Jessica von Bredow-Werndl on Dealing with Pressure and (Online) Criticism

Dressage

F.O.C.U.S.

Double Olympic champion Jessica von Bredow-Werndl has lately been quite outspoken about how difficult it is to forge her come back on the German team with new Grand Prix horses after the retirement of her star mare Dalera BB.

Forging Her Way Forward

The Munich based rider wants to prove that she is no one-hit wonder on Dalera and came very close to being back on one of the most competitive dressage teams in the world, the German team.

Aboard Diallo she had a thrilling campaign in 2025 which abruptly and dramatically came to an end when the gelding died unexpectedly.

With Times Kismet, which she took over from previous Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin, she needed more time than anticipated to adapt the mare to her riding style and system of care and training. While the hope was there for 2026, a 10th place at the German Championships showed they weren't fully ready yet and then were forced to end their campaign in Balve due to a fever outbreak in the barn. Last week Jessica officially withdrew the horse from team contention.

On Dealing with Pressure

On the late Diallo at the 2025 CDIO Aachen

The pressure to perform well in Balve at the first of two German team selection trials - as an Olympic champion - was tremendous and it takes much mental strength, resilience and perseverance from an athlete. Many believe that having won Olympic gold four times (2x with the team) would surely take away all pressure, but nothing is further from the truth, Jessica explained.

"I still feel pressure again and again. Sometimes even too much and it feels heavy," she admitted. "A little pressure is actually something positive for me. It shows me that something matters to me. That I have goals. That I’m focused and want to give my best. If I didn’t care about anything, there would be no pressure."

To her that is exactly the key point. "I can’t always control whether pressure arises," she said, "but I can decide how much space I give it. The more consciously I remind myself of that, the more I realise that pressure does not control me. I decide how I deal with it."

Jessica continued, "not every thought deserves my energy, not every expectation deserves my attention; because often the difference lies not in the situation, but in our perspective."

Lewis Hamilton

Werndl compared her situation with F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who switched from Mercedes to Ferrari.

"It also took him one and a half years until he recorded his first win and I'm so happy for him. I don't know Lewis Hamilton personally but I can roughly imagine how much he wanted this success. You could also say, 'everything that comes afterwards is the cherry on top'."

Winning her fourth gold at the 2024 Olympics

Jessica admitted that "the problem is that I have this professional athlete gene in me and I wish for myself that I can be successful again as quickly as possible with the next horse. Pressure is something we, above all, put on ourselves and I think that it is so important that we keep reminding ourselves that it takes as long as it takes."

On Online Criticism

With a social media following of almost 500,000, Werndl experiences this pressure from all around her, as well as from the online community.

She confessed that, “I wish I could finally stop caring what other people think of me," and added, "we humans aren’t designed to be completely indifferent to the opinions of others. Our brains are programmed to want to belong. In the past, this was essential for survival. That’s why rejection or criticism still often feels so painful today. So the problem isn’t that other people’s opinions matter to us. The problem is that we often give every opinion the same weight."

She points her sensitivity to comments, reviews, or a post, even from people who known little of her life.

"Suddenly we start to doubt ourselves," she stated. "One thought that keeps coming back to me is Mel Robbins’ ‘Let them’ idea," she said about how to handle it. "Let people think what they think. Let them misunderstand you. Let them disagree with you. And then remember: Now it’s your turn to carry on down your own path regardless. Not out of defiance. But out of inner freedom."

Advice from a Pro

The relief and joy after winning in Paris

Jessica believes that self-question is a good quality, but the right questions need to be asked.

The question is not “How can I stop caring about other people’s opinions?” but rather, “why do I give strangers so much power over my own life?”

Her advice is asking oneself from which people does she genuinely want feedback? Wonder if she were to ask this person for advice and if not, why should their criticism carry more weight than her own convictions? And finally she asks herself if she is making this decision out of conviction or out of fear of what others might think?

"Ultimately, it’s not about not caring what others think. It’s about trusting our own voice more again," she concluded.