Leipzig (fn-press). Olympic gold and silver, four gold medals at European championships and three overall World Cup victories - that is just part of Weihegold OLD's sporting record at international championships. The list of her successes in sport and breeding is long. At the World Cup finals in Leipzig, dressage rider Isabell Werth said farewell to the 17-year-old Oldenburg mare with another world-class performance. But it is not only the sporting successes that make this exceptional horse so special. Weihegold's incomparable character and her outstanding talent for the most difficult Grand Prix lessons will also be remembered by her large fan community.
Reliability, sportiness and continuity paired with great talent and diligence - these keywords keep coming up when the conversation turns to Weihegold OLD. "She was always there when I needed her. Over the years, I can count on one hand the stages that didn't go so well or didn't live up to expectations. In terms of error rate and continuity, she has few opponents,” says Isabell Werth about her long-standing sports partner. Just like her rider, the most successful dressage rider in the world, Weihegold is a full professional. The World Equestrian Federation (FEI) has recorded 56 victories in international competitions for the Oldenburg mare. She achieved a rating of more than 80 percent 50 times in the Grand Prix. In dressage, this brand is regarded as the sound barrier for absolute world-class performances. In the Grand Prix Freestyle, the test used to win the individual classification at the Olympic Games, Weihegold even cracked the 90 percent mark six times in her career. In Leipzig, the black mare completed her world-famous freestyle for the last time to the sounds of the hits "Tanze Samba mit mir" and "Il Mondo". Isabell Werth said goodbye to her four-legged partner from the sport with a lap of honor. Not only the audience in the sold-out ranks celebrated Weihegold one last time. Many people who had accompanied the mare throughout her life also came to say goodbye. For example her groom Steffi Wiegard, the national trainer duo Monica Theodorescu and Jonny Hilberath as well as Klaus Roeser, chairman of the dressage committee, and Madeleine Winter-Schulze. Of course, Weihegold's owners were also there, the couple Arns-Krogmann from Lohne. From now on, the mare will spend her retirement with them and hopefully have many more healthy foals. This is unusual for Isabell Werth. Because normally she keeps her former sport horses on her farm in Rheinberg. There is now a real "pensioner band" around the now 28-year-old Satchmo, who goes out to pasture every day with Pony Kelly (there is a video about the "old hero" Satchmo here). Oldies Whisper, El Santo, Der Stern and First Class cites Don Johnson, "I'm glad they're able to live and enjoy their retirement for so long. It shows that the sport doesn't shorten the lives of horses, but rather lengthens them." says Isabel Werth.
Farewell on the big stage
Even before Weihegold's farewell, Werth had emphasized how important it was to her to have a platform with the World Cup final in Leipzig that was worthy of the mare. "It was important to me that she was allowed to present herself again in front of a full audience. Of course it's great that that can happen at a World Cup final," said Werth. Her claim is to show the mare optimally again. She succeeded. With 85.921 percent in third place in her fourth World Cup final, she marked the end of her career, which really picked up speed eight years ago. In Oldenburg, Isabell Werth presented the black mare on the international stage for the first time in 2014. Beatrice Hoffrogge, then a trainer at the Werth stables, then took over the further training of the mare. Only at the start of the Olympic year 2016 was Isabell Werth back in a tournament in the saddle of Weihegold. After their Olympic hopes Bella Rose and Don Johnson were injured due to injury, Werth relied on the horse, who had matured into a Grand Prix winner in her stable, and whose incomparable talent for piaffe and passage is still unparalleled. The German Olympic Committee for Riding (DOKR) secured the mare together with Madeleine Winter-Schulze and the Liselott and Klaus Rheinberger Foundation for German Dressage Sport. The starting signal for a successful partnership that has lasted to this day. At the World Cup in Amsterdam in 2016, Werth and Weihegold won the Grand Prix Freestyle with 83,450 percent. A real milestone in view of Rio 2016, where the duo were part of the victorious German team and won the silver medal in the individual classification. The first overall World Cup victory in Omaha/USA and then the triple triumph at the European Championships in Gothenburg/SWE followed the following year. During her career, Weihegold also won gold twice and silver twice at German championships.
Multiple mother and grandmother of successful offspring
Weihegold OLD was bred by Inge Bastian and was a well-known horse from an early age. She was named Oldenburg State Champion, was a finalist at the Federal Championships and at the World Championships for young dressage horses under Kira Wulferding, won the Nuremberg Burg Cup and the Louisdor Prize. The nine-year-old Don Schufro-Sandro Hit daughter is also already the mother and grandmother of numerous foals via embryo transfer, which in turn are successful in sport and breeding. jbc
