As we now know, Paris 2024 would be the swansong for Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s ride TSF Dalera BB, the all-conquering mare with multiple gold medals to her name. Between July 2022 and July 2024 they reigned in an unbeaten stretch that incorporated 36 classes at the highest level. However, in the Olympic grand prix special at the start of August, they were just pipped to the win, by Denmark’s new pairing of Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle.
The mark of a champion is not just what they win, but how they bounce back from their blips. With Dalera’s sub-par test, Germany’s team gold by a 0.12% margin over Denmark in the Olympic team dressage was tighter than envisaged. This was partly due to a rare miscommunication in the piaffe.
“We had a hiccup – actually a huge misunderstanding – which cost us a lot of points, but luckily we connected again and brought it home,” Jessica said after securing the team title.
Their harmony is their hallmark, so it was rare to see that falter, and a credit to their relationship, class and resilience that Jessica not only regained their mutual composure during that grand prix special to secure team gold, but came out for the following day’s freestyle back on top form.
“She is always leaving her heart in there for me, especially when it is such a big atmosphere,” Jessica says. “She has her antennae 100% on me, so when I am in the here and now and totally focused, she is as well. This is what makes her so special and this is why I can ride her with so little aids. It looks so easy, but she makes it easy for me because she is listening so well.”
Saluting the crowd after their freestyle in Paris
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl: “I just tell Dalera what test is coming next”
Jessica explains how she managed the mare in Paris so that she could achieve this level of focus in front of a crowd of 16,000 and the weight of expectation on her shoulders. Between each of the three tests – the grand prix, the special and the freestyle – Dalera had different routines to bring out the best in her.
“On the first day [off] after the grand prix, Dalera was completely off – I didn’t ride her, only strolled around with her four or five times a day,” Jessica says. “We went grassing, massaging her, like at home. Then the next day I did some little check-ups for the special like walk to piaffe, and showed her that the passage to canter is now from the right – just telling her what’s coming up next.”
After the glitch in the special, Jessica could have been tempted to put a bit more work in to check all their transitions were watertight. But she didn’t waver from her routine.
“For the freestyle, I don’t prepare for it,” she says. “Dalera and I always listen to her freestyle music while I’m plaiting her mane so then she knows the freestyle is coming.
“She is so smart and so funny,” Jessica adds. “I wanted to sleep [the morning of the freestyle], so I was in the hammock in her stable, but she was just playing with me, and trying to push me out because she wanted to get on with it. She was so playful, cheeky and happy. And then when I walked her – we always do the “peepee” walk so she can pee – and she was kind of smiling. She knew that was the day and she just did it. She knows everything.”
The key word was trust. Jessica says the pressure of playing anchorman for the German team had affected her in the special, and she reset her mind.
“The change from the special to the freestyle was in the heart. I didn’t change anything – no equipment, nothing about Dalera,” she says. “I woke up and thought, ‘It’s all about love, joy and trust. She is enough, I am enough, and together we can do it.’ We have proved so often we can do it, so I didn’t need to fix anything. It’s about letting go, to surrender.”
Less is more for Dalera’s prep
Dalera’s freestyle warm-up was minimal.
“I didn’t even do a whole pirouette in the warm-up, just tested it a little,” says Jessica. “She went in with dry hair and came out with dry hair. It was just a mental game.”
And as a result, “She was 1,000% with me. She had no ear or eye anywhere else but by me. She was listening so carefully and really showed me this is what she wants to do – it’s what makes it so emotional because I don’t know if I will ever get another horse like her. At the end, I knew I couldn’t have done better and nor could she.”
It was indeed good enough for a second individual gold medal, the climax of years of planning. After the Tokyo Olympics, Jessica – then six weeks pregnant with her second child – was walking along a beach in Spain with her husband Max, listening to Je Ne Regrette Rien.
“I played this music, and got goosebumps on my whole body,” she says. “I told my husband, ‘this is the music; this is what I want to do’. I used the whole pregnancy to create Dalera’s new freestyle. And just before I got too big to do extended trot, I filmed the choreography.”
Dalera now retires to a life of hacking, pampering, exhibition shows and maybe motherhood. But what a way to leave the sport – dancing to a gold medal in front of a French crowd to the tones of Edith Piaf.
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