Paradressage World Championships
The British team are on track to retain their Paradressage World Championship title and dominate the individual medals at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire, 20 July.
The squad of Lee Pearson, Simon Laurens, Anne Dunham and Michelle Crunkhorn go into the lead overnight following today’s team tests. The final team result will be decided after the individual tests take place tomorrow.
Non team-member Sophie Christiansen beat team-member Anne Dunham with 73.29% in the grade 1a test. Sophie said: “I’ve only been riding Gazel for two weeks so I really can’t believe we won. The horse spooked just before I went into the arena so I was cautious to start with, but then we both relaxed and got better and better.”
Athens triple gold medalist Lee Pearson took the grade 1b test on 77% with his new ride Altino, scoring 77%. Lee’s pupil Ricky Balshaw was second.
Team regulars who are not part of this year’s championship squad, Nic Tustain and Debbie Criddle, started their individual medal campaign in style. Nic and Debbie took the grade 2 and 3 respectively on their old campaigners Hot Stuff and Figaro IX.
Simon Laurens finished third in the grade three on his team debut, while Michelle Crunkhorn was fifth in the grade four.
The small tour CDI that was to run alongside the World Championships has been cancelled due to torrential rain flooding the outdoor arenas. The CDI big tour finishes tonight (20 July) and all the paradressage will take place indoors tomorrow.
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Sarah has worked at an equestrian journalist and editor since 2004 and has held the position of Horse & Hound Editor-in-Chief since 2014. She has reported for Horse & Hound from major championships including Europeans and World Equestrian Games. She has co-written books on horses and horse sport including The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horses & Ponies. She has owned and ridden horses since 1993, and worked for and trained with Olympic gold medallist event rider Leslie Law prior to going to university. While studying for a BSc at London School of Economics Sarah also worked for top British dressage rider Louise Spate.