As H&H dressage editor, I take great pleasure in sharing my highlights of the sport this year. For dressage, 2025 has been a big one.
If this summer’s European Championships proved anything, it’s that dressage is a sport of fine margins. In the team competition, Britain and Germany were neck and neck. Andrew Gould’sheartbreaking elimination on day one stripped Britain of its safety net; from that moment on, it was do-or-die. That they still took silver says everything about the composure of Carl Hester, Becky Moody and Lottie Fry.
The European Para Dressage Championships uncovered breakout performances and plenty to celebrate for the Brits.
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The para Europeans were just as tight. Britain arrived as outsiders – including in my own predictions – but breakout rides from Jemima Green and Fantabulous rewrote the formbook and lifted the team to bronze.
Britain’s youth teams also shone. Annabella Pidgley led an inexperienced under-25 side to team bronze, while Isla Sully and her 16-year-old Lusitano Vagabond de Massa delivered the top junior score to secure another bronze medal.
The British team win silver at the 2025 European Dressage Championships
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At home and amid wild weather, Sadie Smith claimed an emotional national title on Swanmore Dantina, becoming the 29th rider to add her name to a roll of honour. It felt like the moment this partnership truly stepped into its stride.
They’ve shone on every major stage: world champions, Olympic bronze medallists, European champions – and now World Cup winners. Lottie and Glamourdale added another line to their extraordinary CV, scoring 88.2% to take the FEI World Cup Final in April, both becoming world number ones in the process.
We’ve loved watching Jagerbomb go from strength to strength this season with Becky. From underdogs in Paris to the highest scoring Brits at the Europeans. We can’t wait to see what comes next.
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Britain’s London 2012 winning team of horses, all of whom we’ve sadly lost this year
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This year marked the end of an era as all three horses from the iconic London 2012 gold-medal team left us. Mistral Højrisdied in March, aged 30, while Valegro and Uthopia were put down earlier this month, aged 23 and 24. The legacy of all three remains woven through modern British dressage.
The dressage world united in grief at the loss of Valegro, the greatest of all time. “We grew together, learned together, believed together,” Charlotte Dujardin wrote. “It has been the honour of my life to be not only your dance partner but your best friend.”
And the moment we didn’t see coming…
If you’d predicted in January that Zonik Plus and Justin Verboomen would win Belgium’s first-ever championship medals, let alone win double gold, most people would have said it was too soon. Zonik Plus had just made his grand prix debut. They were barely on the international radar. And yet in Crozet, they didn’t just arrive – they reshaped the dressage landscape.
Double gold medalist Justin Verboomen makes history for Belgium on Zonik Plus.
(Image credit: FEI/Leanjo de Koster)
I wrote at the time that every championship leaves its mark. Some slip quietly into the record books; others change the sport’s direction. This belonged firmly in the second category. It felt like the birth of a partnership capable of defining an era. Not since Totilas and Valegro has a horse had such a singular moment – one of those rare instances where talent, timing and public imagination all collide.
What were your favourite moments in the 2025 dressage season? Write to hhletters@futurenet.com for a chance to be published in Horse & Hound – please include your full address (town and county will be published).
Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).
