Britain’s para dressage squad capped a rebuilding year with a return to the team podium at the European Para Dressage Championships in Riesenbeck (5–9 September). The World Championships in Herning a year ago was the first time Britain had finished off the team podium, although we still collected seven individual medals. One year on – and with less than 12 months until Paris 2024 – a relatively green British squad put the Union flag back on the team podium to scoop bronze.
British Equestrian para dressage performance manager Georgina Sharples told H&H she is “absolutely thrilled”. “The competition, as ever, just gets hotter and hotter as we can see now across all grades,” she said. “We’ve had a development year. We brought two championship debutantes, we’ve got a super new young horse, and we couldn’t be more pleased.”
Gabriella Blake and Charlotte Cundall were the two new faces; Gabriella also took grade I individual bronze, and both consistently achieved scores close to and beyond their personal bests. That new horse is Sophie Wells’ seven-year-old LJT Egebjerggards Samoa, who stepped up to help the team to bronze and take home grade V freestyle bronze. Georgia Wilson and Sakura, who added two individual silvers to their team bronze, were the only combination with previous championship experience.
Ms Sharples added: “The riders have been working so incredibly hard. They really turned up and made us proud that they were in the red collar [of the British team jacket]. We’ve completely met – potentially exceeded – our expectations here and that stands us in a brilliant place. We had good reserves in our final prep camp, they have been super supportive and are equally champing at their heels and would have loved to have been here.”
Looking ahead to Paris, she added Britain returns home in a “fabulous position”.
“The best thing about this championship is that it has been a whole team, every single person delivered,” she said, also paying tribute to the wider team involved. “This lets us know that we are on track, because the riders and horses we’ve got have made a massive step up this year and it’s not a rapid success sport.”
British para dressage rebuilding year: “a new generation”
Sophie, who has now ridden at 14 para championships and is also a coach and mentor to numerous para riders, added: “This is a bit of a breakaway to a new generation to some extent. It’s exciting. I think no one expected the medals we won this week. I think it’s amazing. Everybody on the team has really stepped up.”
She added: “We’ve had to kind of step back and regroup. It takes a bit of time to develop the horsepower that’s needed here and the standard of riding – that’s not to take away from the horses and the riders who were successful in the past, it’s just that the sport has changed.
“It’s exciting to be in that [place as a sport]. Hopefully we will go from strength to strength and the riders will take confidence from this week and that they really earned their place to be here.”
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