Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic individual gold medalist, perhaps had her eye on the 2024 Paris Olympics when she won the 2023 FEI World Cup Dressage Final in Omaha, Nebraska, with a French-themed freestyle. Her mount, the 2007 Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB, passaged airily around the arena as legendary chanteuse Edith Piaf warbled, “Non, je ne regrette rien” (No, I regret nothing).
Not surprisingly, von Bredow-Werndl’s freestyle wasn’t the only performance to incorporate French music in today’s individual dressage medal final, the Grand Prix Freestyle. But it soared above the field of 18. “Dalera”—looking more buoyant and balanced than she did just 24 hours ago, when her not-quite-foot-perfect performance was still good enough to clinch the team gold medal for Germany—and her rider both appeared to relax, enjoy and float around the stadium surrounded by dazzling views of the Château de Versailles. Their score of 90.093% won the pair their second consecutive individual Olympic medal—and both their technical score (82.357%) and their artistic score (97.829%) were the day’s highest.
Hot on their heels was von Bredow-Werndl’s teammate Isabell Werth on Wendy, who took the individual silver medal on 89.614%. She performed a crowd-pleasing freestyle to pop tunes including the Suzi Quatro hit “Stumblin’ In.” Werth even had the chorus to the Barry Manilow hit “Mandy” rerecorded, substituting (what else?) the name Wendy. The German living legend always seems to relish riding her freestyles, even singing aloud to the refrains.
Wendy, a 2014 Danish Warmblood mare, is an incredible talent at just 10 years of age. Werth has a well-honed gift for discovering horses who find even the most difficult Grand Prix exercises child’s play. It will be exciting indeed to see how Wendy develops. She’s incredible now, but when she gains additional strength, she promises to be phenomenal.
Great Britain’s Fry Overwhelmed by Fan Support
Finishing on 88.971% for the individual bronze was Charlotte Fry of Great Britain on the 2011 KWPN stallion Glamourdale. Fresh off yesterday’s team bronze-medal win, Fry and Glamourdale reprised their “Best of Britain” freestyle that took the world by storm at the 2022 World Championships. It was still the rock and pop soundtrack that audiences love—complete with passage entry to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”—but with a few bars of “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem, added as a nod to the Paris Games.
“The support from the public today was incredible,” Fry said. “I never experienced anything quite like that.”
Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and 2009 Hanoverian mare Freestyle were considered strong medal contenders. They put in a solid test with a few small miscommunications that dropped them out of the running. They finished fifth on 88.093%.
Dutch pair Dinja van Liere and Hermes, who seem to save their best work for the freestyle, showed off the 2012 KWPN stallion’s power and talent for the collected work to finish fourth on 88.432%. Hermes struts around the ring and van Liere has game, which they highlighted in the choice of music, notably the earworm of the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” (“Tell me what you want, what you really really want…”).
Once-in-a-Lifetime Experience
Beyond obvious joy in their achievements, the three medalists agreed that getting to ride in an Olympic competition in such an iconic setting was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get to ride in such an arena again,” von Bredow-Werndl said. “This is the most incredible dance floor in the world, probably. I am overwhelmed and extremely grateful to have been able to perform here.”
In Werth’s long career, the only setting and competition that comes close to matching the Paris Games was her experience at the CHIO Aachen (Germany) in 2006, when she won the Grand Prix Freestyle with Satchmo, she noted.
“I’m so happy and proud for our sport. And I think it’s really, really necessary to have this atmosphere today,” Werth said. “It was the right time and the right competition.”
Dalera Bids Bittersweet Adieu to Olympic Competition in Paris
Glamourdale and Wendy are relatively young, but von Bredow-Werndl knows the clock is winding down on 17-year-old Dalera’s career. She said she hopes to do a few shows next year as something of a farewell tour for the mare. But which ones, she doesn’t yet know. After that, von Bredow-Werndl plans to transition her beloved mare into retirement and, with luck, welcome a foal in 2026.
This, of course, means that Paris was Dalera’s final Olympic Games. She leaves the unforgettable world stage of the Versailles palace grounds having cemented her legacy as the world’s greatest dressage horse of the current era. And von Bredow-Werndl—who admitted that it will be difficult to find another horse like Dalera—regrets nothing.
