The world’s number one dressage horse, TSF Dalera BB, will be “telling me when our last public dance will be. Not the other way around,” rider Jessica von Bredow Werndl says of the 17-year-old reigning Olympic and European championship star.
Would this summer’s Paris Olympics be the mare’s last competition? That might be the right note for bringing down the curtain on her brilliant competition career.
Jessica also notes on social media about Dalera that “If she still conceives, she will also be allowed to become a mommy. That is up to her — or rather her body.”
U.S. fans got to see Dalera in person at last year’s FEI World Cup finals. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Retirement isn’t imminent, however. This weekend, the mare won the German Championships in Balve with a Freestyle marked at 89.6 percent. A distant second was Frederic Wandres on Duke of Britain (83.45).
Dalera, a Trakehner, has had 35 straight victories in the last three years. She has earned 2,078 points in the FEI horse rankings, to 1,943 for the recently retired Emilio. And not surprisingly, Jessica is first in the rider rankings, ahead of Emilio’s rider, Isabell Werth. Both are from Germany.