The first week of the 2016 Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington played host to scores of professional and amateur dressage riders, which was the perfect place for the inaugural presentation of Carol Cohen’s Global Dressage Visionary Award to Team USA chef d’equipe Robert Dover.
Cohen will be presenting the Global Dressage Visionary Award during all CDI weeks of the world-renowned dressage festival throughout the rest of the season.
Dover, a six-time Olympic athlete and the current chef d’equipe of the U.S. Dressage Team, has been involved with the Adequan Global Dressage Festival since its inception. “I thought there was an opportunity that was being missed here,” Dover said.
Dover’s road to the head of the American dressage team began when his former Olympic coach, Colonel Bengt Ljungquist, urged Dover to carry forward what he had been taught.
“I had no idea what he meant by that,” Dover said. “I was 18 years old. It wasn’t until much later in my life that I reflected back on it and realized that he was saying I was going to have some role in the sport bigger than I even knew.”
Now, Dover is coaching and training hopefuls for Team USA, which is planning to go for the gold at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Cohen, an FEI-level dressage competitor herself and a sponsor of the 2016 Adequan Global Dressage Festival, created the Global Visionary Dressage Award to recognize individuals who have been instrumental in the growth and promotion of classical dressage in America.
For more information about Cohen and her listings at Engel & Völkers Real Estate in Wellington, visit www.carolcohen.evusa.com.
ABOVE: Carol Cohen presents United States Dressage Team Chef d’Equipe Robert Dover with the inaugural Global Dressage Visionary Award.
