Norwegian Grand Prix rider Isabel Freese is leaving her employer, Paul Schockemöhle, to go independent as a rider. The 47-year old Freese has been head dressage rider at the stallion station in Mühlen, Germany, since 2014.
Isabel Freese (née Bache) has been living and working in Germany for more than two decades. She moved from Norway to Germany as a 20-year old and was first based at Roger Seegert's yard, before relocating to Holga Finken's stable. Bache has been very loyal to her long-time trainer and followed him to Gestut Bonhomme in July 2013. When Holga called it quits in Werder, Bache moved to Schockemöhle in September 2014 but kept training with him.
Freese married show jumper Bastian Freese and they have a child together in November 2028. The couple has split and Bastian left Schockemöhle, but the two are committed to raising their child together.
Isabel stayed on in Mühlen riding Paul's best stallions and had American Brandi Roeninck as an assistant under her. When Lukas Fischer became the managing director at Schockemöhle's yard in 2023 the dynamics changed. Isabel will now go her own way.
Isabel celebrated major successes in the international dressage arena aboard the horses that Paul owns together with Danish Lone Boegh Henriksen. Aboard Vitalis she won the Nurnberger Burgpokal in 2016 and on the Oldenburg stallion Total Hope (by Totilas out of Weihegold) she competed at.
Isabel could have ridden her last championship on the black stallion at the 2026 World Championships in Aachen, although a window might be opened. "We are working on a plan for them," Boegh Henriksen told Eurodressage.
Photo © Astrid Appels
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