Isabell Werth began her march toward Fort Worth, Texas, and the 2026 FEI World Cup Finals over the weekend in Basel, Switzerland, where the German rider claimed her first FEI Dressage World Cup qualifier victory of the season Saturday riding Wendy de Fontaine. The pair delivered a freestyle score of 86.15%, which while not a personal best, gave them a comfortable win and marked Werth’s second consecutive victory in Basel, after topping last year’s edition of the class with DSP Quantaz. 

Werth, who plans to travel to the U.S. ahead of the World Cup Finals to compete in the CDI-W FEI World Cup Qualifier during Week 7 of the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (Florida), has said she plans to ride DSP Quantaz in Ft. Worth if all goes to plan. 

Isabell Werth and Wendy de Fontaine ride a victory lap after winning the FEI Dressage World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle on Jan. 10 at the Longines CHI Classics in Basel, Switzerland. Martin Dokoupil/FEI Photo

This weekend, however, the focus was on “Wendy,” who topped Friday’s Grand Prix with a score of 78.67% before appearing—more settled than on Friday, Werth said—to win the freestyle by nearly 5 percentage points over her nearest competition, Swiss rider Charlotta Rogerson, who thrilled the hometown crowd aboard Bonheur de La Vie to take second on a personal-best score of 81.29%.

“Wendy was really on fire yesterday,” world No. 3 Werth said of the 12-year-old Danish Warmblood (Sezuan 2—Skovens Vanilla, Blue Hors Soprano) owned by Chateau de Fontaine and Madeliene Winter-Schulze. “I’m happy that today she was so much more focused. We only started a little bit tense in the canter. I think we need a few more competitions in a row to get where we want to be. The piaffe, passage and canter pirouettes were fantastic today. 

“Her little sneeze in the one-tempis caused a mistake, but today I got my two-tempis right,” Werth added, referring to an error in the Grand Prix.

Watch their winning freestyle, courtesy of FEI.tv:

Perhaps the loudest applause of the day was reserved for runners-up Rogerson and Bonheur de La Vie. Competing in front of a hometown crowd, the pair achieved personal bests in both the Grand Prix and the freestyle, with their 81.29% marking the highest Swiss freestyle score in many years. Finishing second on both days, Rogerson could hardly believe what had unfolded over the weekend.

“It’s incredible,” Rogerson, 28, said. “I still don’t really realize what’s going on. ‘Bonheur’ is an amazing horse, and we are starting to understand each other better and better in the arena. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity, grateful for this horse… this is a dream coming true. I still need to pinch myself.”

Third place went to Germany’s Raphael Netz and DSP Dieudonne (80.72%), strengthening their lead in the FEI Dressage World Cup Western European League standings.

See complete scores here.