Helgstrand's Vogue Joins Jessica and Benjamin Werndl's Line-Up

Dressage

Germany

Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and her brother Benjamin Werndl have welcomed a new young dressage horse into their barn, Andreas Helgstrand's former licensed stallion Vogue.

Vogue is a 5-year old Hanoverian gelding by Vitalis out of Fräulain W (by Fidertanz x Sandro Hit). He is bred by Herbert Werth.

940,000 euro

The bay stallion was one of six (!?) reserve champions at the 2021 Westfalian Stallion Licensing and produced a hammer price of 940,000 euro in the auction. Initially it was communicated the stallion sold to the syndicate of Andreas Helgstrand and Paul Schockemöhle but later it turned out it was an acquisition made by Helgstrand's Danish company.

In March 2022 he was named premium stallion at the Danish Warmblood stallion licensing but at the start of the 2022 breeding season he had to be temporarily pulled from stud duty because the semen quality was not good enough.

Vogue became the high scorer of the shortened Suitability Test in Münster-Handorf in April 2022 with 9.33 points. He never did his sport test.

He stayed in Germany to be trained by Leonie Richter and she rode him to the gold medal and title at the 2022 Hanoverian Young Horse Championships and 2022 Bundeschampionate. In 2023 he only competed at one show: the "4-year old challenge" at the World Young Horse Championships in Ermelo, where he finished fifth.

Sale and Move Kept Quiet

Vogue apparently sold already last year round the time when Helgstrand was caught up in the turmoil caused by the allegations of horse abuse made in the Danish undercover TV documentary Operation X. At the time numerous well known dressage riders openly "distanced themselves" from the practices and the type of horse riding shown in the documentary, including some of Helgstrand's own business associates and clients (Patrik Kittel, Cathrine Dufour).

Several dressage riders no longer wished to be associated with Helgstrand, yet kept doing business with him nonetheless. Some of the dealer yard's most prominent horses have been sold since all the commotion, yet their sale has been kept under wraps by the buyers as they want to avoid pressure due to Helgstrand's seemingly tainted reputation. Business partner and long-time world number one Isabell Werth openly defended Helgstrand and maintained close ties with him, welcoming Queenparks Wendy into her barn as her current number one Olympic option.

After vogue was pulled off the breeding market in 2023 and has been gelded, rumours started flying at the start of new year that he had sold. Jessica von Bredow's name immediately was heard on the grapevine. On 20 February 2024 Jessica denied having bought the horse and told Eurodressage "neither we nor Beatrice (Burchler-Keller) have bought him."

Horses.nl Breaks the News

On 1 May 2024 the Dutch website Horses.nl broke the news that Jessica von Bredow-Werndl has welcomed the horse into her barn. A few hours later she suddenly confirmed the news on her own Instagram account.

Werndl told Horses.nl that Vogue only arrived in her stable "a few weeks ago for training." She added, "Vogue is no longer a stallion since last year. He is being ridden by our assistant rider Adrian. He is not ours. We got him in training."

Werndl added that the company EE Invest GmbH (editor's note: the Viessmann family) bought Vogue. They also own Doppelherz (by Don Olymbrio x Furst Heinrich) who has been competed by Jessica's assistant rider Emma Jamieson.

Over the last few years, the Werndls have welcomed many horses into their barn that came from Helgstrand: Jessica's rising Grand Prix horse Got It (which Helgstrand co-owned with Morten Thomsen), Benjamin's Great Gatsby, as well as Dionysos de Massa, Finest Black Lady, Future Jazz Dancer.