Jessica von Bredow-Werndl Retires Dalera from Competition Sport

Dressage

Germany

Double Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl has announced the retirement of her number one Grand Prix horse, Dalera BB.

Although she explicitly stated to the media twice that Paris would not be Dalera's final show as the emotional burden would be too heavy on her during the Games, von Bredow-Werndl has now officially confirmed that Paris was the 17-year old mare's final competition.

Farewell Tour

The "two to three more shows" planned for 2024-2025 have turned into a farewell tour, starting at the 2024 Trakehner Stallion Licensing in Neumunster (GER) in November followed by the CDI-W Basel (SUI) in January.

Jessica calls these farewell rides "a few joyful appearances."

“I know Dalera loves her stage so much and that is why it’s important to me that she gets to do this a few more times," said an emotional Jessica in the retirement reel she posted on social media on Tuesday evening 27 August 2024.

The Pair to Beat as of 2021

Von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera (by Easy Game x Handryk) have dominated international dressage sport since 2021.

After winning the 2017 Louisdor Cup Finals in Frankfurt, they first made it on the German team at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, where they won team gold and placed 9th in the Special. At the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam they won team gold and kur bronze with their celebrated LaLa Land freestyle. This was the start of their ascent to the top.

At the 2019 CDI-W Stuttgart their string of success truly started. In the 2020 corona year they won Neumunster, Hagen, and Donaueschingen. In the spring of 2021 they had a "lul" in their winning streak, meaning in four tests that year they did not win (2nd in the Grand Prix at the 2021 CDI-W Salzburg, 2nd in the GP Special at the CDI Hagen, and 3rd and 2nd in the Olympic team qualifier at the 2021 CDI Kronberg). As of then their total conquest started, at least internationally as nationally they were once beaten by Rothenberger/Fendi in Balve 2023.

On the international stage they won team and individual gold at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo and triple gold at the 2021 European Championships in Hagen six weeks later. They skipped the 2022 World Championships as Jessica gave birth to a baby. They won the World Cup Finals in 2022 and 2023 and got double gold and team silver at the 2023 European Championships in Riesenbeck. They rode to new French inspired freestyle music in the lead-up to Paris.

They won the German Dressage Championships four times (2020 2021, 2023, 2024) and capped off their career with team and Olympic gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A Legendary Mare

Dalera will go down in the history books as a legendary dressage horse because of her dominance on the show scene for five, consecutive years. She opened the door to a new level of harmony, lightness and effortless.

Small cracks in their 'perfect' image started to arise in her last show year with the mare developing tongue issues despite the light bridle contact. She first showed tongue in the Kur at the 2023 Europeans in Riesenbeck as well as in the Special and Kur at the 2024 Olympics. The judges however chose to fully disregard this contact issue because of the overall harmonious image the pair delivered.

Dalera was beaten internationally only one time since the Tokyo Olympics, in her penultimate test - the Grand Prix Special - at the 2024 Olympics. Cathrine Dufour and Mount St. John Freestyle relegated her to second place. Werndl and Dalera won team gold nonetheless and recaptured the number one spot in the freestyle to finish a highly impressive career with a fourth Olympic gold medal.

A Look at the Records

As unbeatable as Dalera was she did not achieve the triple crown: individual European, Olympic and World Champion. Jessica missed that opportunity as she gave birth to her second child during the 2022 World Championships.

Only a handful of horses achieved the Triple Crown in the past five decades: Valegro, Salinero, Bonfire, Gigolo, Rembrandt, Ahlerich, and Granat. The latter was the first horse to ever win the triple crown under Christine Stuckelberger.

Three personal best scores, Double gold and team silver
at the 2023 Europeans

Dalera's personal best scores (internationally) were 84.612% in the Grand Prix, 85.593% in the Special, and 92,818% in the Freestyle - all achieved at the 2023 Europeans in Riesenbeck. Dalera has scored in the 90s in no less than 14 of her freestyle tests. She never set a world record score though. Those all still belong to Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro (87.460% in the Grand Prix, 88.022% in the Special, 94.30% in the Kur).

Dalera is part of a group of only four horses to ever won two individual Olympic gold medals consecutively. Only Salinero, Rembrandt, and Valegro achieved a similar feat! Granat won the 1976 Olympics and the alternative Olympics in 1980, so officially that doesn't count (Max-Theurer won Moscow in 1980). Rembrandt and Dalera were the only two to win four gold medals at two consecutive Olympics.

Retired Life at Aubenhausen

Dalera is owned by Swiss, former dressage judge Beatrice Burchler-Keller, who bought her almost GP ready as a 7-year old from Werner Bergmann.

The Trkehner mare will now get to enjoy her retirement at Werndl's yard in Aubenhausen, Germany, where she first arrived as a 7-year old in 2014.

“I am now looking forward to giving Dalera the best years of her life here in Aubenhausen, because she deserves one thing, and that is the very best," she said. "This journey has been something so special to me and fortunately it is not over yet. We can keep Dalera here in Aubenhausen until her last breath and I am already looking forward to many more wonderful years with her."

She continued, “Dalera has been so much more to me than just my sport partner over the last few years. I’ve never experienced anything before like connecting with a horse on such a soul level that we didn’t need words, which don’t even exist. We just understood each other and I always knew what she needed – and she always knew everything. She just understood me and still understands me today, and that is the beauty of it."

Jesscica and Dalera, a legendary pair
for international dressage sport

"I simply love spending time with her," she said in the retirement video. "That is why it’s not necessary to be so emotional now. But it’s also ok, because it’s like no era I’ve ever experienced before in my life and I don’t know if I will experience it again in this same way.”

At the Olympics in Paris Jessica disclosed that Dalera will be bred in the spring of 2025.