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Photo credit: BEF Equestrian/Jon Stroud Media
It was another medal for Great Britain in today’s Grand Prix Special, where all three riders produced solid tests
Riding as the travelling reserve for Charlotte Dujardin, Becky Moody on her homebred, 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood Jagerbomb was first to go for Team GB. Becky got off to a good start and kept the horse focused and settled throughout her test, with seamless transitions that pleased the judges. Her subsequent score of 76.489% took Great Britain into first place at that point in the competition. Speaking after her test, Becky said: “What an amazing stadium and the crowd was fantastic. I came to do my very best and the team around me are amazing. My horse was a total legend. He’s a lovely, lovely horse and a total dude. He’s been quite spicy here, but Carl has been helping us find our inner calm. He was a bit excited initially, so we had a brief halt with just enough time to salute but then we were on it, and he settled. When you’ve trained a horse from a youngster, you get to know each other very well because you do everything together and I have to say, he’s quite a character but a real yard favourite at home.”
Second to compete for Team GB were Carl Hester and 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion Fame. The horse who Carl describes as making him “smile” is a hot ride with lots of energy to channel, but Carl kept him together, despite a few spooky moments at the start, and a small loss of rhythm just before the first passage cost him a couple of marks. Carl ended on a score of 76.520%, maintaining Team GB’s first place at that point but with some fierce competition still to follow, Team GB’s last rider, Lottie Fry, had work to do if the team was to bring home a medal. Carl commented after his test: “Looking at the scores all year you can see how everyone’s been shifting around and how Isabell [Werth] has been improving, which she proved in her test today. The Danish are very consistent and very strong. Becky Moody, the newest star to hit the Olympics, was amazing and it’s so exciting to see her produce a performance like that. I had a fragile start to my test. Fame was brilliant out there, but he was so spooky. At the beginning I couldn’t get on the sides and, of course in that test, everything happens from the sides. But he came back up with all his good marks and points and he’s a horse that anyone would love riding. After the week we’ve had, if we can get a medal we will as a team be really united and excited.”
With close marks between the top three countries – Germany, Denmark and Great Britain – the pressure was on for Lottie Fry and the 13-year-old stallion Glamourdale. Their performance didn’t disappoint British fans to finish on a score of 79.483%, but the last two performances from Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Germany’s Jessica von Bredow-Werndl saw Germany take gold and Denmark the silver, putting Team GB into bronze. Lottie said: “I had an amazing ride today – so many improvements from the Grand Prix. There are still a few little things we can improve for tomorrow [the Freestyle and decider of the individual medals] but I had an amazing test. We both really enjoyed it and today I was really happy with the changes, the pirouettes and, as usual, the extended canter.”
Hats off to all our riders for a magnificent performance and another medal to add to Team GB at the 2024 Olympics.
Team medal results
Gold: Germany – 235.790
Silver: Denmark – 235.669
Bronze: Great Britain – 232.492