British Dressage has announced that Emile Faurie will be travelling to Athens with the British Olympic team next month as reserve.
Emile produced a series of brilliant performances with his Olympic prospect Rascher Hopes at Hickstead last week, finishing in second place in the grand prix special and the grand prix with scores consistently above 70.0%.
The combination represented Britain at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, where they were the best of the Brits, and have vast international experience – the pair also took bronze medal at the European Championships at Hickstead last year.
Carl Hester and Escapado were the only other Athens-bound combination on show at Hickstead, finishing first in the Hiscox FUTURITY Grand Prix with 72.7% .
Britain’s number one combination, Emma Hindle and Wie Weltmeyer are due to compete once more before heading to Athens – they had been due to compete at Aachen earlier this month, but a minor eye injury prevented their participation.
The rest of the British squad, Nicola McGivern and Richard Davison, are working their horses at home and are not due to compete again before the Olympics.