Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

PARIS, Aug. 3, 2024–Isabell Werth on Wendy, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB and Frederic Wandres on Bluetooth OLD won the 15th Olympic dressage team gold medal for Germany Saturday with a margin of a little over one-tenth of a point over Denmark that took silver with Great Britain bronze.

The competition came down to the final ride by Jessica and the 17-year-old Trakehner mare that won both team and individual gold at the Tokyo Games and will seek the individual gold again on Sunday with the Grand Prix Freestyle.

Denmark’s star rider Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour on Freestyle posted the highest score of the day of 81.216%–the only result above 80%–that kept the thousands of spectators in the arena overlooking historic Chateau de Versailles on the edge of their seats. They then watched Jessica and Dalera commit costly errors in the first piaffe of the medal-deciding Grand Prix Special and a too low neck in the walk that brought the final results to a razor’s edge.

“I didn’t want to make it this exciting,” Jessica said. “Dalera felt extremely good but there was this huge miscommunication with the piaffe. I just wish I hadn’t made it this exciting.”

The result gave Isabell Werth her eighth gold medal as well as five silver for a total of 13 medals in a group ranked fourth in more than a century of Olympic history.

“We did it! It was too exciting to be honest, and at the end the margin was so tiny!” said Jessica.

“That was a thriller today!”team mate Isabell said: “At the end I didn’t believe that we got it because it was so very close! Now nobody can ever say again that dressage is boring!”

Standings–1. Germany 235.790; 2. Denmark 235.669; 3. Great Britain 232.492; 4. Netherlands 221.048; 5. Belgium 215.714; 6. France 215.289; 7. Sweden 212.811; 8. Finland 212.036; 9. Austria 211.505 and 10. Australia 207.203.

Canada, Portugal, Spain and Poland did not qualify in the 10 teams to go to the final, while the United States was eliminated.

Individual results for all 30 combinations are available at https://results.equi-score.de/event/2024/27602/en/resultlist/15

Olympic novice Becky Moody on Jagerbomb got Britain off to a strong start by winning the first of three groups with a career best score of 76.489%.

Isabell took over Wendy from the suspended Andreas Helgstrand of Denmark early this year, established German dominance of team competition by taking the second group with 79.894%.

She has competed in seven Olympics stretching back to 1992 when she won team gold and individual silver on Gigolo, upped the result with double gold in 1996 then team gold and individual silver in 2000.

“It’s a very quick coming together of a new partnership, that’s true, when you sit on a horse and you feel that is your horse then it just clicks!” said the German, who has long been known as “The Queen” in her sport.

“This is a really perfect match between us and I think we both feel really confident and that makes it so easy. She’s so uncomplicated!

“She’s really tall when you stand next to her, she’s 1.85cms and everything is much easier on her, you can sit and just have fun! She’s everything in a perfect construction, and it’s wonderful to have her in time for the Olympics.”

Charlotte “Lottie” Fry of Britain on her World Championship partner Glamourdale was the first of the big three teams to post a score, 79.483%.

Next came Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, the Danish rider much- admired for her gently but effective riding who began competing Freestyle last year after the 15-year-old Hanoverian mare had been out of competition after being ridden by Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin whose record included team and individual bronze at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon in 2018.

Cathrine and Freestyle set the bar high with 81.216% and raised Denmark’s hopes of going France, Sweden and the Soviet Union each with two Olympic team golds and Britain with one as the only nations aside from Germany to achieve the feat.

Despite the costly errors that saw the score whipsaw from above 82% down to 78%, the result of 79.954% ended up by 0.121 of a point to capture gold.

Jessica said that the error was more than a hiccup.

“It was more than a hiccup! It was a misunderstanding in the transition to the passage that cost too many points for two movements that count double! But luckily we connected again and we brought it home.”

Denmark’s Daniel Bachmann Andersen said of his team: “We’ve known each other since we were small kids, and we’ve supported each other in each other’s career so far. We are the youngest team of all here and we came in as world champions. We’ve already done so much great together, but we have so much more to come ahead of us, and we are so hungry to do even more. We are very happy!”

The British have enjoyed a great run at these Games, taking team gold in both Eventing and Jumping and now bronze in team dressage. Like Isabell, Carl Hester is also competing at his seventh Olympic Games and reflecting on how the dressage team competition played out over the last few days, he said he knew it was going to be close-run affair for the medal placings.

“Looking at the scores all year you could see how everybody has been shifting around and you could see how Isabell has been improving, which she’s just proved now, and the Danes have been so very consistent and very strong. For me it’s great to see Becky Moody being the newest star to hit the Olympics, she has been amazing–so it’s all very exciting.”