First international Grand Prix for Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Kismet

Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s KWPN mare Kismet still has little competition experience at the age of eleven. The four-time Olympic champion got the Ampere daughter under the saddle in 2024 after Charlotte Dujardin was banned. Last year, she presented her twice in tests with piaffe and passage and won both, the Intermédiaire A in Sauerlach with 74.560% and the Intermédiaire II in Ising with 73.640%.

This weekend, Team Aubenhausen chose the CDI Ornago in Italy to open the green season while Queen Mum, Dalera BB, looks after the youngsters at home.

The test

Today at 10.40 it got serious, Kismet’s first Grand Prix. After a safe, closed and balanced salute, the first highlight followed with the trot reinforcement and the trot traversals, whereby the one to the left was even slightly smoother and more fluid than the one to the right. Kiss” was in a bit of a hurry when reversing. She scored again in the strong trot. The passage was relaxed and secure in rhythm and contact, but could still be a little more closed. In the piaffe, the mare was eager to move off, but did not always find her balance yet, although the second piaffe in particular had some very nice moments. The transitions were not yet of the same quality as the individual lessons.

The walk was okay, the basic quality of the canter jump was good. Unfortunately, one too many canter jumps crept in between the penultimate and final changes in the pairs. The zig-zag traversals were good, or “pretty good” in Wernoten terms. Here, as in general, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl managed to keep the mare in front of the driving aids. Sometimes she even had to be careful not to raise herself too high and lose back action. The single changes were faultless, but still a little hectic.

In the first pirouette to the left, the two came in a little big. Kismet lost his balance and jumped over. But the one to the right was successful. Both the last strong trot and the passage on the centerline promised a beautiful end to the round. But for some reason, Kismet blocked in the piaffe and crawled backwards. Shortly afterwards, Jessica von Bredow-Werndl had her back in front of her and was able to finish the test, but this double-counting lesson was a waste of time. This was all the more annoying because a moment like this must also be reflected in the overall score for harmony.

The judges rated the ride at 66.261 percent, seventh place today, but still plenty of room for improvement.

Victory for the Australian Spaniard

The only pair to receive more than 70 percent today was Australian Simone Pearce and her ten-year-old Spanish Rubinstein great-grandson Will Marq. That was well deserved. The gelding showed himself to be largely stable in the contact with confident, relaxed and yet active piaffe-passage work, which was characterized by a high level of balance, an outstanding strong walk, relaxed series changes and a very nice pirouette, especially to the left. The result was 70.717 percent. Not too much for a really nice ride.

They were followed by Alexandre Ayache and Ruling Olivia, a French pair from last year’s European Championships (69.739). Third and fourth place went to Switzerland, to Charlotte Lenker on Dettori (69.022) and Tallulah Lynn Nater on the twelve-year-old Hanoverian Flynn, who competed at the 2024 Olympic Games under the Belgian flag with Flore de Winne. Last year, the son of Fahrenheit carried his new rider to a fantastic third place in the Intermédiaire II for the team classification of the U25 European Championships. Unfortunately, there was no medal for this. 2026 will be the first CDI season for the pair, which they heralded today with a very appealing ride.