Wednesday, 18 December 2019
British dressage is riding high, with the top three from Monday’s grand prix repeated tonight in the freestyle.
Following their victory in last night’s grand prix, Charlotte Dujardin and Mount St John Freestyle continued their reign as queens of the Olympia Grand Hall in the FEI World Cup Freestyle. Set to the score from Disney’s Frozen, they danced their way to a winning score of 87.520% – a full three percent ahead of second-placed Carl Hester and Hawtins Delicato. This marks Charlotte’s first freestyle victory at Olympia since the retirement of Valegro.
Carl Hester pulled off a personal best score of 84.470% in his mistake-free test with ‘Del’. He was keen to finish the horse’s season on a good note after their tense freestyle routine at the FEI European Championships, and has managed that in fine style over the past two days.
Charlotte (Lottie) Fry has captured the hearts of the British public this week, firmly marking her place as Britain’s next dressage star. This is her first competitive outing to Olympia and, riding the black stallion Everdale, she once again joined Carl and Charlotte on the podium. Their freestyle routine, using music that only arrived the previous week, featured tracks from Whitney Houston and Rhianna and scored 82.620%.
In total, seven of the top riders in the class were British – Lara Butler and Rubin Al Asad were fifth, Richard Davison and Bubblingh were seventh, Gareth Hughes and KK Woodstock were eight, and a delighted Louise Bell and Into The Blue slotted into ninth.