Isabell Werth–Dealing with Each Horse as an Individual

Over the past 30 years, one of the real delights of reporting on the international dressage scene, has been a series of conversations with the most successful rider of the last three decades, Isabell Werth. Not only does she always find time to talk, but she always has something interesting to say. I caught up with her at the historic Vorwerk Stud, now owned by the Max-Theurer family, at their annual Cappeln CDI4*. It is a lovely relaxed show, just the place to sit and chat.

Question: When we were talking in Frankfurt, you said that every horse you had to ride and respond to that horse’s individual character.

Isabell: That’s what I try to do.

Can we look at your top horses at the moment and their personalities?

Isabell: They are really different. We start with Bella. Bella is always willing to go, sometimes she is a bit too much willing and she wants to do two things together, instead of waiting. She’s really motivated, and I have never the feeling that she is scared about something.

Last week at Aachen she was a bit scared by the atmosphere, she didn’t like the perspective, the view was not really open, she could see half and some trees and the rest was closed with some jumping lines behind. So that was quite difficult. Thankfully we could use the indoor arena for warming up, so that was really helpful in keeping her calm and confident, and when we started the test, she was really focused.

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Article written by: CHRISTOPHER HECTOR/The Horse Magazine