Carl Hester and Uthopia are world number two

Great Britain’s Carl Hester and Uthopia have moved up to second place in the world dressage rankings.

The combination have climbed up from fourth place and now sit just below Holland’s Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival.

This year Carl Hester and Uthopia, an 11-year-old stallion by Metall, won team gold and picked up two individual silver medals at the European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam in August. The partnership also won both the Hickstead CDI and the Fritzens CDI on scores of more than 80%.

Their achievements are even more impressive considering Uthopia only completed his first grand prix on the Spanish Sunshine Tour in March 2010. The stallion has never scored less than 70% at grand prix level.

Great Britain now holds three places in the top 10. Laura Bechtolsheimer and Mistral Hojris have moved down one place to third and Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro have risen from eighth to fifth.

Germany has three riders but four combinations in the top ten. They are Matthias Alexander Rath on Totilas in fourth, Ulla Salzgeber on Herzruf’s Erbe in sixth and Isabell Werth in both eighth and ninth place with El Santo NRW and Warum Nicht FRH.

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