The Timeless Bond Between an Olympic Champion and Her Horse
Bazaar travels to Germany to meet reigning Olympic and European champion and Richard Mille ambassador Jessica von Bredow-Werndl
Arriving at Aubenhausen, ‘The Home of the Dressage Horse’, in Germany’s Bavaria, has an immediate, and profound, impact on visitors. Surrounded by lush green fields interspersed with stables, it’s an idyllic retreat from the outside world and celebrates at every turn its love of horses. It’s also the home of reigning Olympic and European champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl who, together with her brother Benjamin Werndl, set up the impressive facility to oversee the schooling of their horses from initiation through to national and international championship levels. Jessica had a hugely successful 2021, claiming both team and individual gold at the Tokyo Olympics, which marked her first Games, and went on to win triple gold at the European Championships with her prized Trakehner mare Dalera.
Watching a private performance of the Olympic-winning routine at Aubenhausen, the grace and dexterity at the heart of the sport becomes even more apparent than on television. Jessica, in perfect partnership with her horse, seamlessly navigates through complex movements. Uniting instinct and precision, the duo make the routine – which takes lesser riders a lifetime to even attempt – look easy. Such is the skill of the German equestrian sensation that her horse appears to dance with her; the epitome of poetry in motion.
“It still feels a little bit unreal,” she tells Bazaar of winning the Olympic Gold. “Our team was watching it here at Aubenhausen on the big screen. Winning the team gold medal was just such a relief but winning the individual medal felt different. My mother told me that standing on the podium I looked to be in total shock. I googled it afterwards and saw that she was right! I stood up there listening to the National Anthem and my entire riding life flashed before me – all the setbacks, all the challenges, all the times I had wanted to give up, or I didn’t belief in myself. But I was there with my Olympic individual gold medal, and it was in that moment that I realised I had really made it. The little girl’s dream had come true.”
The manifestation of that childhood dream into reality is a moment she will never forget. “When I was 10 years old, I watched [champion German equestrian] Isabell Werth on TV winning a gold medal and I told my parents I wanted to do that too. Twenty-five years later I was standing next to her on the podium. I have always been passionate about riding and the moment I put all of my heart into it, doors opened that I had never expected. I made it onto the German team in 2015.” The discipline has taught her patience and also given her a belief that anything is possible. “If you can dream it, you can make it,” she says. “It’s about dedication, talent, and a little bit of luck that the horse stays healthy, for example. Patience and love are the two most important things for me. You can’t force the relationship with the horse and you need to be able to surrender to the moment.”
Her elegance, concentration and ethos attracted the attention of Richard Mille back in 2016. Here at Aubenhausen, she wears the RM 07-01 Carbon TPT, like many of the female partners of the brand. “I visited the Richard Mille factory in Switzerland where I got to know Amanda, Richard’s daughter, and like everyone I have met from the Richard Mille family, she is a great person. They really carry what they do in their hearts. We share a love of detail and also family values. For them, like for me, it’s not only about prizes, it’s about personality. When you are part of Richard Mille, you are part of a family and that’s what I’ve felt since the very first moment I met them.”
Success for Jessica is less about medals and more about her enduring relationship with her horses. “Winning a medal is the icing on the cake but – and this fuels you more –the real motivation comes from the daily work. It’s never difficult for me to motivate myself to get into the stable. I can’t remember a single day that I didn’t want to go and be with the horses. I don’t necessarily ride every day. I’ve come to learn that it’s important for me to also relax when I’m here, to spend quality time with the horses and to cuddle them. I have my daily rituals, like saying goodnight to the horses each evening when all the employees have left.”
With a baby on the way in August what’s next for the equestrian star? “I’d love to do it again,” she says of Olympic victory. “It depends of course on my kids and how well I can handle it. With my son, it’s very important to me to there for him. I’m very strict with it. I don’t compromise on my time with him. Luckily, he loves the Olympics!”
Images supplied