Michèle George, Belgian para-rider, won the level V freestyle for the third time at the European Para-Dressage Championships with her horse Best Of. The result may not have come as a great surprise, as the pair are the current Olympic and World Champions. They won the gold medal with a superior 81.43 % and are already looking ahead to the Olympic Games in Paris.
As a former Verden auction horse, Best Of is the title heroine of the Verden auction in January. She was bred by Dirk Radeke from Verden-Walle. The Bonifatius/Maurice daughter was born in his stables in 2010. As a six-year-old dressage horse, she changed hands at the Verden auction, along with three other offspring from her dam Melodie. None other than dressage trainers Jasmin Nussbaumer and Hartwig Burfeind took care of Best Of’s further training and immediately achieved victories in medium (M) level dressage competitions and high placings at advanced (S) level.
Today, Michèle George is Best Of’s proud rider. The experienced and successful dressage rider from Belgium already has over 66 victories to her name. The two have not been a couple for long, but have already celebrated great successes together. Michèle discovered and fell in love with the bay mare at Isabell Werth’s stables in 2019 and won the bronze medal at the European Championships in the same year. “In the beginning, it was important to me that Best Of trusted me in the test. I definitely didn’t want to overtax her. Now we know each other better and she’s starting to dance through the test with me. Paris can come,” says the forty-nine-year-old dressage rider.
