally and regionally”.

Related articles:

• Nick Skelton and Big Star: how it all began
• Your chance to ride in a race at Cheltenham with Skelton, Hobday and Fox-Pitt
• Olympic stars Charlotte Dujardin and Nick Skelton to lead Olympia parade

“The FEI awards are an opportunity to celebrate the outstanding work of those who deserve the recognition, not just of our community but of the wider sports industry, and we’ve had five fantastic award-winners tonight”, said FEI president Ingmar De Vos.

“These talented and dedicated athletes and individuals constantly inspire future generations of athletes, not just equestrian athletes, and can literally change lives and communities. The FEI is very proud to honour and acknowledge these achievements.”

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now

Paralympic dressage medal contenders are among the five horses to be reinspected tomorrow

Several medal hopes are among the five horses that will be reinspected tomorrow at 7.30am (Sunday 11 September), following the trot-up at the Rio Paralympics today,

Austrian rider Pepo Puch will re-present his ride Fontainenoir tomorrow. The London 2012 gold medallist will be bidding to add more golds to his collection in the grade Ib events this week with the Florencio I gelding.

Royal Delight, the ride of Italian grade Ia medal hopeful Sara Morganti, who took gold at the 2014 World Equestrian Games, will also be reinspected tomorrow, and Brazil’s Rodolpho Riskalla will also have a nervous wait to find out if his mount, Warenne, will be cleared to compete.

Two Danish horses make up the five who were not passed today: Stinna Kaastrup’s 15-year-old gelding Smarties and Caroline Nielsen’s 12-year-old gelding Leon will also be reinspected.

All five of Great Britain’s horses — Lee Pearson’s Zion, Natasha Baker’s Cabral, Sophie Christiansen’s Athene Lindebjerg, Anne Dunham’s Lucas Normark and Sophie Wells’ Valerius — were declared fit and sound to compete.

Michele George’s Rainman was sent to the holding box, but later passed. The pair, who claimed gold in London, compete for Belgium in grade IV.

Continued below…

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The action gets underway tomorrow with the grade III team test, beginning at 2pm (UK time), and the grade Ib team test at 6pm (UK time). Britain does not have any grade III competitors, but Lee Pearson will be the first out of the blocks for the squad, performing at 6.18pm with the 12-year-old Flemmingh gelding Zion.

Sophie Wells will be in action for Great Britain on Monday, in the grade IV team test. Grade Ia riders Sophie Christiansen and Anne Dunham, and grade II rider Natasha Baker, will begin their Paralympic campaigns on Tuesday.

More information about how to follow the Paralympic dressage can be found here, and don’t forget to stay tuned to the H&H website for the latest news, results and scores.

Don’t miss our full Paralympic report in the 22 September issue of H&H.

Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now