Isabell Werth is competing at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Verden for the very first time! And she’s bringing her ‘lion’ with her…
If everything goes to plan, she will compete in five World Championship classes within eleven days: Isabell Werth is a member of the World Championship team in Aachen and will also be in the saddle shortly before that at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Verden. This is made possible by the manageable distance between Warendorf and Verden – around 200 kilometres. The Aachen World Championships team will be holding a training camp in Warendorf in early August, where Werth and Wendy de Fontaine intend to fine-tune the last details for their World Championships performance. At the same time, Werth can prepare the six-year-old V-Power for his World Championships appearance in Verden, travel from Warendorf to Verden and present V-Power in the Horse24 Arena.
This is only the third time in her career that the eight-time Olympic champion has presented a horse at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses. The first time was in 2000, when she rode the then six-year-old Westphalian by Ribbeck, Richard Kimble, into the World Championships arena in Arnhem. In 2023, she presented the seven-year-old Valdiviani in Ermelo and finished fifth in the final. With V-Power, the son of her great hope for the future, Viva Gold, Werth is therefore competing at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Verden for the first time – and she’s delighted! “I have a long-standing connection to Verden,” emphasises Werth. “I used to go to Verden three or four times a year with the Doctor (Dr Uwe Schulten-Baumer) to look at young horses. Verden was our main port of call. The Doctor always took me along; we attended the licensings, watched the auction horses during selection and in training, and the Doctor taught me everything. I found it absolutely fascinating.” Verden is simply one of the most important breeding and equestrian centres in the world.
Werth thinks the world of her World Championships contender, the 2022 NRW Champion Stallion V-Power. “The horse is simply magnificent and I have a right old time with him,” Werth enthuses. “With a Satchmo or a Bella Rose, it would never have occurred to me to ride in the World Championships for Young Dressage Horses. Bella was simply far too hot-headed and Satchmo was still too frantic in his changes at that age – the World Championships test just wasn’t suitable for either horse. V-Power is such a confident and self-assured chap, and everything comes easily to him. He has an incredibly strong personality, which is why I always say he’s my lion. And at six years old, he already has the necessary composure.” That composure you need to ride through the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses. To take a walk where you need to take a walk, and to make the changes where you need to make them. “Of course he might make a mistake now and then, but basically I set off from home knowing: he can complete everything with the necessary composure, and that’s simply vital for this class.”
Last year, Isabell Werth was also seen at the the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in Verden; in 2025, she coached her rider, Lisa Wernitznig, in the saddle of Birkhof’s Viva Diamond DSP. “That was truly a very well-organised World Championships,” Werth emphasises. “The spacious grounds offer everything you need, and the focus was beautifully centred on the young horses. The people who were there enjoyed it, and they didn’t come to be seen, but to watch the horses. It was marvellous.”
If you don’t want to miss “IW’s” first World Championship appearance in Verden and want to enjoy exceptional horses and the World Championship atmosphere: secure your tickets now for the 19th edition of the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Verden, taking place from 5 to 9 August at Verden’s Horse24 Arena.