Horse Illustrated Magazine

The final day of the Paris 2024 Olympic dressage schedule dawned blessedly cool and a bit overcast, in the high 60s (Fahrenheit), a nice break after the extreme heat and humidity of the Grand Prix Test days last week. Earlier this morning, all 18 horses to go in today’s Grand Prix Freestyle Test were inspected by the Ground Jury again for fitness to compete and all were accepted without issue.

So the stage was set for an enjoyable day of dancing in the sand. With the gorgeous backdrop of the Palace of Versailles (with its glittering fountains and manicured gardens) shining behind the entrance at A, the day felt a bit like attending a classical ballet performance in one of the great halls. The huge crowd was ready. The first horse and rider, Patrik Kittel and Touchdown, had warmed up and stepped into the arena. Anticipation and excitement filled the air.

It was time to see who would lay down the best of the best routines to win medals. After the whisker-thin margin of victory (0.121) for Germany over Denmark in the team final yesterday, and with Danish rider Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour riding Freestyle scoring better than current World Champions Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on TSF Dalera BB (GER) in the Special, it was going to be a battle.

Would there be a new Olympic dressage champion or a repeat winner? And, would Germany’s Isabell Werth capture yet another Olympic medal today? What music would the contestants choose to choreograph their rides? It would all be super fun to watch, but difficult to predict!

The Lineup

The 18 competitors were divided into three groups of six with ring drag breaks in between. They competed in this order:

◆ Sweden’s Patrik Kittel riding Touchdown
◆ Poland’s Sandra Sysojeva riding Maxima Bella
◆ France’s Pauline Basquin riding Sertorius De Rima Z
◆ Finland’s Emma Kanerva riding Greek Air
◆ Austria’s Victoria Max-Theurer riding Abegglen FH NRW
◆ Sweden’s Therese Nilshagen riding Dante Weltino OLD
◆ Frederic Wandres riding Bluetooth OLD
◆ Norway’s Isabel Freese riding Total Hope OLD
◆ Great Britain’s Carl Hester riding Fame
◆ The Netherland’s Emmelie Scholtens riding Indian Rock
◆ Great Britain’s Becky Moody riding Jagerbomb
◆ Denmark’s Daniel Bachmann Andersen riding Vayron
◆ Denmark’s Nanna Skodborg Merrald riding Zepter
◆ Germany’s Isabell Werth and Wendy
◆ Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry and Glamourdale
◆ The Netherland’s Dinja van Liere riding Hermes
◆ Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB
◆ Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle

Would it be mare power all the way (there were four: Dalera; Freestyle; Wendy; Maxima Bella)? Or would one of the handsome stallions rule the day (there were eight: Glamourdale; Hermes; Fame; Varyon; Indian Rock; Total Hope OLD; Dante Weltino OLD; Greek Air)? Or perhaps a fabulous gelding would take the top spot (there were six: Zepter; Jagerbomb; Bluetooth OLD; Abegglen FH NRW; Sertorius De Rima Z; Touchdown)?

Scoring

Much like ice skating or gymnastics, the marks for dressage freestyle performances fall into two categories―technical and artistic―with each counting for fifty percent of the score. The judges were again shuffled around to sit at different letters; today they were at these letters: Judge at C, Raphaël Saleh (FRA); Judge at K, Michael Osinski (USA); Judge at E, Mariette Sanders (NED); Judge at H, Henning Lehrmann (GER); Judge at M, Isobel Wessels (GBR); Judge at B, Susanne Baarup (DEN), and Judge at F, Magnus Ringmark (SWE).

Best Rides

After all 18 pairs had ridden down centerline today to appreciative cheers and thunderous applause, there was the feeling of assurance that the world’s best musical rides had, indeed, been witnessed. The scores today ranged from 74.714 percent (Sweden’s Nilshagen riding Dante Weltino OLD) to 90.093 (as you may have heard or guessed by now, Germany’s von Bredow-Werndl and TSF Dalera BB).

The highest scoring ride (81.607) of the first group of six was by Finland’s Emma Kanerva and the 13-year-old Zangersheide stallion Greek Air (by the Trakehner stallion Gribaldi). Once the second group of six entered, the score progressively climbed from there; high scorer from that group was Great Britain’s Carl Hester on the 14-year-old KWPN stallion Fame (85.161).

The final group of six was loaded with heavy hitters and the final battle for medals ensued. With nearly every ride the lead kept changing, building to the entrance of the last horse and rider at A, yesterday’s Grand Prix Special high scorers from Denmark, Laudrup-Dufour and the 15-year-old Hanoverian mare Freestyle.

Going right before them, von Bredow-Werndl and Dalera had just put in a fabulous test―expressive, accurate, elastic, creative and ridden to French music in a nod to Paris―to take the lead. Their technical marks were 82.357 and artistic marks 97.829 combined for their 90.093 overall score.

Laudrup-Dufour and Freestyle gave it their all, putting in a super test as well, filled with many technically difficult moves and performed to songs like Imagine Dragons’ “Whatever It Takes” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” among others. But there were some mistakes, including a break to canter in the extended trot. In the end, there score wasn’t enough to defeat von Bredow-Werndl who captured gold, Werth who took silver, Fry who won bronze or van Liere who took fourth. Laudrup-Dufour had to settle for fifth (88.093).

◆ Full Results
◆ Judges’ Individual Marks

Show Jumping Returns Tomorrow

The jumpers return to the Olympic arena here at the Palace of Versailles for two days of individual competition: a qualifier tomorrow, Monday, August 5, and the final on Tuesday, August 6. The individual jumping final is the last equestrian competition of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

After that, the pentathlon competition—which does include an equestrian jumping phase—takes over at the Palace of Versailles venue until the close of the Olympic Games on August 11. This will be the final time that pentathlon includes equestrian; bicycles are likely to replace horses at the next Games.

All horses presented for the second jumper horse inspection yesterday ultimately were accepted to compete in the individual qualifier. This includes the three horse and rider combinations slated to compete for the USA (Laura Kraut and Baloutinue, Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque, McLain Ward and Ilex). However, one horse (Tirano to be ridden by Ismael Garcia Roque for Spain) was held yesterday and then passed on re-inspection this morning). And, there were also a few jumper horses eligible to move on to the individual finals that were not presented at the second horse inspection.

The jumpers have a training session tonight, after which an order of go for tomorrow afternoon’s individual qualifier class will be published. The individual qualifier competition tomorrow (Monday, August 5) will be from 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Central European Time (8:00 a.m. – Noon U.S. Eastern Time).

The individual finals and medal ceremony will be on August 6 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Central European Time (4:00 a.m. – 6:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time).

For more coverage, visit our 2024 Paris Olympics main page.

For broadcast information, go to NBCOlympics.com. All equestrian coverage is streamed live and available for replays on Peacock.

Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.