Dressage-News

BALVE, Germany, Sept. 20, 2020–Isabell Werth and her triple World Cup champion Weihegold OLD won the German Championship Grand Prix Freestyle Sunday with Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB taking silver and Dorothee Schneider on Faustus the bronze.

The 16th national championship title for Isabell and the second for the 15-year-old Oldenburg mare was won with a score of 90.825% from the all-German judging panel, slightly lower than the world’s No. 2 combination personal best of 90.982% posted at the 2017 European Championships.

Jessica and the 13-year-old Trakehner mare, ranked third in the world, were awarded 89.350% for silver, a day after capturing her first senior German championship gold medal with a victory in the Grand Prix Special.

Dorothee Schneider, riding Faustus in the first championship Freestyle for the 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding, scored 81.600% for bronze and the first result above 80% for a Grand Prix musical performances by the horse.

Ingrid Klimke, the double gold eventing Olympic team medalist, rode Franziskus to fourth place on 81.350%.

Benjamin Werndl, brother of Jessica, was forced to withdrew Daily Mirror after the rider broke his collarbone when he fell on a Segway during Saturday night entertainment. The pair placed fourth in the Special to qualify for the Freestyle.

These championships, with hundreds of spectators as restrictions on crowds at outdoor events eased in declining coronavirus cases, were the major dressage event of the year for Germany after cancellation of the World Cup Final in Las Vegas in April and delay of the Olympics by a year to next July.

The campaign by Isabell, the most decorated equestrian in Olympic history, to become the first rider and horse combination to win four straight World Cup titles was stymied for now by cancellation of the event.

Results:

Grand Prix Freestyle