For the first time in the history of the CHIO, a horse is said goodbye to the big sport with its own gala. The big stage for Bella Rose and Isabell Werth is set.
Bella Rose is waiting for her appearance. The chestnut mare with the striking white blaze stands like a statue on the warm-up arena, you can’t tell she’s 18 years old. “She should probably go to the Grand Prix on Sunday rather than at her farewell gala on Friday,” says Isabell Werth: “But it’s okay the way it is.”
Werth and Bella Rose, this is a symbiosis of man and animal that has not often existed in the history of cavalry. “Bella is Bella,” Werth always answers when she has to explain what is so special about this horse.
Bella Rose combines the best qualities of all Werth horses
Werth had many big four-legged friends under her saddle: Gigolo, with whom she won her only Olympic gold medal in singles in Atlanta in 1996, Satchmo, who cost her her second singles Olympic victory with his escapades in Hong Kong in 2008, and last but not least the reliable Weihegold, who she just recently retired at the World Cup finals in Leipzig.
Werth sees the best qualities of all her horses combined in Bella Rose. She was struck by lightning the first time she saw Bella Rose, she says. That was in a riding arena in 2007, Bella was three years old and was lunging. “I had goosebumps and knew: This has to be my horse,” Werth told the Süddeutsche Zeitung two years ago.
Werth makes Bella Rose a world-class dressage horse
And it will be her horse, her patron and close friend Madeleine Winter-Schulze buys Bella Rose and thus lays the foundation for a unique partnership. Werth trains the chestnut mare from scratch, the most successful rider in history makes Bella Rose one of the best dressage horses in the world. The mare dances through the arena light as a feather, elegantly and powerfully.
Low blow at World Equestrian Games – and the success afterwards
And then the break. At the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Caen, France, Bella Rose suddenly became paralyzed. It is the beginning of a long ordeal, Bella misses the best three and a half years of a dressage horse.
But Isabell Werth doesn’t want to give her up, she keeps at it, consults countless veterinarians and therapists. And is successful in the end. At the 2018 World Championships in Tryon, she won two gold medals with Bella and let tears of emotion run free.
A year later, gold was added three more times at the European Championships in Rotterdam, in 2021 gold and silver at the Olympics in Tokyo.
“Isabellarose” get 45-minute farewell gala
And now the final dance. “Isabellarose” will be in the arena for the last time on Friday in the Aachen dressage stadium. A 45-minute gala for a horse, something like this has never happened before, not even in the equestrian mecca of Soers.
Werth says she doesn’t yet know what it will be like to present the horse of her life in front of a large audience for the last time, but: “It makes me proud and happy to see her in this form and on this stage to say goodbye.” And then Bella Rose will enjoy the peace and quiet somewhere on a green meadow – but maybe also be a little bored.
