Dressage-News

MANNHEIM, Germany, April 28, 2021–Isabell Werth returned Bella Rose to competition for the first time in 19 months to win the CDI4* Grand Prix Wednesday.

The winning score of 79.957% for Isabell and the 17-year-old Westfalen mare, No. 1 in the world, included six marks of 10 with two of five judges awarding totals above 80%. Mistakes in the one-tempi changes were expensive.

German team mate Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on Zaire-E were second on 77.369% and compatriot Matthias Alexander Rath on Foundation logged a personal best 72.978% for third.

Susan Pape of Great Britain on Harmony’s Eclectisch was fourth on a personal best 72.956%. Before this show, Susan and the 12-year-old KWPN stallion she owns with Harmony Sporthorses of Kiowa, Colorado had competed in CDIs in the past four years only at the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida.

The Maimarket-Turnier was only the second major show in Germany in 2021 after Hagen’s Horses & Dreams a week ago, in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic and following a two-month lockdown to deal with an outbreak of equine herpes virus. The Olympics, put off by a year, are now less than three months away in Tokyo.

With the victory Wednesday, Isabell, with more Olympic medals than any equestrian in history, and Bella Rose have an unbeaten string of 21 Big Tour victories stretching back to 2014. The string began just months after the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy but the mare was then out of competition for 3 1/2 years with a persistent injury. The pair returned in 2018 in time to lead Germany to team gold and also collect two individual golds at the World Games in Tryon in 2018. The pair recorded the same success at the European Championships in August, 2019 that was their last competition before this event.

Results:

CDI4* Grand Prix for Special