Isabell Werth's Work Holiday at Schafhof Pays Off with Prix St. Georges Win

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2023 CDI Kronberg

Isabell Werth called her team together and decided on taking a "work holiday," destination the fourth Schafhofs Dressage Festival in Kronberg. Joining her are students Lisa Müller with trainer Götz Brinkmann, Victoria Max-Theurer, Stefan Lehfellner and eight horses.

"I'm already quite busy here," Werth laughed. "Either I'm sitting on the horse myself or I'm training one of the others."

Skovens Tzarina

The seven-time Olympic champion saddled the 9-year-old Skovens Tzarina for the start. The highly elegant Danish mare is owned by Victoria Max-Theurer and has been trained by Werth for just under 1.5 years and introduced her to competition sport. That has already worked out well at the Schafhof: victory in the Prix St. Georges with 75.098 %, ahead of her Olympic teammate Dorothee Schneider, who finished second with Dante's Hit and 73.725 percent.

"The mare is fantastic," Isabell Werth enthused. "She has outstanding quality and a lot of spirit. This was her first international St. Georges. The goal now is for her to go relaxed through the test and acclimatize at international shows." The idea of competing with her in Aachen two weeks earlier was also appealing, but... "that was still too early for me for the mare. I deliberately chose the Schafhof because I know that we have optimal conditions here and a calm atmosphere. So the mare can get used to tournament atmosphere without getting stressed."

Tzarina recently won the Nurnberger Burgpokal qualifier at the CDI Hagen Horses & Dreams competition in April.

Training with Götz Brinkmann

Werth also brought along the 9-year-old Deneuve for the Louisdor Prize and Joshua, also nine, for training. "Deneuve is a very hard-working, motivated horse with a very strong piaffe-passage tour," Isabell Werth said happily. The mare is owned by a Japanese dressage rider. "Akiko is in Japan at the moment and I'm taking the mare to a few shows so Akiko can take her over at the end of the year."

Götz Brinkmann, eyes on the ground for
Isabell at the 2023 CDIO Aachen

Along the way, the Louisdor Prize at Schafhof fits perfectly into the concept. And when Isabell Werth is training young hopeful Joshua, you can see Götz Brinkmann standing at the edge of the Schafhof quad, fully concentrated. He has been Lisa Müller's trainer for many years and has recently been keeping an eye on Isabell Werth during training.

"It is sometimes difficult for Monica (Theodorescu, the national coach) to do justice to everyone at the tournaments," Werth explained. "That's why I asked Götz to help me a little bit. We have known each other for many years through Lisa and have worked closely together. We are totally on the same wavelength."

Training the Students

As trainer Isabell Werth looks after 'Vicky' Max-Theurer, who starts with Birkhof's Topas in the four-star tour, as well as her partner Stefan Lehfellner with Deliza during the Schafhof days. In addition, Lisa Müller, the wife of soccer star Thomas Müller, who arrived at the Schafhof with three horses at once.

"Topas has consolidated very much and went two very nice rounds at the last tournament in Achleiten. Vicky trains at home with Stefan, just as Lisa trains with Götz. My main job here on site is to give the riders peace and security. I don't want to mix things up here and say 'Now we do it this way or that'. It's all about safety and fine-tuning here, and then maybe I can give some new impulses for the home work." Stefan's Deliza has also strengthened nicely in recent months, he said. "This is not a very easy, capricious mare," Werth explains, "but she is developing very well. I'm excited to see how she will present herself here at the Schafhof."

Lisa Müller will compete in the Louisdor Prize in Kronberg with two 8-year-old horses: Mondrian and Raffinesse. "Both are already very far for their age and very mature. So my job is more to slow Lisa down a bit so that she doesn't want to start riding at Grand Prix level already," Werth smiles. "With the two of them, we want to continue to bring in security and calmness here." In the Grand Tour, Lisa Müller will also saddle the dressage horse World Champion D'Avie. "This is a really great horse and the two of them have already had great results this year. Now we have to bring that together even further at the show."

The Schafhof is not only a perfect destination for 'Werth's company outing', here the grande dame of dressage also encounters plenty of memories. "Every time I go to the Schafhof, 30 years go through my mind. This is where we used to meet for the training camps and it's great that with the tournaments this dressage sport tradition has been revived here like this. When I drive down here via Bad Camberg, I see the Schafhof lying here - then a piece of tradition comes alive in me."