Promising new partnership is qualified for their grade’s freestyle final
By Kim MacMillan
The USA’s para-dressage Grade IV rider Kate Shoemaker on Vianne scored 72.222% in their individual test today, September 4, to take fifth place at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. This is the second Paralympics for Shoemaker, who rode her Solitaer 40 in Tokyo 2021, where she helped the US earn the team bronze medal.
Shoemaker and Vianne have only been showing together since early 2024. In the runup to Paris 2024, they never finished out of the top three in international competition.
In their Grade IV individual ride today, the harmonious and attractive pair had a very nice, flowing test going until the mare spooked at something in the middle of the canter work. Unfortunately it occurred during a change of lead, a movement for which the mark counts double in scoring, and the resulting scores ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 were costly. The remainder of Shoemaker’s test pulled in nearly all 7s and 8s.
Shoemaker said afterward that “Vi” has never spooked with her before and that the mare had been solid in her training in all of the arenas at the Palace of Versailles venue, including the 16,000-seat main stadium, which was sold out for today’s para-dressage competition.
“She went into that stadium like she’d done it a million times,” Shoemaker said. “She’s always so incredibly easy about things; that’s why [the spook was] so surprising to all of us. It wasn’t anything that I noticed; it was just an unfortunate moment. But she’s allowed to be a horse. She’s certainly forgiven, because there are going to be a lot of beautiful days.”
Shoemaker’s score was good enough to qualify her for her grade’s freestyle competition this Saturday, where she and Vi will ride to music from the movie Forrest Gump.
“I hope it speaks to everybody’s souls as we’re riding through the arena,” she said of her music, “because it’s just so beautiful. It matches [Vi] perfectly. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to really show [her talent] to the world.”
Born and raised in Eagle, Idaho, Shoemaker, 37, is a practicing equine veterinarian based out of Wellington, Florida. The two-time Paralympian also represented the USA at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina; and at the 2022 FEI Para-Dressage World Championships in Herning, Denmark, where she won team bronze and individual silver aboard Quiana.
The Grade IV individual gold medal went to Dutch athlete Demi Haerkens on Daula with a score of 78.722%. Sanne Voet on Demantur, also from the Netherlands, won silver on 76.538%. The bronze medalist was Germany’s Anna-Lena Niehues on Quimbaya 6 (75.222%). French athlete Vladimir Vinchon on Pegase Mayenne finished fourth on 72.889% to thunderous applause from the home-country crowd.
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