Golden hat-trick to unbeatable Von Bredow-Werndl

German rider Jessica von Bredow-Werndl was filled with emotion after achieving her third gold medal of the week, topping the Freestyle at the FEI Dressage European Championship 2021 in Hagen, Germany. 

The dressage rider is not only World’s number 1 but also won the team and individual gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and has won the team and Grand Prix Special earlier on this week at the FEI Dressage European Championship. 

“It’s like a fairytale, the ride today was the best I ever felt! It may not have been the highest points ever, but for me it was the best feeling I ever had with Dalera.” -Jessica von Bredow-Werndl. 

The third-last to go pair scored 91.021, finishing almost 3% points higher than Denmark’s Cathrine Dufour who took the silver medal with Bohemian. Bronze went to Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin with Gio at the musical freestyle dressage competition. 

Charlotte Dujardin pleased with Gio

Dujardin put 87.246 on her board and she might have thought this would not be enough for the podium as Isabell Werth and Weihegold Old were still to come. However, Werth and her mare seemed to be lacking energy and power and their score was 84.896, leaving them in fourth place. 

“I’m so proud of him, it’s only his second time through that music and as you could see the degree of difficulty is immense. The Olympics was the first time I rode it and it was mistake-free there, unfortunately I made a mistake in the ones on the centre line today, rider error not horse error, and I thought that would have cost me a medal.” -Charlotte Dujardin, British dressage rider. 

Gio is only 10 years old and is yet to learn to be at the same level as Valegro’s, Dujardin’s horse companion. However, even with the little exposure to top sport, it has incredible results as the pair finished in bronze place both at the team and individual Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

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Eyes set on the FEI World Equestrian Games

Von Bredow-Werndl felt Dalera’s magical Freestyle performance was perfect compared to the one of the Grand Prix Special, where the horse felt a bit too hot. This time however the horse and rider combination felt connected and enjoyed the entire performance at the European Dressage Championships. 

The new European triple champion, who has also won the two Olympic gold medals, has felt the love of the spectators at Hagen. Von Bredow-Werndl led Germany to a glorious summer of gold, and now has her eyes set on next year’s FEI World Equestrian Games. 

However, Dufour gave her a fair warning that she would be ready and waiting to win in front of their home crowd in Herning. Her intention is to close the gap between herself and the German champion over the next 11 months.