Aachen, Germany—July 2
As the crowd clapped her down the final centerline in her Grand Prix freestyle, the smile slowly started stretching across Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s face. When she did her final salute, the crowd erupted, and her face spread into a wide grin as she leaned down to hug and kiss her mare, TSF Dalera BB.
The score—a 90.82%—put her over Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald on Blue Hors Zepter (88.73%) and Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin on Imhotep (88.41%) in the CHIO Aachen Deutsche Bank Prize CDI5* freestyle, completing a clean sweep of Aachen five-star classes for von Bredow-Werndl and Germany.
But in the press conference after the class, von Bredow-Werndl’s smile was mixed with happy tears.
“I was very emotional, as one or another saw, because of this incredible mare,” she said, her voice breaking and eyes tearing. “She’s always—I’m getting emotional again—leaving her heart in there for me.”
Earlier this week von Bredow-Werndl topped the Prize of Family Tesch Grand Prix CDIO5*, and she led the German squad to gold in the Lambertz Nations’ Cup after she also topped Saturday’s MEGGLE-Prize Grand Prix Special.
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From the team of five judges today, von Bredow-Werndl and “Dalera” earned 22 marks of 10. The pair hasn’t been beaten in a CDI test since 2021, and they most recently won the FEI Dressage World Cup Final in Omaha, Nebraska.
“I’m giving myself such pressure to perform, and she is just listening,” said von Bredow-Werndl of Dalera. “Yesterday we had these big mistakes because I just took wrong decisions, and today luckily I didn’t take any wrong decisions, so it was wonderful. She is just listening, and this is what makes me so emotional.”
No U.S. riders qualified for today’s freestyle, which was for the Top 15 from the previous days of competition.
Watch their winning freestyle, courtesy of FEI.tv:
See full results from the class here.
Important Links: CHIO Aachen website / Orders of go and results / Livestreaming / All of the Chronicle’s coverage / Full entry lists for all nations
