Great Britain have won team silver in the World Dressage Championships results, behind home team Denmark, who beat the Brits to the gold medal by just 1.2 points. The 2018 world champions Germany have claimed bronze, 3.43 points behind the British team.
It was nail-biting stuff as the final rotation of top riders took to the Stuttari Ask stadium in Herning, Denmark, and it was Britain’s Lottie Fry who really laid the pressure on the last few, with a sensational test on the 11-year-old championship first-timer Glamourdale, owned by Van Olst Horses. Lottie and Glammy wowed crowds and judges alike to score a personal best of 80.84%, charging to the top of the leaderboard and making Britain the team to beat – 10 years to the day the Britain won gold at the London Olympics in 2012.
“From the second we left the warm-up Glamourdale heard the crowd and he was just ready for it,” said Lottie, adding that her success still hadn’t really sunk in.
But it was Denmark’s darling, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, who was always destined to be the protagonist of this championship, and she duly delivered, producing her own personal best score with the 10-year-old Vamos Amigos, who is owned by the British Pidgley family. The pair were foot perfect for 81.86%, securing the gold medal for Denmark – the country’s first ever dressage team gold.
Cathrine explained that ever since Denmark won the bid to host these World Dressage Championships, the team’s aim has been victory here.
“It means a lot just being in there, and I feel so proud to have Daniel, Nanna [Merrald Rasmussen] and Carina [Cassøe Krüth]as my colleagues. the feeling of being in a team that cool, is very nice,” she said.
The Danish team were the favourites going into the competition, and they lived up to the hype – their strength as a quartet is such that their discard score was Daniel Bachmann Andersen’s super 76.58% on Marshall-Bell.
Britain came to Herning with a lot less certainty surrounding their fortunes, with three horses who were competing on a championship team for the first time. Richard Davison and Bubblingh having got the ball rolling on day one, and Gareth Hughes raising British hopes with a very good grand prix on Classic Briolinca, despite having Covid, but there was a lot of pressure on Charlotte Dujardin and the very green nine-year-old Imhotep, who has completed just three grands prix in his life.
Luckily, Charlotte thrives on pressure, busting out a chunky 77.4%, before Lottie proved just what a cool customer she is as well.
With Cathrine and Lottie’s scores soaring to the top of the World Dressage Championships results, only Germany’s Frederic Wandres and the British-bred Duke Of Britain FRH had a realistic chance of disrupting the top two podium positions. He gave it a great shot on his senior team debut, with the 15-year-old Dimaggio gelding shining in the piaffe-passage, and although his 76.66% wasn’t enough to displace the British team, it was enough to secure Germany a very well-earned bronze.
“To come into the arena as the last German rider was something special,” said Frederic. “I never had that before. And to reach the bronze medal is like a dream come true for me, since I was a small kid.”
Just missing the medals was Sweden, who finished fourth in the World Dressage Championships results. They have however secured qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics, along with the top three teams, plus the Netherlands in fifth and the USA in sixth.
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