He said: “The great thing with this team is that mine and [teammate] Charlotte Dujardin’s stories are unusual, because I have no horsey parentage at all”. I watched a lot of people look very white and nervous yesterday. He has not only had to ride himself, but he’s been training Spencer, Fiona and me.
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“Coming here, I want to do the same, I don’t want to come away with any regrets, I want to go in there and enjoy it and have the time of my life and not think ‘I wish I’d done that, ‘ and so far I’ve done everything I want to do”.
The rider, who competed in his first championship in 1990, said British dressage was experiencing a “golden era” following the team’s victory in London 2012 and the success of Dujardin, who has won nine crowns in the World Equestrian Games, European Dressage Championships and Dressage World Cup on Valegro.
Earlier, teammate Carl Hester’s horse got spooked. Hester joked. “He went fantastic all week and we had ten minutes in the arena this morning and he was totally relaxed”.
“This was one of the biggest tests of my horse’s life and it’s hard, but there wasn’t a single point we gave away”, he said.
A score of 85.071 left her out in front individually and brought Team GB back up into second place, but although the Germans now hold the next three slots to cement their position at the head of affairs, it’s still tight at the top and it’s still all very much to play for as the action resumes in the morning. “We’re having such a good time, especially in the village, when you’re amongst the world’s best athletes and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, there’s Nadal; oh, my god, there’s Andy Murray; oh, my god, there’s Serena Williams.'”. I don’t get star struck, but I am honestly star struck in there. It was my dream to get there, and I literally had the time of my life.
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“The food hall is insane”, she said. By 5 o’clock they’ve sold out of burgers, it’s queuing out the door, it’s ridiculous.
