After 2025 also in 2026: Isabell Werth and Wendy German champions in the Grand Prix Special

Isabell Werth and Viva Gold were in the lead after the first half of the German Championships in the Grand Prix Special in Balve. The 2025 Louisdor Prize winner only had to give it up to his stablemate Wendy de Fontaine, the defending champion.

The twelve-year-old Sezuan-daughter showed a lighter contact today than in the Grand Prix and was generally more relaxed with much more composure. The transitions between passages and strong trot at the start of the Grand Prix Special were characterized by a high level of consistency in the passages, but with a lot of reinforcement.

The highlight of the task was the second and final piaffe, where the mare really came into her own and Werth was able to let her hand go first.

This also benefited the canter, where the mare was much better in the jump-through today. The 15 single changes on the diagonal were not only successful today, they were really good! In principle, this also applied to the changes on the centerline, where the mare did not jump through the back. In the two-in-hands, she had a misfire. Werth: “I wanted to straighten again. I would have been better off not doing that, because she was so sensitive right down to the tips of her hair …” The pair put an exclamation mark on the last line.

Result: German Champion in the Grand Prix Special with 81.510 percent, Isabell Werth’s 19th national title. Her personal conclusion: “Moving away from control has helped us a lot.”

The Silver Freddy

Frederic Wandres took his sixth DM silver, his fourth in the Grand Prix Special and his eighth DM medal overall today with his super reliable Bluetooth OLD.

The 16-year-old Bordeaux son presented himself with a lot of dynamism at the beginning of the task, pulled to hand and was stable in the contact. The pair had one lapse in the single changes. Otherwise, Wandres once again knew how to make the most of what Bluetooth offered him and what he was capable of. Result: 77.686 percent.

Bronze for the Shooting Stars

Charlott-Maria Schürmann was the radiant bronze medal winner with her wonderful Dante’s Pearl. The eleven-year-old Dante Weltino daughter is a horse that is worked from back to front and approaches the bit with a relaxed back. The result is an exemplary contact and a corresponding lateral pattern. This, coupled with the mare’s outstanding movement possibilities in trot and canter (the walk was not always clearly in four-beat time), leads to performances that give you goosebumps.

This suppleness and balance in the traversals, these reinforcements developed from a real carrying hind leg, the entire canter tour, etc.

Small downsides that depressed the score today: the second piaffe, in which the mare faltered once – a communicative misunderstanding, as Charlott Schürmann later explained. On the last line, the black mare showed that she can actually piaffe safely by now. And in the second pirouette, actually one of the mare’s highlights, she briefly lost her balance and jumped two-legged at the back.

All in all, she scored 76.431 percent. Schürmann: “Pearly is a once in a lifetime horse!” Who will do his first freestyle tomorrow. It was completed just in time. The musical theme: “Year of the Fire Horse”. Fitting for the two shooting stars.

The prevented vice-champion

Schürmann came fourth in the overall standings behind Isabell Werth’s two horses and Frederic Wandres. Viva Gold OLD had received 77.686 percent. The beautiful Vivaldi son was still clearly under power in the first half of the test. He was in a hurry, both in the strong trot and in the left traversal. Then he seemed to slowly arrive in the arena and catch his breath. The piaffe was set, active and clearly in time, but slightly behind in the forehand. But that is already complaining at a very high level. He showed himself to be just as consistent and sure-footed in the passage. The transitions were effortless. The only real mistake in the lesson was a slip in the double changes.

The extended circle

Who is going to the World Championships in Aachen? That is the question that is hovering over everything this weekend. After all, Balve is the first official inspection, and the question mark behind Katharina Hemmer’s European Championship gold horses Denoix and Ingrid Klimke’s Vayron has opened the doors wide for those who want to move up. Especially as Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s Kismet and Benjamin Werndl’s Quick Decision – who had another bout of fever during the night, as national coach Monica Theodorescu reported – the young horses of two other riders with championship experience were not able to compete in Balve.

Semmieke Rothenberger and her 16-year-old son of Jazz, Farrington, are one rider who can be hopeful. They once again put in a very correct performance today, in which one would have wished for more hand independence and significantly more commitment in the reinforcement. But 74.569 percent made them the fifth-best German pair in this test and the fourth-best of the DM, meaning a team candidate would have to be nominated today.

There will be a further assessment at the Nations Cup in Hagen on the first weekend in July. Who will be in the team there will be decided this evening.

Network competence times two

Raphael Netz, the master of fine riding, is also one of the candidates for the World Championships. And not only of fine riding, but also of effective riding. As Monica Theodorescu says: “Raphi rides very precisely and knows with which horse he can score points in which position.”

He succeeded again today. He came sixth with Great Escape Camelot (74.235) and seventh with Dieudonné (73.796).

The 15-year-old Johnson son Great Escape Camelot showed wonderfully flowing, supple traversals. The passage was like a metronome. In the extensions – always a bit hurried in the past – Camelot was now able to really convert the carrying power into impulsion. The piaffe is not the gelding’s strong point, but Netz makes the best of it. All in all, it was a super test and Netz praised Camelot enthusiastically when he came to the final salute at G. And rightly so.

Dieudonné was in no way inferior to his stablemate. He was super supple, light-footed and cadenced in the first half of the trot tour, more tactical and with a lot of impulsion from the hind leg. In the strong walk he walked calmly, in the piaffe he showed clear improvement in terms of bending his haunches and picking up the weight. There was still room for improvement in the swaying single changes and the pirouettes, which were not yet fully balanced. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding on the last line when Dieudonné thought he had already finished it at X and only found his way into the piaffe after energetic encouragement from Netz.

Great success for Nabben

Tobias Nabben’s Finest son Forster, who is also in his first international season, is becoming increasingly reliable and stable. If there was a special prize for the most motivated and satisfied horse, he would be a hot contender. Always beautifully in the contact, always with the poll as the highest point, he danced effortlessly through the task. What is still missing is the dynamics. But eighth place with 73.686 percent was a great and well-deserved success for the pair.

You can find all the results here.