The mare scored a sweep at the European Dressage Championships

It was game, set and match for defending titleist Jessica von Bredow-Werndl at the FEI European Dressage Championships on Sunday, as the 2021 Olympic gold medalist and the impeccable TSF Dalera BB won the Grand Prix Freestyle in Riesenbeck, Germany.

Her 92.818 percent performance, nearly foot-perfect except for a bobble in the one-tempis, outstripped her previous personal best of 91.732 for the musical ride. She collected two marks of 99 percent-plus for the artistic aspect of her performance, and bouquets of 10’s for her final flowing piaffe and passage tour.

Although the German collected three gold medals during the championships, she had to withstand a long-anticipated challenge in the final phase from World Champion Lottie Fry of Great Britain on Glamourdale.

These Championships had been touted as the first head-to-head encounter between a dark bay mare best known for her flawless piaffe and passage and a bold black stallion whose extravagant reach is showcased in the extended canter and tempi-changes. The two are a study in contrasts, but each is wonderful in their own way, demonstrating the appeal of dressage across the spectrum.

Dalera finished ahead of Glamourdale in both the Grand Prix and Friday’s Special–where Lottie didn’t make it to the podium–but their final encounter brought all the delight and suspense promised at the prospect of their first meeting.

And this time, it was oh-so-close, a real counterpoint with Dalera’s French music summoning thoughts of the 2024 Paris Olympics, while Glamourdale performed to a British medley that included the Beatles (of course), Phil Collins and Eric Clapton.

The Dutchbred stallion was marked at 92.379 percent, a hair’s breadth less than his rival. Despite just missing the gold, Lottie was overjoyed.

“He felt amazing today, He was just loving it so much and I finally felt like we were back on track today – everything was coming together,” she said.

The rest day on Saturday did wonders for Glammy, who felt a bit tired in the Special, according to Lottie.

In contrast, the Freestyle, she reported, “just went so, so well and I couldn’t be more proud of him. It’s really special because the first time I rode that test was Herning (the 2022 world championships) and now we’re still only on our fourth or fifth ride ever, so still, when the music starts, everyone feels it and it’s just incredible to ride to. He loves the clapping and it just reminds him that there’s lots of people watching him.”

With all her victories, one could easily suppose that Jessica might be a little jaded by constant success, but that is far from the case.

“It’s very special. This never becomes normal,” she explained, and of course, the fact that it happened in her home country added to the glitter.

“I’m just so grateful to have such a wonderful dancing horse with me,” she said of Dalera, a Trakehner who missed the World Championships because her rider was pregnant.

Jessica spends a great deal of time on the ground with the mare, attention that is reflected in their loving partnership.

But Jessica also was quick to mention, “It’s not my success. It’s the whole team,” she said, offering her gratitude to Dalera’s owner Beatrice Buerchler-Keller, and her groom, Franziska Leonhardt.

The European Championships were a roaring success for Britain, which took team gold (the first time a country other than Germany had done that in such a major meet in that nation). Charlotte Dujardin on a 10-year-old horse, Imhotep, earned individual bronze in the Special just six months after having a baby, and she picked up another bronze in the freestyle with a new routine.

How new? Sunday was the first time she’d ridden it all the way through.

Charlotte was awarded an amazing 97.400 percent artistic mark for the magic she and Pete (as Imhotep is known) were able to conjure to the theme from the movie “Madagascar.”

Her total score was 91.396, not very far off from the gold and silver. Touches such as a piaffe fan with a change of direction at the end of the performance on the precocious Dutchbred gave her a boost.

After Aachen, she knew it was time for something new instead of borrowing the music from Valegro, her now-retired multi-gold medal mount.

Working with Tom Hunt, she had about three weeks to make a floor plan and get music.

“Coming into today, it was very, very exciting,” said Charlotte of the race for the medals.

“No one really knew who was going to be where, what order – it was quite interesting reading social media, because they were guessing and I just had a laugh. I think you can never say until you’ve been in there and you’ve done the job.”

The medalists were the only ones among the 18 competitors to score more than 90 percent. Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg-Merrald, the silver medalist from the Special, wound up fourth with 89.546 percent on Blue Hors Zepter. Right behind her was German star Isabell Werth, who went earlier in the order than the eventual medalists, throwing down the gauntlet on DSP Quantaz with a test whose intricacy was reflected in an artistic mark of 95.800. Her total of 88.407 was good enough for fifth.

British dressage mastermind Carl Hester hasn’t had much saddle time with Fame, but that didn’t deter him from riding his first freestyle on the sleek horse at the European Championships, of all places.

The floorplan created for Carl’s Tokyo 2020 and European Championship 2021 medalist En Vogue, starts with a very high degree of difficulty – passage immediately out of the opening halt, into a piaffe pirouette, then back into passage before moving into canter pirouettes.

Although Fame broke into canter on the line of extended trot, Carl was quick to correct him and they progressed well into their final passage zig-zag and halt. While they wouldn’t be challenging for a podium placing with their final score of 85.461 percent, right behind Sweden’s Dante Weltino Old and Therese Nilshagen on 86.132 percent, it was still an impressive effort.

“I’ve just been thinking all year about the Grand Prix and the Special – this is what’s kept him calm,” explained Carl after their test.

“I can’t believe he was that good today because I’ve never done that, and it’s just great. I knew that by the end of the week he would be even better and on my side so, that’s why I went for it.”

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