Von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera deliver fabulous Freestyle gold again
Defending champions Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and the 16-year-old mare TSF Dalera BB clinched their second individual gold medal of the week when winning today’s Freestyle at the FEI Dressage European Championship 2023 on home soil in Riesenbeck (GER).
Posting a score of 92.818, the reigning Olympic champions who yesterday took back-to-back Grand Prix Special gold, had to see off a powerful challenge from the reigning individual World champions Lottie Fry from Great Britain and the 12-year-old stallion Glamourdale whose much-improved performance today saw them finish close behind in silver on a mark of 92.379.
Last into the arena, fellow-Briton Charlotte Dujardin produced an extraordinary test from the relatively untried 10-year-old gelding Imhotep to clinch bronze with a score of 91.396.
There’s no doubt that this week’s close competition has firmly focused minds on next year’s Olympic Games. With the 2023 European titles now decided it’s all eyes on Paris 2024.
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl: “I don’t want to put too much pressure on for next year but it does make everybody super-excited when we were so close today, having small mistakes but that makes it even more exciting because we both know (Fry and von Bredow-Werndl) we can be better! And we shouldn’t under-estimate Charlotte or Nanna for next year, or Isabell (Werth) so I think we are going to have a year to work on a lot of things and Paris is going to be really exciting!”
If it is anything like the FEI Dressage European Championship 2023 at Riesenbeck this week it’s going to be a thriller from start to finish…..