Jessica von Bredow-Werndl didn’t set any Olympic records today the way she did three years ago at the 2021 Tokyo Games, but the anchor for the German dressage team and the last to go in the 30-rider Grand Prix Special field delivered a score good enough to clinch—by a mere 0.121 point—the team gold medal for Germany at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Aboard her partner for Tokyo and numerous other championships, the 2007 Trakehner mare TSF Dalera BB, von Bredow-Werndl had a few bobbles, including slight difficulty getting into one piaffe; but “Dalera’s” balance, ease, and harmony were still so good in the eyes of the judges that the pair earned a score of 79.954%. Hers was the high score of the German team, with Isabell Werth on the 2014 Danish Warmblood mare Wendy earning 79.894% and Frederic Wandres on the 2010 Oldenburg gelding Bluetooth OLD earning 75.942%. The Germans finished on a total score of 235.790.
History Made for Werth
The team gold medal made Werth Germany’s most decorated Olympic athlete, with eight golds and 13 total medals. She’ll also go down in history as the first athlete to win medals at seven Olympic Games, beginning with a team gold in her Olympic debut at Barcelona 1992.
Werth enthused about her latest superstar, calling Wendy “a little bit like Gigolo [her 1992 and 1996 Olympic mount]. He was also really an athlete, and always there and performing and performing.” Werth also sees some similarities between Wendy and more recent mounts (both mares) Weihegold OLD and Bella Rose—the power and relaxation of “Weihe” and the power and superb piaffe-passage of “Bella”—but said Wendy “has the best from both.”
Impressive Score for Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle
The high scorer of the day was Danish champion Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour on the mare Freestyle, first made famous by Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin for winning team and individual bronze at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, North Carolina. The 2009 Hanoverian mare, already a promising talent in 2018, has made tremendous gains in strength in the past six years. Under Laudrup-Dufour, Freestyle showed seemingly effortless balance, making it look easy as she flowed from movement to movement. You could have almost put a metronome to Freestyle’s piaffe-passage tour, the tempo was so consistent. Her efforts earned a score of 81.216%—the only competitor to break the 80% mark.
“I’m so proud of my horse and just what we did today,” Laudrup-Dufour said afterward. “When she picked up the first piaffe, I just said, ‘Wow, that was wonderful.'” She described the feeling of riding her Grand Prix Special test as “just dancing and see whatever she offered me.”
Their partnership is a new one; the Dane took over the ride on Freestyle only last October. Laudrup-Dufour described the process as less training-oriented and more to do with creating a bond: “It’s been a matter of creating a good friendship and really getting to know her inside out, not as an athlete but as a horse,” she said afterward. “So I’m really proud that she let me in there and that she wanted it.”
Standing on the silver-medal podium along with Laudrup-Dufour were Nanna Skodborg Merrald on the 2008 Oldenburg gelding Zepter (78.480%) and Daniel Bachmann Andersen on the 2011 Westfalen stallion Vayron (75.973%). The Danes finished on a team total of 235.669.
Great Britain Secures Bronze
The team bronze medal went to Great Britain on a team total of 232.492. It was an even more remarkable accomplishment given the upheaval of the past couple of weeks, when presumed team anchor Charlotte Dujardin on Imhotep were dropped from Team GB following her suspension when a video of her whipping a horse came to light. Reserve rider Becky Moody on the 2014 KWPN gelding Jagerbomb—for whom the Olympic Games were her very first international championships—rose to the occasion and then some. She impressed both her teammates and the judges with polished performances and earning a Grand Prix Special score of 76.489%.
British team veteran Carl Hester, who earned a score of 76.520% aboard the 2010 KWPN stallion Fame, called Moody and her performance “amazing. To be given your first championships as the Olympics, you know Becky substituted a week before, and normally she should have been eased into it gently by watching the sport, riding and training here. But my goodness, what she delivered in there. That’s one of the best performances in this combination that we’ve seen this year.”
The high scorer for Team GB was the darling of the 2022 FEI Dressage World Championships, Charlotte Fry, riding the swaggering 2011 black KWPN stallion Glamourdale. All hunky muscle and macho good looks, Glamourdale earned a score of 79.483%.
There was no Team USA in today’s competition. The current Olympic dressage format of three-member teams means that there are no drop scores. When Marcus Orlob and Jane were eliminated during the Grand Prix when a small cut on Jane’s leg began bleeding during their test, there were no longer enough U.S. pairs to field a team.
Dressage Concludes Sunday
The dressage competition at Paris 2024 concludes tomorrow with the highly anticipated individual medal final, the Grand Prix Freestyle. The top 18 individual finishers from the Grand Prix earlier this week will contest the individual final. At the post-team-medal press conference, several of the competitors hinted at exciting freestyles to come. Carl Hester said with a laugh that he “finally” has new music, and Charlotte Fry said she’s taken her now-iconic “Best of Britain” music from Herning 2022 and “added a French twang.” Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour plans a French-influenced soundtrack, as well, featuring the likes of chanteuse Celine Dion. It all gets under way at 10:00 a.m. Paris time on the sumptuous Versailles grounds.
