Isabell Werth’s dressage mare Fabienne put to sleep
Isabell Werth’s former dressage mare Fabienne has been put to sleep aged 29.
She was one of the German Olympic medallist’s best horses in the 1990s, winning the 1992 World Cup in Gothenburg with the rider.
Commenting on her website dressage rider Isabell Werth said the chestnut mare had become ill last weekend.
“She had lost all her strength and power. She had always been fit and in good shape even though she was nearly 30, but now she felt so bad and weak that we had to put her down,” she said.
“During her last years she had enjoyed life with Gigolo. Now the two of them can graze together again, somewhere up there. I am very sad but console myself that they both had a wonderful retirement here at our place,” she added.
Fabienne’s field mate — Werth’s 1996 individual Olympic gold medal winning horse Gigolo — died on 23 September, 2009, aged 26.
Fabienne was a Westfalian mare by Feuerschein I. She was bred by Ewald Bunge of Nottuln, Germany.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.