Jemma Heran and Total Recall Pass The Bar to Nail First CDI Win at 2025 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival
By Alice Collins for Wellington International
Australian athlete Jemma Heran and her own Total Recall won their first CDI class together since starting international competition in 2022, topping the CDI3* Grand Prix Special, sponsored by Donato Farms on Saturday, January 25. Last to go in the class of 10 starters, Heran coaxed a 69.021% performance out of the 13-year-old Totilas x Sandro Hit gelding, and with it a new career high score for the pair in this test.
The class was the highlight of the third day of competition in week three of the 2025 Adequan® Global Dressage Festival (AGDF) in Wellington, FL, which hosts seven weeks of CDI competition and weekly national shows over three months, finishing March 30.
It was a podium of many colors, with three nations represented. Evelyn Eger flew the flag for Germany, finishing runner-up with Hof Kasselmann’s 11-year-old Grey Flanell mare Gossip Girl 9 on 68.426%. Erin Nichols (USA) was just 0.043 percentage points behind, clinching third with 68.383% on Premiere Sport Horses’ 15-year-old Johnson gelding, Elian Royale.
Total Recall’s famous sire Totilas was well represented at this week’s show, with two other offspring also competing: Eger and Hoff Kasselmann’s Tabledance 3 finished fourth in Friday night’s FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle with 75.34%, while Toronto Lightfoot, owned by Scott Durkin, won a competitive national grand prix under the USA’s Meagan Davis with 71.848%.
Heran, who finished third in Thursday’s qualifying grand prix, said, “This one is a little special as I’ve had Total Recall for a long time, since he was seven, so we’ve been on a journey together. We did a lot of national small tour in Australia. The goal was to do some U25s before I aged out, but with Covid we had no shows in Australia. We did our first CDI in Fritzens in Austria in 2022. At this show his attitude is what has stood out; he was really concentrated whereas he used to be a little silly, so that’s special.
“I really want the consistency now,” added the 28-year-old. “He develops every time I go in the ring. The work at home is incredibly solid—I can do it one handed and everything is super easy—so it’s just about getting him to see the atmosphere, the people and the show scene a bit more as an international horse. Toti is really cute, like a pet dog, in the stable. When it comes to riding, he’s very ‘on’ and knows he’s at a show.”
Heran has a string of other horses at Hof Kasselmann in Germany and will fly there on Monday to ride them before returning to Florida for more AGDF CDIs with Total Recall.
“I’ve been living in Germany the past three years and winter here,” added Heran, who gave up her career as a professional corporate and commercial lawyer to pursue riding full-time. “It’s great for the younger grand prix horses because you can go show to show; national or international, any weekend and they develop a lot here over the winter.”
Click for full results from the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix Special, sponsored by Donato Farms.
Click for full results from AGDF 3.
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