Jessica von Bredow-Werndl Nails Sensational Back-To-Back FEI World Cup™ Final Titles With More Than 90%
April 7, 2023 - Omaha, NE
Photo by Alison Hartwell Photography
Photo by Alison Hartwell Photography
Photo by Alison Hartwell Photography
Photo by Alison Hartwell Photography
Photo by Alison Hartwell Photography
In a class that thrilled to the very last, Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl hoisted aloft the winner’s trophy at the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final presented by Havensafe Farm for the second consecutive year. She set a score of 90.482% on the 16-year-old Easy Game daughter TSF Dalera BB, going third from last in the field of 13 starters, which proved impossible to emulate. The combined FEI World Cup™ Finals 2023 of Dressage, Jumping, and Vaulting — which run through April 8 — are taking place at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, NB.
It was last-to-go, Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald, who got closest to von Bredow-Werndl with a career-high score of 87.146% with Blue Hors Zepter. The six-time German Olympian and five-time FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final champion Isabell Werth brought an exceptionally high degree of difficulty in her test on Madeleine Winter-Schulze and Victoria Max-Theurer’s DSP Quantaz. Their 85.761% earned them third place in Werth’s 24th FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final appearance.
Von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB, who was bred by Silke Druckenmüller, produced a spellbinding performance in the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final - Grand Prix Freestyle to Music presented by Havensafe Farm. Their test was rewarded with a jaw-dropping 55 individual marks of 10. Her Edith Piaf French music score belied her focus on the 2024 Paris Olympics, and all seven judges gave it a 10. The 37-year-old von Bredow-Werndl put on a masterclass of power and harmony, showing uphill, balanced piaffe on the spot, easy gear changes and small, uphill pirouettes — all seemingly without the rider moving a muscle.
“Right from the start when I lifted my hand, I knew she was 100% there with me,” said an elated von Bredow-Werndl, who admitted to getting goosebumps on the centerline. “She was excited but still she trusts me, and I felt that from the very first step. I’m so grateful to be allowed to ride such an incredible mare. She is something very special — it’s not normal — because she always throws her heart in the arena for me and really wants to give 200%, and she did it again today. I could not be more proud.”
The pair are now Olympic, European, and World Cup™ champions, with just the World Champion title eluding them, because von Bredow-Werndl was busy having a baby during the 2022 Herning World Championships.
Von Bredow-Werndl runs Aubenhausen in Ostermünchen, Germany, with her brother Benjamin Werndl. She has been riding Dalera for owner Béatrice Buerchler-Keller for eight years, and over that time they have forged a steadfast bond. They have now logged 23 victories in a row. Things were not always such plain sailing though.
“It was not from the very first second that I got this bond, but the more time we spent together, the closer it got. It took us one-and-a-half years to get the tempi changes, but I already felt her huge talent for piaffe and passage,” she said. “I enjoyed every minute here in Omaha to have so much time with her — that’s why I didn’t do sightseeing. I was more spending time with her because this is something she really appreciates.
“It sounds a bit strange, but it feels like we’re soulmates. It’s a very special partnership, and I’m so grateful every time I’m allowed to compete her, but I enjoy just cantering through the forest as much as doing piaffe with her,” added von Bredow-Werndl, who somehow also found time to become a published author — of a book called Heaven on Horseback: Learning Life’s Lessons From my Wonderful Horses — over the pandemic. “It’s really like a dream I’m living with Dalera. She’s just such a special creature.”
From final draw, Skodborg Merrald stamped her intent on her test with the 15-year-old Blue Hors Zepter, a son of Blue Hors Zack, which she rode to team gold at the 2022 FEI World Championships. This was just the 29-year-old rider’s third show on Zepter — who was bred by Bernhard Sieverding — and she only took over the ride four months ago. Zepter was formerly campaigned by Daniel Bachmann Andersen and by Patrik Kittel, with whom he was eighth at last year’s FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final.
The bobbles from Skodborg Merrald and Zepter’s Grand Prix were ironed out in their freestyle and the test brimmed with power and harmony, gaining 87.146% — and five 10s for their music from Edgar Gutiérrez and his Spanish company Dressage & Music — to leapfrog Werth.
“I still feel like there’s so many buttons that I still have to find, because he really has unlimited potential,” said the 29-year-old rider for Blue Hors Stud. “He felt quite hot in the warm up, so I had a lot to think about – trying to manage all his power. There’s still a lot more, and I think with the time you keep on improving. Four months is not a long time.
“My music has a lot of power, like Zepter, but also I like that it has quiet moments where you can breathe and then the power comes back again,” added Skodborg Merrald, who rated her experience in Omaha as a career high. “It’s very special being second here between these two amazing riders. I’m really happy and honored to be here, and the arena is amazing to ride in [with] super atmosphere and nice crowd.”
Werth always knows how to whip up a crowd and bring her A-game in a freestyle. She included complex and technical combinations in her test on DSP Quantaz, a 13-year-old Quaterback x Hohenstein gelding bred by Kathrin Damm. They performed 22 one-time changes on a curve as well as walk into a piaffe pirouette straight into a double canter pirouette. She even found time to look up and smile at the audience’s appreciation of her incredible showmanship as the strains of Bonnie Tyler rang out.
“I’m very, very happy with Quantaz,” said Werth, who was the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final champion in 2017 on Weihegold OLD, the only other time the Finals have been held in Omaha. “He did a super job, and I think it was really his best freestyle so far. The music really inspires me, and I think it also inspired the crowd, and so it was just fun.”
Of the crowd clapping her down the final centerline, the 53-year-old added, “I could feel that the crowd wanted to clap. Then at the end, it was a great feeling, and I really have the feeling that Quantaz also enjoyed it, because he is really cool and in the rhythm.”
“A party from the beginning to the end” is how Steffen Peters described his test on his Tokyo Olympic team silver medal ride, Suppenkasper. Their 83.921% marks a new career high score for the pair, who performed to their TikTok-famous “Rave Horse” compilation, much to the crowd’s vocal delight. Suppenkasper, aka “Mopsie,” was bred in the Netherlands by Frans van der Poel and is now owned by Akiko Yamazaki and Four Winds Farm. Peters and the gelding by Spielberg slotted into fourth and were, just as in the Grand Prix, the highest-placed U.S. combination.
“It worked out great from start to finish, and hearing the crowd at the end getting ready to applaud already during the last extension was a wonderful feeling,” said Peters, who at 58 was the oldest dressage rider in the field. “I think the crowd liked it, Mopsie liked it, and I loved it.
“He’s 15 years old, and I still have not pushed him once for a single trot or canter extension. It’s always a little bit less [than full power]. And that’s how he warmed up today, but even in the warm up he felt absolutely fantastic. It was probably one of the best rides I’ve had with him.”
Judge at C Janet Foy, President of the Ground Jury, praised the quality of the competition, saying, “We had four absolutely top, super, fabulous music performances; 10s for everything, 10s on the choreography — there were a lot of tens. It was a super night for us, and we really appreciate the wonderful performances the riders gave.”
Betsy Juliano, who sponsored the class via her Havensafe Farm, added, “I’m honored to be associated with this. I felt that it was very important for this United States-based event to have a United States sponsor, and I’m proud to be that sponsor. It should not be underestimated the inspiration and the fantastic enlightenment that everybody in this crowd saw with these riders over the last two days of competition. It’s really important to our sport in the world, in the United States, and this region.”
Text by Alice Collins
