Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

OMAHA, Nebraska, April 7, 2023–Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on her “soul mate” TSF Dalera BB captured the World Cup Final in Omaha Friday night by winning the Grand Prix Freestyle to defend the title the German pair won in 2022. Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald on Blue Hors Zepter claimed silver with a personal best score. Isabell Werth, who won the title in Omaha in 2017, was third this year on DSP Quantaz.

The individual championship decided by the Freestyle was one of the most exciting in the history of the Finals, with the crowd in this Midwestern American city vibrant and involved.

Jessica and the 16-year-old Trakehner mare scored 90.482% for the victory adding to the title won last year as well as Olympic and European Championship gold.

“It’s always a challenge to do it (win the title) again, to be honest, to be in the here and now and have everything together, and again it worked out. I’m so grateful to be allowed to ride such an incredible mare. This mare is something very special, 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 and grateful.

“It’s something very special to spend time with her. I also enjoyed every minute here to have so much time with her–that’s why I didn’t do the sightseeing. I was more spending time with her, because this is something she really appreciates, as I did in Tokyo.

“It sounds a little bit strange, but it feels like we’re soulmates. It’s a very special partnership, and I’m so grateful every time I am allowed to compete her, but I enjoy as much as competing and even more just cantering through the forest with her. It’s just so good to spend time with her.”

Nanna and the 15-year-old Oldenburg gelding were awarded a personal best 87.146% in what was only the third event for the partnership since the 29-year-old rider began riding the horse four months ago.

Despite the newness of the partnership, Nanna said, “I still feel like there’s so many buttons that I still have to find, because he really has unlimited potential.

“There’s still a lot more, and I think with the time you keep on improving. I think you can never think, ‘Oh, now I’m done.’ You can keep improving all the time. A year or two would be great, but I will take it slowly.”

The World Cup Final was the biggest thing that I have done so far,” the 29-year-old rider said. “It’s very special being second here between these two amazing riders. I’m really, really happy and honored to be here.”

Isabell , who has won five World Cup titles including in the inaugural Final in Omaha in 2017 that was the first of three straight on Weihegold, rode the 13-year-old German Sport Horse gelding Quantaz to a result of 85.761%.

Quantaz, she said, did a super job–“I think it was really his best freestyle so far. It worked very well with the music and everything, and I really enjoyed my ride and the crowd. They were really with the music, and I think they enjoyed it also, so it was very fun. he music really inspires me, and I think it also inspired the crowd, and so it was just fun.”

She heaped praise on the event.

“I was here in 2017, and that was really a great show already, and here after this, I think for all of us, a difficult time to come back after the Corona time, and to see that there was so many people working for this event and making this workable. That was for sure not easy, and I think I have one woman next to me (Betsy Juliano, the presenting sponsor forher Havensafe Farm) who is really supporting the sport here in the States and also this show. So I think it was hard work.

“Even though it was really great to feel this evening that spectators were carrying the show and the riders and the horses, so it was really great to see and to feel this.

Steffen Peters, at 58 the oldest rider among 13 whose musical performance on Suppenkasper, a 15-year-old KWPN gelding that he rode on the U.S. silver medal teams at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2018 World Equestrian Games, also posted a personal best of 83.921%.

Steffen said he tried to step up the performance from the ride in Tokyo.

“That was difficult to do,” he said. “It’s almost like writing a sequel to a really good movie. How do you actually step it up? Because you can over do it and it sounds ridiculous. So we just tweaked it a little bit at the end, did some lyrical twists, and I came up with the idea, but my friend Jerry Gallo actually recorded the final lyrics. It worked out great.

“I mean, what an amazing party it was. From start to finish, and hearing the crowd at the end getting ready to applaud already during the last extension was a wonderful feeling. I think the crowd liked it, Mopsie liked it, and I loved it.”

The victory by Jessica brought the total number of World Cup titles for Germany to 13 since the first Final in 1986, to match the same number won by the Netherlands–nine of them by Anky van Grunsven.

Results:

World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle

Judges-K: Katrina Wüst (GER) E: Leif Törnblad (DEN) H: Jean-Michel Roudier (FRA) C: Janet Lee Foy (USA) M: Maarten van der Heijden (NED) B: Magnus Ringmark (SWE) F: Stephen Clarke (GBR)