Estelle Wettstein Taking Steps Towards Independence

Dressage

Switzerland

Swiss Olympic dressage rider Estelle Wettstein has taken her first steps towards independence and is working part-time in her father's yard while setting up her own training business.

Wettstein sought a fresh pair of eyes for training and is now working under the supervision of Swiss team trainer Oliver Oelrich, with occasional coaching from Jonny Hilberath in Germany.

The 25-year old Wettstein was born into a horsey family which has been running a horse stable in Wermatswil, Switzerland, since the 1960s. Parents Ernst and Marie-Line Wettstein have been guiding her from the start. While Ernst is more involved in show jumping and chaperoned daughter Aurelie Wettstein in jumping sport when she was a youth rider, Grand prix dressage riding mum Marie-Line initially took Estelle under her wings.

Multi Talent: Show Jumping and Dressage

Estelle at the 2009 European Pony Championships

Wettstein has combined show jumping with dressage for the majority of her life, bur her first Swiss team representation was in the dressage arena on pony Rythm and Blues at the 2009 European Pony Championships in Moorsele. A year later she rode Calinka III in show jumping at the 2010 European Pony Championships in Bishop Burton.

Only as of 2021 she made the definite switch to dressage after a very busy international competition schedule in both disciplines. She rode at European youth championships in dressage in 2012 (Nice Blue Eyes), 2013 (Romocantin), 2014 (Friedrich der Grosse), 2015 (Darlington C), and 2016 (West Side story). She then moved into the senior Grand Prix division and went to the 2018 World Equestrian Games and 2019 European Championships and 2021 Olympics on West Side Story.

Move to Independence

As of 2021 she has been riding exclusively at international dressage shows with Quaterboy, Great Escape Camelot, and West Side Story. The sale of the latter horse to Marie Linsenhoff was a big blow as the horse took her from young riders to the Olympics.

Estelle is now slowly establishing her own professional identity.

"I am working part-time at my father's stable," Estelle told Eurodressage. "I have Quaterboy and Great Escape Camelot as Grand Prix Horses owned by different owners. i am also developing an independent training business for rider and horses."