The line-up for the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final reads like a who’s who of international dressage. Charlotte Dujardin. Isabell Werth. Edward Gal. They all have multiple medals to their names.

But there’s a young German rider on the ascent who’s also well worth watching. Jessica von Bredow-Werndl has been consistently scoring above 80 percent in her CDI-W freestyles, including a winning 81.65 percent at Gothenburg (Sweden) in February over Werth and Gal.

She’s on the rise, and she’s putting Unee BB on the plane for the first time this week to travel to Las Vegas for this year’s World Cup Final on April 15-18.

“I’m excited! I’m a little nervous because of the flight since neither I nor my groom are allowed to be with him in the airplane, but I hope it’s all going to be fine. The show will probably be amazing there,” said von Bredow-Werndl. She’s most looking forward to the electric atmosphere because she expects Unee, always a showman, to thrive in it.

“We’re really good friends and know each other very well now. I can trust him and he trusts me,” said von Bredow-Werndl. “We’ve developed a strong bond and have a lot of fun together.”

In Las Vegas, she will showcase a freestyle that she debuted four months ago. “I think that it suits Unee perfectly and I always get goosebumps myself when the music starts,” said von Bredow-Werndl. “The music underlines his power and attitude.”

Joost Peters of Holland created the original composition, and von Bredow-Werndl choreographed it herself to suit the 14-year-old KWPN stallion Unee BB (Gribaldi—Ilarichta, Dageraad). They have received nothing but positive feedback so far. Von Bredow-Werndl says the most difficult part of the test is a double canter pirouette to extended canter to a piaffe pirouette.

Von Bredow-Werndl has stepped it up a bit in the freestyle from the routine that helped her claim seventh at her first World Cup Final appearance, last year in Lyon, France, and she hopes to improve on that performance.

Invisible Conversations

With an aunt that bred Lewitzer ponies and a brother that is climbing the international Grand Prix ranks alongside her, von Bredow-Werndl has horses in her blood.

Von Bredow-Werndl had her first riding lesson at age 4, got her first pony when she was 6, and fell in love with dressage after seeing it on television. A cheeky German Riding Pony named Nino The Champ gave von Bredow-Werndl her first taste of competition and they qualified for the Bundeschampionat in Warendorf, Germany in 1998 and 1999. Von Bredow-Werndl was hooked. “I loved the invisible conversation between horse and rider with the aim to become one with the horse,” she explained.

In 2002, after von Bredow-Werndl moved up to riding horses, she competed at her first European Young Rider Championships. By 2005, she had won six gold medals and two silver medals between her two horses, Bonito and Duchess, at the European Young Rider Championships. That success was the foundation for her debut in the Grand Prix with Duchess in 2007.

Von Bredow-Werndl, 29, currently trains with her brother, Benjamin Werndl, and Jonny Hilberath. Benjamin is also an FEI dressage rider and trainer, and together he and Jessica run a training center at Aubenhausen. Isabell Werth introduced the siblings to Hilberath, who operates a small training facility in Abbendorf, Germany, in 2011 and they have been training with him since.

Tall, Dark and Handsome

Unee BB came into von Jessica’s life in 2012 when his owner, Beatrice Bürchler Keller, offered her the ride. The pair became a force to be reckoned with, narrowly missing out on the chance to represent Germany at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2014.

It wasn’t always effortless, though. “I had to work for his love and ambition to work and cooperate with me,” said Jessica of the now 14-year-old stallion. Once she gained his trust and respect, the only challenge has been keeping him happy to perform.

“He has become a powerful and very motivated sports partner,” said Jessica. “He’s very self-confident but easy to handle for a stallion. I love him to bits!”

After the World Cup Finals, Jessica has her sights set on qualifying for the European Finals in Berlin. She also has several up-and-coming horses in her barn. One is Zaire 14, an 11-year-old KWPN mare (Son de Niro—Tara, Jazz). “We’ll have our international Grand Prix debut this year and she’s a very big future hope; she’s a real ballerina, something very, very special,” said Jessica.

She also has a 6-year-old Hanoverian stallion named Ferdinand BB, owned by Bürchler Keller, to look forward to. Ferdinand BB (Florencio I—La Corunia, Lanciano) competed in the finals of the young horse championships in Verden, Germany last year where he was ninth in the 5-year-old test.

Synergistic Siblings

Von Bredow-Werndl and her brother Benjamin work together at their family’s Dressage Centre Aubenhausen near Munich, Germany. They balance their training and sales business with competing in the international Grand Prix ring.

“We’re a perfect team and work very strong together,” said Jessica. “I’m so pleased having him as a trainer and partner rider.”

They develop young horses to the Grand Prix levels and maintain sales horses at all levels of training. “It’s our, and especially my brother’s, ambition to find the perfect horse-rider combination and help our clients with their new horses,” said Jessica. “And we just sell them into good hands!”

Her husband, Max von Bredow, rounds out the equestrian family; he has competed in eventing at the national level. They’ll all be in Las Vegas to cheer Jessica and Unee BB on.

Make sure to not miss a minute of all the action, and to see if Jessica and her best friend can challenge the favorites in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage Final—follow along with www.coth.com as we bring you news, photos and insights from Las Vegas on April 16-19.