Britain takes early dressage lead at Greenwich Park

Britain’s dressage team are in gold medal position after the first day of dressage.

Carl Hester and Laura Bechtolsheimer are first and second on 77.72% and 76.839% respectively.

But Laura was disappointed with her mark, which is her lowest for a long time on Mistral Hojris.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” she said. “I felt like I had a good ride, bar a little mistake at the end of the canter extension. Alf dealt with the atmosphere well — he stayed with me and did some great work.

“To be honest, I need to go and watch the video of it and try to figure out what must have looked different to what I was feeling.

“It is a pretty low score as far as Alf goes, and not a score we needed to give us a good start in the team standings. I am gutted.”

Earlier, Carl Hester said of his test on Uthopia: “That felt like a good performance and I’m very happy.”

Britain is the only one of the main medal hopes with two team riders on the first day. Both Germany and the Netherlands’ second and third riders are due to compete tomorrow, while Britain only has Charlotte Dujardin — and individual rider Richard Davison — to look forward to.

In third behind Carl and Laura is the first German team rider, Dorothee Schneider, who scored 76.277% on Diva Royal. Kristina Sprehe and Helen Langehanenberg are due on at 12.24pm and 3.20pm tomorrow.

Richard Davison will ride at 12.15pm while Charlotte Dujardin will be on at 2.10pm.

The other big scorer this afternoon was Denmark’s Anna Kasprzak, who is in fourth with 75.289 on Donnperignon.

Full 13-page report on the team dressage in H&H out next FRIDAY, 10 August.

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