Dressage squad
Charlotte Dujardin
- Age: 38
- Based in: Newent, Gloucestershire
- World Ranking: 5
Charlotte began her equestrian career in showing at a young age – her interest in dressage started in 2007 when she went for lessons with Carl Hester. After several lessons and a short time spent working on the yard, Carl offered her a full-time position as a rider.
Charlotte made her senior championship debut, partnered with Valegro, at the FEI European Championship in 2011 at Herning – the first time a British dressage team won a gold medal. The pair went to their first Olympic Games in 2012 and returned with two gold medals. They went on to win five team medals and seven individual golds for Great Britain at championship level, including team silver and individual gold at the Rio 2016 Games. Together, they concurrently held World, European and Olympic champion titles and still hold the world records in the Grand Prix (87.460%, Olympia CDI-W 2014); Grand Prix Special (88.022%, Hagen CDI4* 2012) and Grand Prix Freestyle (94.300%, Olympia CDI-W 2014) tests.
Following Valegro's retirement, Charlotte took Mount St John Freestyle to the World Equestrian Games at Tryon in 2018, securing team and individual bronze. She contested her third Games in Tokyo with the 'pocket rocket' Gio, where three brave performances helped the team to a bronze medal and took a bronze for themselves in the Freestyle against the odds. The pair headed to Hagen in Germany for the FEI European Championships a matter of weeks later and put their experience to good use, claiming a silver team medal and securing a second bronze individually.
Charlotte brought forward her newest star, Imhotep, for the World Championships in Herning in 2022, scoring 77.407% and finishing in fourth place in the Grand Prix to help gain the team silver medal and qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
A short break followed that winter as Charlotte welcomed her first child, Isabella, into the world in March 2023. However, she was soon back to her winning ways, heading to Royal Windsor Horse Show just weeks after returning to the saddle and scooping the win in both classes with Imhotep. They then headed to CHIO Aachen this spring to compete in the FEI Dressage Nations Cup, where the British team finished third. They were runners up in the Grand Prix Special and third in the Grand Prix Freestyle.
Charlotte found herself back on the podium at the FEI European Championship that summer, where she and Imhotep help Britain to team gold, followed by a pair of bronze medals in the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle. They won every outing since then, including the London International Horse Show leg of the World Cup series in December 2023.
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Imhotep
- Known as: Pete
- Owners: Carl Hester and Coral Ingham
- Colour: Chestnut
- Sex: Gelding
- Age: 11
- Height: 16.2hh
- Broodlines: Everdale x Vivaldi
- Breeder: T Huizing
- Groom: Francesca Gorni
- World ranking: 5
Pete was purchased by Carl Hester from a video when he was a young horse. His overexuberant nature came with a habit for bucking riders off, which prompted Carl to hand him over to Charlotte to train at home, while also being competed as a young horse by stable jockey Sadie Smith. Coral Ingham came onboard as co-owner and Charlotte took over Pete’s competitive career in 2020, and they’re since unbeaten on home soil.
Despite being nine years old, new to Grand Prix level and with only two international starts under his belt, Pete was selected with Charlotte to compete at the FEI Dressage World Championship in Herning in 2022, where the British team took silver. Remarkably, ‘Pete’ contested his first ever Grand Prix Freestyle at the championship, taking a credible 10th place with a reworking of Gio’s floorplan from Tokyo. That same day, a Facebook from Sadie reminded everyone that it was exactly three years since young ‘Pete’ won the Elementary Regional Championships with her – an incredible insight into just how talented he is.
Pete had a break after Herning while Charlotte was on maternity leave, returning to competition at Royal Windsor Horse Show in May and looking better than ever. He and Charlotte took the win in both classes, which set them up nicely to head to CHIO Aachen, where they were second in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special, and third in the Freestyle. He's since made a further team appearance at the FEI European Championship in Riesenbeck, picking up a team gold, individual bronze and Freestyle bronze – the latter was earned for a floorplan using music from the Dreamworks film Madagascar, which Charlottea and composer Tom Hunt had only finalised the week of hte competition.
At home, Pete lives out in the field with his friend Jaguar and only comes in to be ridden.
Personal Bests
| Grand Prix | Grand Prix Special | Grand Prix Freestyle |
|---|---|---|
| 81.761% | 81.362% | 91.396% |
| London (2023) | Hickstead CDI3* (2024) | Riesenbeck (2023) |
Charlotte Fry
- Age: 28
- Based in: Den Hout, Netherlands
- World Ranking: 3
Lottie was born into dressage – her late mother, Laura Fry, had competed at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and was a European team silver medallist before going on to run a successful dressage training yard at home in Yorkshire. Lottie was sat in the corner during lessons and training most days and was riding a horse before she could walk. From 2012, Lottie trained with Carl Hester, who rode on the Barcelona Olympic team with her mum, and he helped her to secure a place at Van Olst Horses in Holland, working and training with five-time Danish Olympian Anne Van Olst. Lottie continues to be based there.
Having secured a trio of medals at the FEI U25 European Championships with Dark Legend, Lottie's first senior team call up came when she was just 23, when she rode Dark Legend as part of the fourth-placed team at the FEI Dressage European Championship in Rotterdam. Her next team appearance was at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with the young, expressive stallion Everdale – they made a lasting impression, helping Britain to team bronze as well as finishing 13th in the Freestyle. At the FEI Dressage European Championship in Hagen just a few weeks later, Lottie and Everdale put their Olympic experience to use and achieved three personal bests, which saw them finish fifth in all three tests, play a key role in the team's silver medal and score 84%+ in the Freestyle.
For the FEI Dressage World Championship, Lottie brought forward another exciting stallion from Van Olst Horses in the form of Glamourdale,with whom she had previously taken the FEI Dressage Young Horse World Championship in 2018. The pair set the Herning stadium alight, helping Britain to a team silver medal, before going on to take individual gold in the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle – Great Britain had a new dressage world champion! The pair's next big outing was the London International Horse Show in December, where they won the FEI Dressage World Cup qualifier.
Lottie and Glamourdale returned to the British team for the FEI European Championship in Riesenbeck in 2023, where they took team gold and Grand Prix Freestyle silver.
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Glamourdale
- Known as: Glammy
- Owners: Van Olst Horses
- Colour: Black
- Sex: Stallion
- Age: 11
- Height: 16.3hh
- Bloodline: Lord Leatherdale x Negro
- Breeder: J. Rodenburg (NED)
- Groom: Richard Hauwaerts
- World ranking: 3
Related to the great Valegro through his damsire line, Glamourdale is a breeding stallion based at Van Olst Horses with a number of very talented foals on the ground. He and Lottie won the FEI Young Horse World Championship in 2018 when he was seven years old, receiving a perfect 10 for their canter work. They made their Grand Prix debut in 2021 and in that time have never finished lower than seventh in all their international outings.
Glammy's first time representing Great Britain was at the Nations Cup in Compiègne in May, where he and Lottie topped the leaderboard in both tests and gained a personal best in the Grand Prix. Selection for the FEI Dressage World Championship in Herning offered Glammy the chance to step out of the shadow of his half-brother, Lottie's Olympic and European Championship ride Everdale, and show what he can do on the senior world stage.
Show everyone he did – the impressive black stallion captured hearts in Herning with his elegance, expression and, of course, that enormous extended canter. After helping Great Britain to a team silver medal, he and Lottie went on to take the individual gold medal in the Grand Prix Special and earned themselves the title of world champions. All eyes were upon them for the Grand Prix Freestyle and they didn’t disappoint – performing to a ‘Best of British’ pop medley, they broke the coveted +90% barrier with a personal best of 90.654%!
Glammy joined Lottie for her homecoming event at the London International Horse Show in December 2022, where they competed in the British leg of the FEI Dressage World Cup series. To rapturous applause, they earned themselves the win with a huge 90.995%
They were unbeaten in the early part of 2023, before a call-up came for the FEI European Championship in Riesenbeck. There, they helped the British squad take a historic team gold, followed by a new personal best in the Grand Prix Freestyle to take silver.
| Grand Prix | Grand Prix Special | Grand Prix Freestyle |
|---|---|---|
| 81.258% | 82.508% | 92.379% |
| Riesenbeck (2023) | Herning (2022) | London International Horse Show (2022) |
Carl Hester
- Age: 56
- Based in: Newent, Gloucestershire
- World ranking: 25
Carl learnt to ride at an early age in Sark before moving to Dorset to work at the Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy. Two years after taking up dressage, he was crowned the 1985 Young Rider National Champion.
After representing Great Britain at the 1990 World Games on his employer Dr Bechtolsheimer’s Giorgione, he went on to win his first medal for Great Britain at the 2009 European Championships.
Carl claimed team gold and two individual silver medals with Uthopia in 2011 – his first ever individual honours. The combination went on to represent Great Britain at the London Olympics in 2012, where they secured team gold, before adding a team bronze to their tally in 2013. Carl was awarded an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List.
The British-bred Hawtins Delicato, or Del, was produced by Carl's protégé, Charlotte Dujardin, up to Grand Prix before Carl took over the ride in May 2018. After contesting three CDIs, where they finished on the podium every time with scores over 75%, they were selected to be part of the team that won bronze at the World Equestrian Games in 2018.
In 2019, Carl took on the ride of En Vogue, owned by Charlotte Dujardin. She'd produced the talented but quirky gelding to Grand Prix, but Carl gelled with him better. Their scores impressed each time out and lead to selection for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics where Carl produced one of the best tests of his life to secure the team bronze medal. Weeks later, they were in action at the European Championships in Germany where he played a vital role in claiming team silver in a battle with Denmark.
An unfortunate injury to En Vogue meant a quiet 2022 for Carl, although he still attended the FEI Dressage World Championship in Herning in the dual roles of coach and owner of Charlotte Dujardin's Imhotep. He kept a number of Charlotte's rides ticking over at home while she was on maternity leave, before returning to competition in January with new partner Fame.
Just months into their partnership, Fame put Carl back on the British team, this time for the FEI European Championship in Reisenbeck, where they helped the team to a fantastic gold medal.
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Fame
- Known as: Fame
- Owners: Fiona Bigwood, Penny Bigwood, Mette Bigwood, Anders Dahl
- Colour: Bay
- Sex: Stallion
- Age: 13
- Height: 16.2hh
- Breeding: Bordeaux 28 x Rhodium
- Breeder: V.O.F Gerritsen (NED)
- Groom: Lucy Scudamore
- World ranking: 212
Fame's competitive career started at the hands of Anders Dahl in 2020. They did two outings at Inter II together, before the ride passed to Anders' wife Fiona Bigwood to begin Fame's Grand Prix career.
Family commitments and a focus on her other top horse, Daytona Platinum, meant that Fiona decided to pass the ride on Fame to her friend, team mate and coach, Carl Hester at the end of 2022.
Their first competitive outing, after just eight weeks together, was the Grand Prix at Hartpury in January, which they proceeded to win. In fact, of their eight outings and 10 tests together, only twice have the pair not won – they were second to Charlotte Dujardin and Imhotep in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special at Wellington in June.
Fame and Carl made their championship debut together at the FEI European Championship in Reisenbeck that summer, where they helped the British team win gold. They also finished fifth in both the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle – despite the latter being their first test of this kind as a partnership.
"I love riding Fame – he loves his job and is a real overachiever," said Carl after their win at Hartpury. "He is just divine to ride. He’s hot and goey and just needs steering in a calm way.”
Personal Bests
| Grand Prix | Grand Prix Special | Grand Prix Freestyle |
|---|---|---|
| 78.540% | 80.106% | 85.461% |
| Riesenbeck (2023) | Riesenbeck (2023) | Riesenbeck (2023) |
Becky moody
- Age: 44
- Based in: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- World ranking: 11
Becky was born in Scotland, with a horsey mother and two older sisters who were already riding. She got her first pony – a 10.2hh strawberry roan four-year-old called Kelly – when she was four, and they grew up together, doing lots of hacking, beach rides and lots of different Pony Club activities.
When Becky was six, her family moved to Yorkshire. She continued to do all-things-horses, including producing ponies with the help of her older sister, Hannah. It was one of these ponies who first got her into dressage because he had a flare for it. By the time she was in her early teens, she already knew that she wante to ride and train horses for a living, so left school after her GCSEs and did an Equine NVQ apprenticeship.
Becky made her championship debut at the FEI Dressage Young Rider European Championship at Hartpury in 2000, where she picked up a team bronze medal riding Kwadraat. They were selected again the following year, where the team this time finished fourth.
Her international Grand Prix debut came in 2017 in the CDI3* at Keysoe Equestrian Centre, but it was when home-bred Jagerbomb reached the top level that she was able to achieve the things she'd dreamed of as a young rider. First, the pair were selected as the travelling reserves for the British team at the FEI European Championship at Riesenbeck in 2023, which gave Becky a real taste for the world stage. Earlier this year, she and Jagerbomb made their senior British team debut at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup at Compiègne, where they finished second in the Grand Prix Special. The following month, they were back on the team at the FEI Nations Cups at Rotterdam and back on the podium with a third in the Grand Prix Special.
Becky runs Moody Dressage with her sister Hannah, where she produces horses and coaches clients.
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Jagerbomb
- Known as: Bomb
- Owners: Jo Cooper and Becky Moody
- Colour: Bay
- Sex: Gelding
- Age: 10yrs
- Height: 17.1hh
- Breeding: Dante Wetino x Jazz
- Breeder: Becky Moody (GBR)
- Groom: Kim Masson
- World ranking: 14
Bomb has been with Becky his entire life – she bought his mother as a seven-year-old with very high hopes for her, but a field injury prevented her from reaching her potential. Becky bred three foals from her, the last of which was Bomb. She describes him as a yard favourite and being 'just the loveliest person, so good to deal with and great have around on the yard'. Howver, she wasn't convinced he had the talent to go to the top level and was intending to sell him as a four-year-old, but her sister Hannah convinced her to stick with him. Luckily, she did, because Bomb's trainability and heart of gold meant the he progressed through the levels and, as he got stronger, he began to show just what he was capable of doing.
Bomb only started his Grand Prix career last year, although it didn't prevent him from winning the Grand Prix Freestyle on his first international outing, which was at Hickstead in May 2023. Two more international Grand Prix competitions later (Wellington and Hartpury CDI3*s), and he and Becky found themselves as travelling reserves for the FEI European Championship. This was followed by two third-place finishes at the London International Horse Show, behind Paris team mates Charlotte Dujardin and Lottie Fry – appropriately, their Grand Prix Freestyle was to a Tom Jones medley, including the song 'Sex Bomb'.
As part of their selection campaign, Becky and Bomb have been on two FEI Nations Cup teams, in Compiegne and Rotterdam, where they finished in the top three in both Grand Prix Specials.
Personal bests
| Grand Prix | Grand Prix Special | Grand Prix Freestyle |
|---|---|---|
| 75.457%% | 76.191% | 84.59% |
| London International Horse Show (2022) | Addington CDI3* (2024) | London International Horse Show (2022) |