Last year dressage superstar Jessica von Bredow-Werndl successfully defended her Olympic gold medals both in the teams and individual competition in Paris on her champion mare Dalera. A year on, I sat down with Jessi as she compares her experiences of both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics and post Olympics. What she experienced may not be what you imagined.Things can look very different from the outside. This is a very honest, heartfelt and insightful interview.

We talk about the pressure of Paris, the rituals she used to get through. Jessi opens up about what strategies she learnt from Tokyo that helped her through Paris.

She didn’t have the show she had hoped at Aachen this year with her new ride Diallo, but it’s about putting things in perspective, dealing with “failures” and the positives she learnt in the days afterwards. We discuss the differences between the horses, balancing life and how the death of her coach affected her and why the journey is so important.