Bella Rose to be Ridden by Isabell Werth at Fritzens, Austria in Return to Competition After 4-Year Break
6 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Bella Rose to be Ridden by Isabell Werth at Fritzens, Austria in Return to Competition After 4-Year Break
FRITZENS, Austria, June 28, 2018–Bella Rose, the mare that Isabell Werth rates as one of her all-time favorites, returns to the competition arena Friday after almost four year of efforts to restore her to full health.
Now 14 years old, the Westfalen mare (Belissimo x Cacir AA) will start at the 24th Manfred & Hilde Swarovski Memorial Show CDI4* Grand Prix Friday, the first competition since November, 2014 and three months after placing second in the Grand Prix to Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin on Valegro at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy.
In a Big Tour career of 18 months from May, 2013 to November, 2014, Isabell and Bella Rose, owned by Madeleine Winter-Schulze, logged 16 CDI starts for nine victories. The pair were ranked sixth in the world when they stopped competing. Efforts to find the cause of lameness took almost three years and then another year to restore Bella Rose to competition fitness.
There was no prior notice of the return of Bella Rose to competition, but mentions in news releases only of Emilio that Isabell is ranked No. 3 and Don Johnson FRH at No. 6. Isabell is also ranked No. 1 on Weihegold OLD on which she won the last two World Cup Finals, swept the 2017 European Championships and led Germany to team gold at the 2016 Olympics.
The Grand Prix for the Special starts at 13:15 CET (7:15 am US ET) with the ride by Isabell and Bella Rose scheduled for 13:47 (7:47 am US ET) and to be streamed by clipmyhorse.tv.
A total of 55 riders with 74 horses from 19 nations with 74 horses are in the lineup that is also a qualifier by the Australian team for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina Sept. 11-23.
