Dressage-News

Oct. 1, 2020

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

Isabell Werth has extended her dominance of dressage with four of her seven Grand Prix horses in the top 13 in the latest world rankings released Thursday by the International Equestrian Federation.

The 50-year-old Isabell who has held the No. 1 spot with either Bella Rose or Weihegold OLD for all but two of the past 46 months has never before had so many combinations ranked as high, according to a review by dressage-news.com of the records since standings were determined by rider/horse combinations in 2006.

DSP Quantaz that Isabell began competing at Big Tour in May 2019 and has nine straight victories jumped to No. 13 in the latest rankings, up from 25th at the end of August mostly based on results since easing of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions in the past four months. Those restrictions also froze the length of time in which the top eight scores for rankings can count from March 2019 instead of the previous 12 months, similar to ranking procedures adopted in other sports such as tennis and golf.

The most decorated equestrian in the history of the Olympics has reigning world champion Bella Rose at No. 1, Olympic team gold and three-time World Cup champion Weihegold OLD at No. 2, Emilio at No. 7–all unchanged from the previous month–DSP Quantaz 13th, Don Johnson 25th, Den Hagg 632 and and Quintus 634.

Victoria Max-Theurer, the Austrian four-time Olympian and owner of Quantaz, recorded one of the biggest jumps in the rankings on Abegglen FH NRW to move to No. 31 from 138th at the end of August.

Great Britain’s Laura Tomlinson, 2012 Olympic team gold medalist, climbed to 74th on DSP Rose of Bavaria from 259th the previous month, while stable mate Lara Butler on Kristjan moved up to 90th from 122nd, boosted by results at the Hagen, Germany Horses & Dreams a week ago.

The complete rankings are available here.