Yvonne Losos de Muñiz: A Foot in Two Worlds

One Foot at Home

Yvonne spends almost half her time in Spain, training with Jean Bemelmans, the man who coached the Spanish team to its first ever dressage medals at the World Equestrian Games and Olympics. The time she spends at home in the Dominican Republic is dedicated largely to a group of aspiring young Dominican riders. “This medal means a lot to them too. They need to see that their hard work can pay off.” While she has been here in Brazil, a group of young riders that Yvonne and her husband Eduardo support is gaining some valuable experience training in Germany, at the renowned PSI facility. “They have an amazing jumping program there. I could come here to compete and send them off to the training program. It worked really well.”

FEI dressage chair Mariette Withages is confident in her plan to see the next Pan Am Games dressage competition move up to the Grand Prix Level. As a Domican, Yvonne agrees with the general opinion of Pan Am countries that holding the Pan Am Games at the Grand Prix level will not be good for her country. “As a team member for my country it’s obviously going to be very difficult – almost impossible – to field a team at Grand Prix. I think if the Pan Ams go to Grand Prix, we will have half the number of riders coming to compete.”