By Britney Grover
Portraits by Melissa Fuller
Kevin Kohmann’s career with horses began not with something he wanted to do, but with something he didn’t. “My mother always had horses; she still breeds dressage horses today,” Kevin said. “Originally, I resented them.”
His mother had a few horses down the street from where Kevin grew up near Lübeck, Germany, on the Baltic Sea. Kevin’s younger brother had just been born, and it was Kevin’s responsibility to watch him when their mother went to the barn. “At some point I said, ‘Mom, can’t I just come to the barn and look at the pony?’ I didn’t want to watch my brother at home,” Kevin said.
At the time, Kevin was “that age where girls became interesting.” “I realized when you have a pony, you become interesting to the girls,” he said. “When I went to the barn and got on the pony when my mom led him from the field back into the barn, all the girls saw me from school and they started making fun of me, saying, ‘Kevin can’t even ride!’ So I lied to them and said, yes, of course I can ride. Then I said, Mom, you need to teach me really fast how to ride.”
Learning the posting trot through the forest alongside his mom soon led to Kevin being recruited for the barn’s Christmas quadrille—which he performed well despite being terrified by the girls he rode with, who threatened him if he made any mistakes—and then to his first horse show just a couple of months later. “I won my first competition, and that was the first time in my life that I was naturally good at something,” Kevin shared. “I had done soccer before, I’d done karate before, I’d done ice hockey before, all the ‘more manly’ sports—I really sucked at all of them. But as soon as I started riding, it came very naturally to me.”
By pursuing his newfound talent, Kevin has become a rider to watch on the international dressage stage. He’s represented his home country of Germany in multiple Nations Cups and now rides for the U.S., including at the 2024 World Cup Finals Grand Prix in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With a win in both the Grand Prix and freestyle at last September’s Dressage at Devon, Kevin is well on his way back to the World Cup Finals in Basel, Switzerland, 2025.
Growing Quickly
After outgrowing his first barn, which did both jumping and dressage, Kevin found himself riding through the forest to a dressage barn several miles away—cantering to avoid the rain and rushing back after his first lesson since he had no flashlight. Ingeborg Gallow was a prominent pony trainer and told Kevin that if he rode with her, he would be North German Pony Champion the first year. That’s exactly what happened: Ingeborg is still a good friend of Kevin’s, and Kevin won the championship at 14, just before aging out of ponies.
In Germany, after nine years of primary school, students can either choose to continue school or go into certain jobs that don’t require further schooling—including becoming a professional rider. At 15, Kevin was technically too young to go and start work. “But my soon-to-become boss was a legend—a Rittmeister, the title for riding master, who won German championships in jumping, eventing and dressage. His name was Dieter Bruhn, and he was 76 years old—like one of the last dinosaurs,” Kevin said. “They gave me and him special permission so that I could start riding with him right after I turned 15.”
Shortly after turning 15, Kevin moved 45 minutes away from home to live on Dieter’s property and to study and work for the next three years. “After three years, you get something like your bachelor’s degree—it’s called your Bereiters, your professional rider certificate,” Kevin said. “I passed the Bereiters exam at 18, which made me the youngest professional rider ever in German history, because it’s just not possible without that special permission to start early.”
And the accelerated career path didn’t slow there. By the time he passed the Bereiters exam, Kevin had already started working in the United States. He spent four years traveling back and forth between New Jersey and Florida. Then, in 2012, Kevin was introduced to Oded Shimoni, who became a lifetime friend and mentor. Oded sponsored Kevin’s work visa, allowing Kevin to train and compete in the United States under Oded’s tutelage until Kevin was ready to begin his own business.
Later in 2012, Kevin returned to Germany to take the Pferdewirtschaftsmeister exam—the “master’s degree” of horse management, with written and performance tests in various disciplines and horse care. Passing made him, once again, the youngest to do so in German history. Receiving a higher score in jumping than dressage didn’t stop Kevin from pursuing dressage when he returned to the U.S. In 2014, Kevin launched his own business out of Diamente Farms, owned by the Kane Family.
Kevin met Devon Kane when Devon, a young Grand Prix dressage rider, had a difficult horse. “A mutual friend of ours said, ‘You know what, Devon, there’s this 6-foot-tall German guy that can ride difficult horses.’ That was basically my niche when I first came to Wellington, because when you come from Germany and you’re tall and strong, everybody wants you to ride their difficult horses,” Kevin said. “So I did all the cowboy stuff.”
Kevin began riding Devon’s horse—“With a helmet, not because I was scared of falling off but because I was scared of hitting my head on the ceiling. He was insane!” Kevin remembered. Devon returned from Germany where she was training with Hubertus Schmidt and finishing her first CDI Grand Prix horse, and to keep the horse developing, Devon trusted and turned to Kevin for help. “Still the most successful time of her career, while I was teaching her,” Kevin teased. “No, but that was how our business relationship started.” At the time, they had no idea their relationship would ever be anything else.
Diamante, Devon & Dual Citizenship
Running his business from Diamante meant Kevin and Devon began spending a lot of time together. “Kevin and I were best friends and worked together when circumstances in our lives pushed us into a deeper relationship,” Devon said. “It was very natural—the difficult part was deciding the boundaries of our professional relationship, because we both have very high standards for one another and want the best for the other person professionally. I think now we have a really good system and rules for ourselves about how and when we help each other: We don’t train one another or help every day, and when we ask each other for help we’re grateful. One of my favorite rules is the person on the ground has the right to tell the rider to shut up when coaching!”
Kevin and Devon’s system has worked well for them both personally and professionally. Kevin realized that working with difficult horses wasn’t what he wanted to do with the rest of his life: He wanted to ride Grand Prix. “So I had to change that niche, which took a while—once people give you difficult horses, everybody just gives you more difficult horses,” Kevin said. “But riding Grand Prix was always my dream, and we worked very hard toward it. I’m a believer that when you work towards a dream and you don’t give up, it happens—and right now that’s what’s happening.”
“Kevin is one of the most naturally gifted riders I have ever known,” Devon said. “He’s extremely talented and connects with the horses; he’s strong but is able to ride softly; he loves the horses and is a true horseman.”
One of Kevin’s greatest connections was with Five Star, a stallion he rode for several seasons beginning in 2020. The pair did very well in Small Tour competitions, and in March 2021, they rode in the Nations Cup for Germany alongside Kevin’s good friends Michael Klimke, Frederic Wandres and Christoph Koschel. “The day of the jog, I said to Michael, ‘Do me a favor, can you please jog Five Star for me? I have to go somewhere.’ He said sure, and I went to take my American citizenship test,” Kevin recalled.
He passed the test—after the administrator, who happened to be from a town about 15 minutes from Kevin’s hometown, had so much in common she nearly forgot to ask the questions—and returned to the show. “I told Michael, ‘Thank you so much for jogging my horse, and I just want to let you guys know, I’m also American now.’ Then we competed in the Nations Cup and won, the first time that Germany won here in the United States and the last time I competed for Germany.”
Because Kevin was competing Small Tour, he continued his winning streak with Five Star immediately under the U.S. flag. “I went from the German National Anthem, to my last German National Anthem—that made me cry—to my first American National Anthem, and that basically made me cry even more because I am very proud to be an American,” he said. “I took it very seriously; I had to work much harder to be an American than born Americans, and I’m proud of that.”
Opening Doors With Dünensee
In 2022, Diamante relocated to 20 acres in Wellington’s Little Ranches, having outgrown their previous property. The new property has a 34-stall barn complete with full locker room, massage and body treatment room, eight-horse walker, huge paddocks and turnout, cushioned stalls and individual fans for each horse, and an outdoor hacking space with hill and pond. As if that weren’t enough, the farm boasts a two-story covered arena with a projector on one side as well as a miniature golf course and various other dreamy features. It’s easier for Kevin to list the horses that aren’t quite to Grand Prix movements than the ones that are; he is living his dream of riding Grand Prix nearly all day, every day.
Kevin’s current top mount and World Cup Finals partner is Dünensee—Denzel, at the barn. “We got him when he was 4 to be Devon’s horse—she wanted to have him for herself, but he just didn’t stop growing,” Kevin said. “We actually tried to sell him for many years, here and in Europe. Ivan Sanchez rode him at Hubert Schmidt’s and did a great job training him, but they couldn’t sell him either.”
Kevin and Devon then sent Denzel to Christoph Kossel, who rode him in the Nations Cup for Germany the year after Kevin was on the team. “I still got to stand in a German corner with a German flag, because Christoph showed our horse—I thought Germany winning the Nations Cup had something to do with me, but apparently they just keep winning! We’re going to change that this year, by the way,” Kevin said. “But after eight years of trying to sell Denzel, we decided to keep him.”
After much urging from both Christoph and Devon, Kevin reluctantly agreed to ride Denzel himself. “I had a hard time with him at the beginning, to be honest; thankfully, Christoph gave me ‘the manual.’ Two and a half months later, I rode my first CDI Grand Prix with him,” Kevin said.
They qualified for the Nations Cups in Europe and were honored to fly first to Rotterdam representing the U.S.—which they did as the highest-placing American team. From there, they embarked on their first European tour, including Germany, Holland, France and Switzerland—where Kevin proposed to Devon on Lake Geneva. “There aren’t many people that you can spend so much time with every day and still like—normally you get annoyed with other people very fast. And I love her,” Kevin summarized.
Devon and Kevin were married in December 2023, less than a week before Kevin and Denzel won the World Cup Grand Prix at Ocala. They won two more qualifiers before traveling to the World Cup Finals in Riyadh. “The horse that nobody wanted to buy, he opened that door for me,” Kevin said.
What’s Next
Kevin’s goals are to now develop some of his other horses in national and CDI Grand Prix, and to pursue a return to the World Cup Finals with Denzel—a goal already underway, after winning both the CDI-W FEI Grand Prix and Freestyle at Dressage at Devon in September. “We’re getting better and better—he’s never given me a limit,” Kevin said. “We’ve gone through a few stages in our relationship: It started with, ‘Please, please just help me,’ and I think he was thinking the same thing! We started getting better, and then had a little booboo and he got scared: You have to support your best friend, the horse, and figure out how to work through that. But now we have, and I’m thrilled to start this next show season.”
At the Devon Horse Show, like several other shows, Kevin and Devon rode in the same classes—competing with and supporting one another with equal enthusiasm. “We’re very competitive, and we talk smack to each other constantly,” Devon shared. “We make it clear we know who wins over the other, but we always want each other to do their best. The weekend before the Devon Horse Show, I beat Kevin on Denzel in Ocala; though Kev dislikes losing, he was the first to congratulate me and was the most proud of my performance. But everything we do is a competition: When we get to a hotel with a long hallway, we drop the bags and race!”
Back home, while Diamante is kept running smoothly by Grand Prix trainer Katie Riley, Kevin enjoys cars, sport shooting, music, cooking and playing Playstation with friend, fellow rider and Paris Olympian Marcus Orlob, as well as spending time with his and Devon’s dogs—all named after cars. “We have our rescue Doberman, Shelby, and Devon just got two little fluffy dogs—one looks like a toilet brush, the other one is adorable—Enzo, like Enzo Ferrari, and Isetta, after the adorable little BMW one-door car,” Kevin said.
But for both Kevin and Devon, it all comes back to the horses. “It’s incredible to have a partner so deep in the game with your very best interest at heart, who’s able to help you make decisions and give advice. I don’t think Kevin would have taken the ride on Denzel without my urging, maybe demanding it,” Devon laughed. “I’ve pushed him hard, and he has pushed me; I am his number-one fan, and he is mine. Our crazy life is not normal—I can’t imagine doing it at our level without the support we have for each other.”
“I think Devon and I both look at it the same way: We’re both very lucky that we can turn our hobby into our job. So riding is my hobby, and the next hobby is driving back and forth to the barn in the car that I love. Then when I feel like being outside a little bit longer, I like to shoot my guns, and if I don’t want to be outside, I’ll go online and game with Marcus—or if I’m sick and tired of Marcus, I watch a movie with Devon and drink beer!” Kevin said. “It’s a good life—a very good life. From that to traveling the world, it’s all thanks to the horses.”
For more information, visit diamantefarms.com and Diamante Farms Dressage on Facebook, or follow Kevin on Instagram @kkohmann
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com
