Isobel Wessels
Training
Isobel has been involved with riding, training and judging dressage for more than 30 years. Her inspiration started as a teenager whilst living in Vienna and working with Ernst Bachinger from the Spanish Riding School. She had a very successful career whilst living in South Africa and ended as National Champion on a pure thoroughbred ex-racehorse. She has spent long periods in Germany riding and training and it is from this source that she bases her philosophies.
Her return home to the UK gave her more opportunities to ride and train and the result was 25 national and numerous regional titles producing and competing horses from young horse classes to grand prix. One of her best horses from this period was Leopardo with whom she was a member of the Olympic Potential Squad of the time. Together they won and were placed many times nationally and internationally and achieved a Team badge in 2002. Later she had enormous success with her own horse Chagall and together they won 10 National Titles. To date she has trained some 10 horses to Grand Prix and currently has a 7 year old showing much talent.
Her passion has always been the training and she currently works full time producing riders and horses in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. She was also the High Performance Dressage Trainer for the New Zealand Event Team covering London, Rio and Tokyo.
She became a 3* International Judge in 2000 and after finishing her international riding career at the end of 2002 (it is not permitted to do both in the same year) she passed to International 4* status in 2003. In July 2011 she was promoted to the highest level of 5* International. She became an official FEI Course Director in 2015.
In this capacity Isobel gives seminars and judges major shows all over the world including many European Championships for Seniors, Young Riders, Juniors, U25s and Ponies. In addition she has judged the World Breeding Championships for Young Horses many times both as Jury member and Commentator. The highlight of her judging career is clearly to be part of the Ground Jury for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
