Interview with Isabell Werth about Viva Gold and Wendy and the new tactic of riding flying canter changes

EQUI PAGES: It was a year ago that a dark chestnut went to his first young horse Grand Prix here under Isabell Werth in the qualifier for the Louisdor Prize. Today we are here, 84 percentage points later. How was today?

Isabell Werth: Firstly, it was great to experience on the warm-up arena that the horse has developed here every day. On the first day he was really hot as a rat and every day he felt more at home. Compared to Mannheim, he was much calmer in the stable. In Mannheim he was doing kilometers and circling in the stable, he was excited as a stallion. So that did him a lot of good. Now the series(of competitions in a row) I already had a great feeling when riding him.

Isabell Werth and Viva Gold: Freestyle debut with 84 percent

And the exam today?

He’s coming in. It was a great atmosphere. We’ve had such a full house here for three days now, which is really special. And then it worked really well. I did the choreography once at home and now today for the first time with music and it worked so well straight away. I have my world in a box and I’m really pleased that both horses have delivered so well here.

Who put the freestyle together? Your “musical companion” Michael Erdmann died last year?

Dietmar Mensinger did the freestyle, together with Marina Erdmann, who was also involved. I had the idea with Neil Diamond. Dietmar Mensing, who had previously recorded the freestyle with Michael Erdmann, then took over the fine-tuning. And I’m very happy with how well they did it. And the fact that we can now carry on like this was also a nice tribute to Michael.

Although, if you had asked me beforehand – Isabell Werth rides a freestyle to “Song, Song blue”. You sometimes heard that when you couldn’t stand on the far right at the prize-giving ceremony… That was one of Anky van Grunsven’s (NED) great freestyle successes with Bonfire, your constant rival 30 years ago.

Yes, exactly. That’s right. And that’s why it wasn’t an issue for me for a long time. Although this freestyle has stayed in my head for a long time. That was a great freestyle that Anky did. Back then, 30 years ago. Really great coordination. The theme was actually Neil Diamond as gallop music. And then, in addition to “Sweet Caroline”, “Song, Song blue” was the obvious choice and they did such a great job with it, with that relaxed whistling at the beginning. It’s all so much fun to ride to and I think the audience felt the same way.

The last line with piaffe with changes of direction and passages didn’t seem entirely unfamiliar to me. Did Viva Gold‘s grandmother, Weihegold, whisper something in your ear?

You can’t reinvent the wheel and this line is simply something that really inspires me and that I continue with two or three horses. Wendy, also Emilio, in between Quantaz. So this last line is already a bit my line and is made for this horse.

The freestyle is a mixture of Emilio, Wendy and Bella in the choreography anyway, so it fits perfectly.

How many of your horses have debuted with 84 percent in the freestyle?

In fact, I don’t think anyone has yet.

Did you think it would be an 80 plus? Is that what you thought yesterday? Were you hoping?

Well, I hoped so. But you never know how he’ll react in the freestyle. I toned it down a bit, but I still wasn’t sure how he would be able to do it. Although he’s really incredibly easy to teach. But of course, when everything comes one after the other in such a mood, you first have to see what happens. So you always have to hope. And hope dies last. The fact that he really managed to pull it off was great.

So defused means that fan piaffes are added?

Yes, I really do have two turns already. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more time, otherwise we could come up with a few more tricks. In canter, I can do the changes again on curved lines. I’ve spared him that for the time being to get some confidence into it. And I think that’s a good thing. Nevertheless, I have a level of difficulty – a 10 is in there. If I ride everything well and from a riding point of view, there’s no reason to change it at the moment.

The new DOD(Degree of Difficulty) now applies. This means that the grades could theoretically be a little lower now. Is this 84 an 85 that comes across as an 84?

That’s actually the case, because at the very end I have a canter pirouette, which is actually one and a half. I only did one pirouette here, three quarters of a pirouette, because he already went more into the piaffe, knowing that the piaffe was coming. And then I didn’t want to confuse him and go into canter again and do my original turns.

Podcast “Tell me about the horse”, episode 5: Katrina Wüst, the “freestyle pope” on riding and judging a dressage freestyle. Photo: sportfotos-lafrentz/KI

5* judge Katrina Wüst explains how the new DOD is calculated and why harmony is weighted more heavily in it in the podcast TELL ME ABOUT THE HORSE. Listen to the episode here.

What’s next for Viva Gold? Now in terms of planning?

We will now continue in peace and quiet. It’s good for him that he’s now getting some competition experience. After all, he lacks a lot of groundwork. Basically, he hasn’t had many competitions in his life and that’s why Balve (the German Championships June 3-7) with both horses is the next goal. And then we’ll see what happens.

Would you also want to ride all three classes there, Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Freestyle with both of them?

I don’t think Wendy needs to go through three trials. She’s really more than proven herself now. But I’m sticking to this rhythm because it’s good for us and she’s really starting to relax more and more. And so am I, so hopefully we can return to our last canter tour. And with Viva, we’ll just have to see. We’ll let that come to us. If he takes it as cool as he did here, then he can certainly go three tests.

Isabell Werth and Wendy: one-handed flying changes

Keyword relaxation. You flipped a switch for outsiders, rode the flying changes one-handed and actually tapped Wendy all the time with your “free” hand. Who was the source of the idea? You said that “the doctor”, your discoverer and long-time trainer Dr. Uwe Schulten-Baumer, perhaps also told you something from above. Did you get any tips from national coach Monica Theodorescu or anyone else? How did you get to the point where you said, I’m going to try something completely different? That’s quite drastic.

That’s right. Of course, it was in my head the whole time. I also tried various things at home. At first I actually went down the path of saying that I had to have this control somehow. But every time it was somehow different and I never had this legèreté in there. And of course we discussed it a lot with Götz(Brinkmann, home coach) and Monica. Most recently in Fontainebleau. And then I said, maybe holding would be an idea. Actually, the horse has no problem at all. It’s just that this nonchalance is gone. And then, of course, it gets into both of their heads and you come around the bend and think: How do you do it now, how do you do it right?

Suddenly you have a topic.

Exactly. Where there actually isn’t one. And then I think okay, let’s just ride. And then I thought: man, control away! And this casual one. The mare had become a little bit too much. So we rode it with one hand. I actually used to do that a lot. She actually comes into the changeover very casually. It was really noticeable in both tests that she felt much more comfortable there. And yes, we’ll keep it that way.

Of course, I’ll have to go back to two hands at some point so that I don’t get any deductions. That’s already being discussed. But it’s important to me that I first get a loose basis with the horse, whatever is said about it. And then it goes from there.

You could also theoretically go from one-handed riding and tapping to crawling with a little finger with the reins in your hand. That should then be in accordance with the rules. The rules actually state that the reins must be in both hands. At least according to the meaning.

That is the case. But nowhere does it say that you can’t praise again and again, even in an exam. I have done that.

My goal was actually to praise and relax again and again, to get me away from the control.

This was simply a test run, which went well, and now we will try to optimize it further.

Thank you very much for the interview.

The interview was conducted by Jan Tönjes