Dressage-News

HECKFIELD, England, May 12, 2021–Charlotte Dujardin rode Gio to victory over Mount St. John Freestyle in the CDI3* Grand Prix Wednesday for the fourth straight Big Tour win in five starts on the 10-year-old gelding in preparation for the Olympics in less than 11 weeks. Carl Hester on En Vogue posted a personal best for third place with disparities in scores as wide as 80.978% to match Charlotte and Gio’s top mark, down to 72.935% by a Dutch judge.

Charlotte and Gio scored 79.130%, with two judges awarding marks above 80%, in only the second head-to-head international competition against Freestyle in just the handful of competitions available in the continuing coronavirus pandemic. The pair received five marks of 10 for different movements–half pass, twice for passage, pirouette right and the final halt–but low marks for a mistake in the one-tempi changes.

Freestyle, a 12-year-old Hanoverian mare that Charlotte competed for Great Britain for team and individual bronze medals at the 2018 World Equestrian Games, placed second on 77.935%.

In the only previous CDI competing against each other, in the Grand Prix at Keysoe, England last October, Freestyle came out on top. Gio was spotted by Charlotte, Great Britain’s gold medal rider on Valegro at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, at a master class in Los Angeles six years ago and immediately bought the horse with a New Zealand supporter, Renai Hart, and her coach and mentor, Carl Hester.

Carl and En Vogue posted a personal best score of 77.500% for third place. Two British judges awarded the pair more than 80%, one giving a score 0f 80.978% that matched the top mark for Charlotte and Gio and the other putting the pair second on 80.217% while the Dutch judge gave them 72.935%, the lowest mark on the five-member panel. This was the only their third Big Tour event since the duo began Grand Prix last October when they logged the previous best result of 76.500%.

Gareth Hughes and Sintano van Hof Olympia was fourth on 73.783% in the second Big Tour outing for the British team championship rider and the 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding.

Fiona Bigwood, an Olympic and World Games team silver medalist for Great Britain, debuted Hawtins Delicato for a score of 71.848% and sixth place. Fiona took over the ride from Carl Hester who rode the 13-year-old British-bred gelding at the 2019 European Championships and the 2018 Tryon WEG.

CORRECTION: An earlier version using the online results misidentified the judges and nationalities. This version has been corrected.

Results:

CDI3* Grand Prix