What an amazing night Olympia produced for us! It was a night of British personal bests, top flight competition, sporting greatness and finally a win for the sport’s most esteemed rider, Carl Hester in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Freestyle, supported by Horse & Hound.
Riding Jane de la Mare and his own Nip Tuck, Carl took a risk with his new highly technical floorplan which reaped the ultimate reward, a coveted win – both his maiden Olympia victory after 11 attempts and an especially sweet one over his protégée Charlotte Dujardin. Riding to a music score designed to match the new floorplan and produced in just ten days by Tom Hunt, Carl and ‘Barney’ made the difficult routine look like child’s play and the judges rewarded their bravery with a new personal best score of 83.75%.
Last night’s winners Charlotte and Uthopia, owned by Carl and Sasha Stewart, rode to Valegro’s music and they looked amazing to score 82.55%. Third spot went to Hans Peter Minderhoud for the Netherlands with Glock’s Flirt once again with 80.97%. The placing gives him the lead in the FEI Western European League going into 2016.
The biggest smile of the night went to Lara Griffith who smashed her personal best with the Bechtolsheimer’s Rubin Al Asad with 78.02% for fourth while Hayley Watson-Greaves and WG Rubins Nite more than made up for a nervous start last night with another PB of 75.07%. They held the lead for a long time but finished a fab seventh.
Full report and quotes to come in the morning.
Final results – click here. Judges' individual marks - click here.
Photo © Jon Stroud Media
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Carl's gamble pays off
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