Girl Power

Two mares win WEG dressage medals; Grand Prix Special medal podium is all-female

 

Germany's Isabell Werth exults after her gold-medal-winning Grand Prix Special aboard Bella Rose. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

They say you can’t beat a good mare. Today that horseman’s adage proved true.

Fresh off yesterday’s team gold-medal win, Germany’s Isabell Werth and her “dream horse,” the 14-year-old Westfalen mare Bella Rose (Belissimo x Cacir AA), proved unstoppable again. The leggy, elegant, very feminine liver-chestnut mare danced her way to an individual gold medal in the Grand Prix Special at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018. 

 

Werth said Bella Rose's half-passes "couldn't be better." Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

According to Werth, she knew from the start of her test that it was going to be one to remember.

“When she started to trot, I said, Wow, she wants to go. The half-passes, I think they couldn’t be better. The piaffe-passage, it’s so easy. The charisma and the lightness—it makes the rider really happy to have such a horse.”

Werth spoke matter-of-factly, but the gold medal was unmistakably an emotional experience, as the international veteran—who has stood on the medal podiums too many times to count—wept openly on the podium today.

The only down side for Werth was the fact that Bella Rose’s owner, Werth’s longtime sponsor Madeleine Winter-Schulze, suffered a broken leg and had to have surgery yesterday, Werth said at the post-competition press conference. Werth said she was eager to wrap up the press obligation in order to visit her patron in the hospital, where she is said to be doing well. 

 

Verdades powered Laura Graves to the 2018 WEG Grand Prix Special individual silver medal. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Werth’s score of 86.246 percent made her untouchable by her closest rival, the USA’s Laura Graves and her KWPN gelding, Verdades (Florett As x Goya). The only male in the GP Special medals, “Diddy” laid down his signature uber-powerful, thrilling performance to earn a score of 81.717 percent and the silver medal. It was the second silver for Graves, who won team silver yesterday.

It was the first individual WEG dressage medal for the USA since Steffen Peters’ GP Special and GP Freestyle bronzes aboard Ravel at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.

 

Praise for "Diddy" after his silver-medal-winning performance with Graves. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

“For me, it’s always a matter of riding this horse in his mind,” Graves said afterward. “Physically he’ll do whatever I ask him to, but sometimes it’s a matter of convincing him to do what he’s a little bit afraid of, or go where he’s afraid to go. It’s always a challenge, and it’s different every time we ride. Today I actually was very proud of how he let me ride him.”

A second mare blazed her way onto the medal podium with a stunningly mature performance for her tender nine years. British superstar Charlotte Dujardin’s new international mount, the Hanoverian mare Mount St. John Freestyle (Fidermark x Donnerhall)—the youngest horse in this WEG dressage competition—yesterday helped Team Great Britain win bronze and today put Dujardin back on the podium with a bronze-medal-winning score of 81.489 percent. To say that “Freestyle’s” scope, relaxation, and elasticity make her an exciting horse for the future is a gross understatement.

 

At just 9 years of age, Mount St. John Freestyle danced her way to GP Special bronze with Charlotte Dujardin of Great Britain. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

“It was unbelievable; I couldn’t have asked any more from her,” said Dujardin. “That’s her third-ever Grand Prix Special….I was like the jam between the sandwich, with Isabell on one end [in the order of go] and Sönke [Rothenberger] in the other. I thought, oh my god, I’ve got to really up my game so I come out and don’t look like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“When she’s stronger and more confident, we’re going to give Isabell a run for her money!” Dujardin said. 

 

A huge smile and a fist-pump from the USA's Kasey Perry-Glass after her GP Special test aboard Goerklintgaards Dublet. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

The next-highest American rider, Kasey Perry-Glass on the 15-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding Goerklintgaards Dublet (Diamond Hit x Ferro), finished sixth on a score of 78.541. “Dublet” put in a fantastic test that showed even more power and engagement than in yesterday’s team Grand Prix. 

 

American fans cheer Kasey Perry-Glass's performance. Photo by Jennifer Bryant. 

Unfortunately for Steffen Peters and Adrienne Lyle, glitches marred both of their tests and put the remaining two American riders out of the medal hunt. Both Suppenkasper and Salvino showed resistance in the transition from collected walk to piaffe at G. The costly mistakes put Peters and Lyle at the bottom of the field of 29 starters, with Peters finishing on 69.073 percent and Lyle, on 69.043.

There should have been 30 horses in today’s competition, but in another unfortunate turn, Great Britain’s Spencer Wilton and Super Nova II, who won team bronze yesterday, withdrew from the Special.

According to a statement from Team GB, “the horse [was] not feeling 100% after getting excited in yesterday’s medal ceremony.”

“Prize-givings are not ‘Neville’s’ favourite thing,” Wilton stated, “and normally I wouldn’t do them with him, but we’re at a championship. I helped the team secure qualification for Tokyo 2020 [Olympics] and that’s my primary focus, so with that in mind, his welfare was key to this tough decision.”

In preparation for the finale of the 2018 WEG dressage competition—the individual freestyle final on Sunday—the second horse inspection is scheduled for tomorrow morning. As of this writing the show will go on, and no postponements or cancellations due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Florence have been announced. I’ve just checked my weather app, and at the moment the forecasters are predicting 3 to 4 inches of rain for the Tryon area, with winds of up to 35 mph and possibly higher gusts. Rain is expected to move in tomorrow afternoon, with the worst of the weather being tomorrow night and—unfortunately for dressage-freestyle ticket holders—Sunday. But with luck it will be more like a miserably wet horse show and less like a natural disaster. 

In case you’re on the fence about coming Sunday, here are two tidbits to entice you: Both Graves and Dujardin will be unveiling brand-new freestyles—with music that, according to both riders, arrived just yesterday! (Dujardin quipped that her motto going in will be “Hope and pray.”) Graves refused to divulge any details about the new program or the music, so if you want to witness the world premiere, bring your wellies and don’t miss the WEG Grand Prix Freestyle.