Engel & Völkers real estate advisor Carol Cohen had a busy Friday night during a recent fan favorite Grand Prix Freestyle competition at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Before the competition got underway, Cohen presented Kimberly Van Kampen Boyer with the Global Dressage Visionary Award.
Cohen then zipped over to the Van Kampen covered arena to make sure that all participants in her leadline exhibition were prepared for their upcoming show.
The Global Dressage Visionary Award was developed by Cohen to accompany her 2016 sponsorship of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Cohen, a founding member of the festival, wanted to recognize others who, like herself, envisioned a place in Wellington where top dressage riders could compete against one another in much the same way as their hunter and jumper counterparts did at the Winter Equestrian Festival. Past recipients of the Global Dressage Visionary Award include Robert Dover, Mark and Katherine Bellissimo, and Carl Hester.
“Kim was responsible for building our amazing covered arena here at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival,” Cohen said. “Kim has always been someone who I have looked up to; she is a mother, a dressage enthusiast and has been an incredible role model within our community. She is somebody who walks the walk and talks the talk, and I am so honored to give her this award.”
Boyer’s influence and contributions in the Wellington dressage community began in 1998, when warm weather and horses brought her from Michigan to Florida. “By 2000, I had purchased Hampton Green Farm, where I escaped to as often as I could,” she recalled.
Boyer now runs a successful PRE breeding program from Hampton Green Farm, just around the corner from the dressage festival show grounds. “I breed Spanish horses, and I breed them for dressage. I have a very good breeding stallion, Grandiso, who was on the Spanish dressage team for the London Olympics and we are trying again for this upcoming Olympics,” she said.
Boyer is also well known in Wellington for her support of young aspiring dressage riders. Boyer has helped make such events possible as the Florida International Dressage Youth Festival and the USEF Youth Dressage Program.
ABOVE: Carol Cohen presents Kimberly Van Kampen Boyer with the Global Dressage Visionary Award.
