For most riders in Africa, Olympic dressage is something watched on a screen, often late at night and a world away. On Saturday, 6 February 2027, that changes.
Four-time Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl will be in the arena at Epona Equestrian Centre in Morningstar, Cape Town, for a masterclass presented by Chevaux Equestrian in collaboration with Epona Equestrian Centre.
Jessica was born on 16 February 1986 in Rosenheim, Germany, and is one of the most successful dressage riders of all time. Her talent showed early: she won individual gold at the 2004 European Young Riders Championships in Aarhus. With her brother Benjamin Werndl, she runs Gut Aubenhausen, a dressage and training stable in the Alpine foothills near Rosenheim. It is a family yard in every sense. The siblings train and produce their horses there, sharing their methods with riders around the world through the Aubenhausen Club and Academy.
Jessica’s love of horses started when she was just four years old, on visits to her aunt, who bred ponies. She has described it as love at first sight. Whenever she visited, she headed straight for the stables, and she was allowed to ride the ponies once a week. That day quickly became the highlight of her week.
At seven, she was given her first pony of her own: a Lewitzer called Little Girl. She later discovered
dressage on a German riding pony named Nino the Champ, qualifying for the national finals in Warendorf in 1998 and 1999. It all began with a little girl, a pony called Little Girl, and a bond that would one day carry her to Olympic gold.
Her path was not without setbacks. In 2001, as a teenager who had just moved up from ponies to horses, Jessica missed out on qualifying for the European Championships after going off course twice in her test. It was a painful lesson in the pressure of competition. She came back the following year to become double European junior champion. It is a reminder that even Olympic champions stumble, and that how you respond to a setback matters most.
With the mare TSF Dalera BB, Jessica won both team and individual gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, scoring 91.732% in the individual freestyle. She then did it again at Paris 2024. Back-to-back individual Olympic titles place her among the greatest in the history of the sport.
What sets Jessica apart is not only that she wins, but how she wins. Her training is holistic, built on the wellbeing of the horse, trust and lightness.
She wants to ride motivated horses. Her goal is to show each horse how to use his body so that every movement becomes easy for him. Because every horse has his own character and build, each one is trained as an individual.
She takes the long view: giving horses the time they need, building strength and understanding step by step, and never trading a horse’s future for a quick result. For Jessica, the horse always comes first.
Jessica believes riders should be as fit and as well prepared as they expect their horses to be. That is why her training pays as much attention to the rider’s body and mind as to the horse’s.
Mindset and mental skills. Mental strength is central to how Jessica rides and competes. She works on staying in the here and now, using fixed routines to create calm, security and stability, both at home and in the pressure of a championship arena. She also teaches mental strength and personal development to other riders, believing that the more balanced you are physically and mentally, the
better you can help your horse to be happy, fit and balanced.
Yoga as a daily routine. Yoga is part of Jessica’s everyday life. It keeps her supple, lets her tense
and release individual muscles with control, and trains her focus through movement and breath. At Aubenhausen, yoga is taught by Micaela Werndl, Jessica and Benjamin’s mother.
DressurFit. Around a decade before its launch, Jessica had a young horse with huge, extravagant movement that she found hard to sit. Rather than asking the horse to move smaller, she chose to improve her own fitness. With a team of experts she developed what became DressurFit, a rider fitness programme that combines functional training, neuro-athletics and yoga. It begins with a 12-week foundation phase with fitness tests and a personalised plan, aimed at a quieter, more balanced seat, more precise aids and finer communication with the horse.
A career at the top of the sport is built with the support of trusted partners. Jessica is backed by some of the world’s most respected names in luxury, sport and equestrianism, including Richard Mille, whose watches she has worn since joining the brand in 2016, as well as Hermès, Mercedes-Benz, Sunday Natural, ABUS, De Niro Boot Co., Agrobs, Stanglwirt and Agria.
The slogan captures the shape of the day. Jessica will teach six lessons, each with a different horse-and-rider combination at a different stage of training.
Taken on their own, each lesson offers practical insight. Taken together, they form one continuous journey through dressage training, showing how the same principles carry a horse from his early work to the highest level. For the audience, following all six lessons is like watching the whole path of dressage unfold in a single day.
A masterclass is an audience event, not a clinic. In a clinic, the focus is on the rider in the saddle, and spectators are an afterthought. In a masterclass, the audience is the whole point.
While she works with each horse and rider, Jessica explains her thinking to everyone watching: what she sees, why she asks for a particular change, and how the horse responds. Spectators follow her reasoning in real time. Whether you compete, coach, ride for pleasure or simply love horses, you leave with ideas you can take home to your own riding.
The riders in the arena are demo riders. Each brings their own horse and is coached live by Jessica, becoming the example through which she teaches the audience.
Being a demo rider means riding in front of a large crowd, being open to feedback and willing to try new things in the moment. It means letting your horse’s strengths and challenges become a learning opportunity for everyone watching. Demo riders are not there to put on a flawless show. They are there to show real training with real horses, which is exactly what makes a masterclass so valuable.
Seeing an Olympic champion teach live, in person, is a rare privilege anywhere in the world. Having one come to Africa is rarer still. This masterclass is a chance to hear Jessica’s voice, watch her eye for detail at work, and feel the atmosphere of the arena, rather than watching her from thousands of kilometres away on television.
Riders and spectators from across South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and beyond are expected to make the trip.
For those who want to get closer to the action, a limited number of VIP seats will be available. Along with a seat for the full day of lessons, VIP ticket holders will be invited to an exclusive meet-and-greet with Jessica.
This is a rare chance to spend some personal time with a four-time Olympic champion: ask her the questions you have always wanted to ask about her horses, her training and her journey to the top, have your programme, photo or memorabilia signed, and take home an autograph to remember the day by. With only a small number of VIP places on offer, these are expected to go quickly.
Proceeds from the masterclass go towards the Earthchild Project, so every ticket also supports a cause beyond the arena.
Founded in Cape Town in 2007 by Janna Kretzmar, the Earthchild Project is a registered non-profit organisation that brings holistic, complementary education into under-resourced primary schools in the Western Cape, with its work centred on the communities of Khayelitsha and Lavender Hill.
Working alongside both children and their teachers, its programmes focus on health, the environment, life skills, self-development and leadership.
In practice, that means yoga and mindfulness classes, organic food gardens, eco clubs and environmental education, woven into the school day and after-school programmes. The aim is to raise a generation of confident, conscious young people who feel connected to themselves, to each other and to the natural world. Teachers are supported too, through workshops and wellness retreats that help them bring these approaches into their own classrooms.
There is a natural fit with Jessica’s own approach. Yoga, calm focus and balance of body and mind are part of her daily routine, and they sit at the heart of what the Earthchild Project teaches thousands of children in Cape Town every year.
Find out more about their work, or support them directly:
Website: earthchildproject.org
Instagram: @earthchildproject
Facebook: facebook.com/EarthchildProject
YouTube: youtube.com/@EarthchildProject
The masterclass is more than what happens in the arena. Throughout the day, a shopping village with a range of vendors will be open, so you can browse, shop and make a full day of it between lessons.
Epona Equestrian Centre sits in Morningstar, on Cape Town’s northern edge, which puts some of the city’s favourite spots within easy reach. Blouberg Strand, with its famous postcard view of Table Mountain across the bay, Century City with its shopping, restaurants and hotels, and the Durbanville wine route are all roughly 20 minutes’ drive from the venue, while the V&A Waterfront is only a little further.
The wider Cape Winelands are an easy day trip, and February is high summer in the Cape: long, warm days made for the beach, a wine tasting or a sunset dinner by the sea. So rather than making it a day trip, why not make it a weekend? Book your stay, catch the masterclass on the Saturday, and spend the rest of the weekend enjoying everything Cape Town has to offer.
Don’t miss the day Olympic dressage comes to Cape Town.
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