As a living legend in dressage, she has experienced almost everything – great successes, but also various setbacks. In the sixth episode of the CHIO Aachen podcast, Isabell Werth talks about what motivates her to achieve top performances, what food she can't say no to and how she deals with debates about equestrian sports: “Not everyone has to love our sport. We also need critics, but I always want to see a fair discussion and not false activism.”

Since childhood, Isabell Werth has spent more time in the stables and with horses than with many people. This is still true today, even for her family. The most successful female Olympian in Germany and the most successful female rider in the world cannot imagine her life any other way, as she reveals in the sixth episode of the CHIO Aachen Podcast – the first part of a two-part episode: “I still put my heart and soul into it today. And that’s because I don’t just enjoy the sport or the success, but the horse as such. It’s my passion and ultimately also my great love.”

It is precisely this passion that continues to motivate and inspire the exceptional rider to keep bringing new horses to the top of the sport and to hold her own against the international competition – often when the pressure couldn’t be greater. “That’s what defines the sport for me, that you perform at your best when it’s particularly intense, when it’s particularly close and when the competition is really on. That’s when I simply enjoy it the most. And I think it’s because I enjoy it and don’t see it as pressure that it’s so good,” explains Isabell Werth in the podcast.

She also takes an offensive approach to the current debate about equestrian sport in general and dressage in particular. “Not everyone has to love our sport. We also need critics, but I always want to have a fair debate and not false activism,” she says, referring to past scandals – and emphasises that the many positive examples of how horses are treated often receive far less attention than the few bad incidents.

Such categorisations certainly have something to do with the ‘strong sense of justice’ that Isabell Werth says she has always had. And that led her to study law, which she successfully completed after school alongside riding. “It was important to me and always gave me a good feeling that I could return to a profession at any time,” she recalls of times when her unique career in equestrian sport was not yet foreseeable.

Her numerous participations in the Olympic Games also bring back fond memories, such as Rio 2016: “After we had loaded the horses at the airport, we drove through Rio at breakneck speed with a police escort in all directions. It was incredible, I felt like I was in a film.” But the dressage queen also talks about goulash at 30 degrees in the shade during the Games in Barcelona and outfits for the opening ceremony that made her cry with laughter.

All of this and more can be found in the sixth episode of the CHIO Aachen Podcast. You can listen to the new episode here and anywhere else where podcasts are available.