With 10 prior victories in the FEI World Cup™ Grand Prix Freestyle at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Isabell Werth is no stranger to winning at Stuttgart.
On Saturday, the 55-year-old made it 11.
Aboard her Paris Olympics team gold and individual silver medal winning mount, Wendy de Fontaine, Werth danced to a medley of mellow classic pop songs and a dominating 86.745% score.
“Wendy was very focused today and was on fire right away this morning. The music is perfect for her,” said Werth, whose freestyle music included Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” (changed to “Wendy” in the lyrics). “It was exciting to ride Wendy indoors. Her improvement since the start of the year has been absolutely fantastic.”
Wendy was previously campaigned by disgraced Danish team member Andreas Helgstrand. Since coming under Werth’s saddle, the 10-year-old mare has never finished off the podium in seven international appearance together since February 2024.
Their Stuttgart freestyle score was nearly three points shy of their 89.614% personal best achieved at the Paris Games and a full six points better than runners up Larissa Paulius (BEL) and Flambeau (80.395%) and Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock (GER) and Florine OLD (79.225%).
“It was one of my aims to break the 80-point barrier today,” said Paulius, after achieving a new personal best. “I really wanted to do it. It was the ride of my life.”
Werth also won the FEI World Cup Grand Prix on Friday, with Pauluis and Nowag-Aulenbrock echoing their Freestyle podium positions.
Dressage’s most decorated athlete, and current world no. 1, now sits in third in the Western European League overall standings after three legs, behind country women Carina Scholz and Bianca Nowag-Aulenbrock.
The “Battle for Basel” next heads to Madrid, November 28–30.