Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro once again delighted a packed house at Olympia, the London International Horse Show, producing a world record score in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage Grand Prix supported by Horse & Hound.
The mark of 87.46 percent beat their previous record, set by the World, Olympic and European champions at the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Final in Lyon, France earlier in the year.
Dujardin, who came to the show complete with a bad cold, was delighted with the new record score especially as it was their first competition since the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France, in August.
“We don’t set out to break a record—it just happens. We just want to do our best and any record is a bonus,” said Dujardin, who looks forward to competing at Olympia. “It is a great end to the season and fantastic to be competing in front of the home crowd and ‘Blueberry’ never fails to rise to the occasion.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The pair head the draw for the Grand Prix freestyle on Dec. 17 with Dujardin promising to “let rip” to the routine that is set to “How To Train A Dragon.”
Dutch team rider Edward Gal, a regular and popular visitor to Olympia, was second with Glocks Undercover NOP with the high mark of 80.12 percent, albeit still 7 percent adrift of the winning score. The Dutchman admitted that having to follow Dujardin was not ideal preparation for a test.
He said, “Glocks got very excited by the clapping and I had to hold him back at the beginning of the test, but I was very pleased that he found his one-time changes again as he had totally lost them yesterday.”
Fellow Dutch rider Danielle Heijkoop and Siro NOP were third with British rider Carl Hester and Nip Tuck in fourth. The top 15 from the Grand Prix class will go forward to the Grand Prix freestyle.
