While organisers were busy shovelling snow at the Spruce Meadows Masters in Calgary, Canada, British spectators at Blenheim Horse Trials were basking in the delights of an Indian summer. Talk about extremes. . . However, in spite of the climatic differences, these two events formed part of an amazing autumn of competition, both at home and abroad, with British riders bringing home the bacon once again. . .
Team GBR kick-started a sizzling four weeks of competition with an outstanding performance in Caen, France, where they dominated the Alltech FEI world Equestrian Games (wEG) to finish top of the medal table with 15 medals.
Team GBR kick-started a sizzling four weeks of competition with an outstanding performance in Caen, France, where they dominated the Alltech FEI world Equestrian Games (wEG) to finish top of the medal table with 15 medals.
World-class
All eyes were on Charlotte Dujardin at this, her World Equestrian Games debut. With her horse, Valegro, they were nothing short of brilliant as they added Grand Prix Freestyle gold to their Grand Prix Special title - and with a music routine they had only performed twice before.
Our dressage team was pipped to silver by Germany as were our eventers, who finished hot on their heels. Sandra Auffarth snatched Individual Eventing Gold from her German team-mate Michael Jung, and just 2.3 penalty points separated the top three, with one showjumping knock-down denying William Fox-Pitt the gold. But he didn’t come away empty handed - taking bronze in the Individual.
Going for gold
Riding high on the success of our euphoric dressage team, our Para-dressage riders swept the board in indomitable style, taking Team Gold. And Lee Pearson made it a hat-trick of gold medals with two Individual titles.
Also taking on the rest of the world was vaulter Joanne Eccles, who gave a flawless display on her horse, W H Bentley. She took the Individual title, then won bronze in the Pas de Deux with her sister, Hannah.
However, while it wasn’t to be for our showjumpers, one rider - Dutchman Jeroen Dubbeldam - could do no wrong and everything he touched turned to gold. He earned himself the title, World Champion 2014, in glittering style by riding four clear rounds on four different horses in the Top Four class. It was the former Olympic Champion’s second gold of the Games, the first being the Team Gold he won with his three showjumping team-mates.