Werth Defends
Title to Win
in Paris

14 April 2018

Werth pulls off a jaw-dropping display to take 1st place with a score of 90.657%...

The FEI World Cup™ Finals showcased some of the finest dressage riders and horses in the world at today’s finals, where Isabell Werth successfully defended her title to be crowned World Champion on 90.6%.

 

Laura Graves and Verdades took second place with 89% and an emotional Jessica von Bredow-Werndl took the bronze position with 83.7%.


After yesterday’s shock result with Laura Graves and Verdades pulling out a personal best to dethrone Werth and Weihegold to take top honours, spectators were always going to be in for a treat.

 

Graves was looking to cement her place at the top of the leaderboard with a historic win and there was no doubt that seasoned competitor Werth was going to come out all guns blazing and do everything within her power to defend her title as FEI World Cup™ Champion.

Werth posted a stellar
performance to break
the 90% barrier
1404_BIGLETTERS

The future of Dressage is bright...

"It was perfect today. Today she was fantastic. It was one of her best freestyles - really focused, really with me. The crowd was applauding, clapping - it was really special today," Werth said following her triumph in Paris. 

 

Patrick van de Meer, who only found out he would be coming to Paris on Monday, was not quite prepared for the competition and had a disappointing freestyle. 

 

Yvonne Losos de Muniz aboard Foco Loco delighted the crowd with music from the Kongos.

 

Denmark’s sole representative Daniel Bachmann-Andersen received a score of over 90% for difficulty for his freestyle on Blue Hors Zack (the sire of Edward Gal’s ride, Glock’s Zonick), and shot into the lead before the break, where he remained until Madeleine Witte-Vrees made her appearance.

 

Although not ever one expected to finish within the top five, Glock’s Zonik and Edward Gal are a combination to watch for the future.

 

At only ten years old, the stallion has plenty of maturing to do before he settles fully into his Grand Prix career, but shows plenty of potential for the reach and engagement needed to produce high scores in a few years’ time.

 

Patrik Kittel put together a pleasing performance and danced into the lead to the sounds of ‘Superstition’ and ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ aboard his (admittedly lovely) mare Deja.

 

Graves was next on though, so the lead was shortlived as Graves smashed through yesterday’s personal best of 84% and posted a colossal 89% on Verdades, thanks in part to incredibly difficult choreography as well as super activity and rhythm from the KWPN gelding.

Werth and Weihegold were not to be outdone...

Unfortunately, Dorothee Schneider had less of a fairytale start to her test when a technical problem meant her music was very late to start, unsettling Sammy Davis Jnr slightly.

 

Despite the setback, she still achieved an 81.8% and delivered a good performance.

 

Werth was next to go with Weihegold and the penultimate combination were riding 100% for the win. Not to be outdone, Werth just pipped Graves to the post with a stellar performance to break the 90% barrier.

 

Von Bredow-Werndl was last to go and her battle was with Kittel for third position, but in the end it was the German who won out. One thing is for sure, the future of dressage is looking very bright!

 

"I’m very emotional. It was fourth World Cup finals, and the third time I’ve been on the podium with this horse... and it’s the last World Cup finals for Unee BB and me, and I’m very emotional now because it was very hard to beat the 83% of Patrik (Kittel) and we did it!

 

"It’s hard to find the words for it… I’m just so happy,” Bredow-Werndl said after her third place finish.

 

Another win for Werth, but the hot competition from other athletes is looking to push the sport of Dressage forwad. Tell us what you thought about the excitement in Paris and what it could mean for Dressage on Facebook.

 

Text by Sophie Baker

Images by FEI/Liz Gregg