Silver Medals at the European Dressage Championships
Britain have won silver medals in the team event at the European Dressage Championships in Hagen in Germany.
Following competitive performances from the Danish riders Charlotte Dujardin and her Tokyo Olympic ride Geo had to score over 78.64% for Britain to win silver. Charlotte and Gio put together another impressive test scoring 79.82%. Germany took the win 6.6% ahead of Britain with Denmark taking 3rd place 5.78% behind and Sweden finishing in fourth.
The British silver medals winning team was made up of Carl Hester riding En Vogue, Lottie Fry riding Everdale, Charlotte Dujardin riding Gio and Gareth Hughes riding Sintano Hof Olympia.
Charlotte also an won individual bronze medal. Speaking after the competition she said “I’m really pleased with our performance – obviously we’ve just come back from Tokyo, where he performed only his fifth or sixth grand prix, so he’s still very inexperienced. Gio was actually a little bit scared of the white boards around the arena today as they are a bit taller than usual, and I knew if he hit them and they moved – they’re ones that are quite easy to move – he’d be scared of that. Of course, he did hit one when he got into canter and then he had a little bit of a spook. “He felt a little bit greener in the arena than I was expecting, but then I have to remember what he’s done, which is so little. and I have all the pressure to hold it together and, hopefully, keep the team in a silver medal position – that’s what I was really aiming for going in there. And we’ve done it and I’m absolutely over the moon for Gareth [Hughes, who was reserve at the Tokyo Games] that he’s now a part of winning a team medal too.”