Isabell Werth's Don Johnson Passed Away

Dressage

Germany

Isabell Werth said goodbye to her retired Grand Prix horse Don Johnson. He was 23 years old.

Don Johnson was a Hanoverian gelding by Don Frederico out of Werona (by Warkant). He was bred by UIrike Meyer and owned by Werth's long-time sponsor Madeleine Winter-Schulze.

Don Johnson was listed in the FN database as born in 2002, while in the FEI database he was listed as born on 4 December 2001. At the time the German FN counted December born foals into the next year.

Cheeky

The bay gelding was first competed as a youngster in the riding horse tests by Matthias Klatt in 2005. He made his show debut under Werth at a local show in Hunxe at L-level in April 2008 and moved to small tour level in 2009.

The pair's international show debut was at small tour at the 2010 CDI Lingen, followed by Fritzens and Aachen. In September 2010 he did his first national Grand Prix class and two months later made his CDI Grand Prix debut at Munich Indoor.

Don Johnson was known for his very cheeky behaviour and frolicky bucking in the warm up. This was not always compatible with image of a highly celebrated Olympic rider, who experienced social media backlash for some non-classical photos taken in the warm-up with Johnny acting up. The rider's strength was always that no matter how rebellious Don Johnson was, Isabell was always able to shift the horse into the right gear in the competition arena for test riding.

German Team Horse

While Don Johnson continuously produced big scores, he never was an individual medal winner for Werth. Nonetheless, Don Johnson certainly contributed to Germany's team silver at the 2013 European Championships in Herning (individually they didn't make it to the Kur) and team bronze at the 2015 European Championships in Aachen (fourth in the Kur finals). They were also fifth at the 2013 World Cup Finals in Gothenburg.

2019 was his last year in competition. Don Johnson proved his fitness in Mannheim on 3 - 5 May 2019 where he won the Grand Prix with 74.870% and the freestyle with 82.800%. Werth rode her final competition on Don Johsnon at the 2019 CD Frankfurt on 19 - 22 December 2019, taking home a double victory.

Passing

Don Johnson was slowly retired to the field at Werth's stable in Rheinberg, Germany, where he spent a further six years having an easy, horsey life.

On 9 december 2025 Werth announced the passing of "Johnny".

"Unfortunately, we had to put down Don Johnson, the leader of our retirees’ band, due to an incurable leg fracture," Werth communicated. "Dear Jonny, you were a truly special character horse, my “sparring partner” for nearly 15 years, a millipede who became a model athlete. You were always there whenever a party was being thrown, always ready to deliver a special dance performance. You stayed true to yourself and to us until the very end! Thank you for the special moments and years."