D&H Elite Sport Dressage Horse of the Year 2026

D&H Elite Sport Dressage Horse of the Year 2026

Celebrating the dressage horse who is at the top of his or her game and is a pure joy to watch

We will crown the best horses in their individual sports based on your votes as part of the annual Horse & Hound Awards.

The shortlist

Athene Lindebjerg headed to the World Championships having been unbeaten all season, and won grade I individual silver with 74.54%. After their kür, Mari Durward-Akhurst announced the mare’s retirement.

Athene won individual, freestyle and team gold with Sophie Christiansen at the 2015 Europeans and the 2016 Paralympics, and then repeated the feat with
Julie Payne at the 2017 Europeans.

Owner Diane Redfern says: “No other para horse has given so much to Great Britain. She is one in a million.”

Mari adds: “Living with a disability means my body doesn’t always do what I want, but with Athene I never felt limited. She didn’t help me reach the podium, she made me believe I belonged there.”

Glamourdale is the most decorated dressage horse competing today, with 11 championship medals across the Olympics, World Championships and Europeans – five of them gold – a World Cup title and the seven-year-old world title.

He made history in August with a double-double – replicating his and Lottie Fry’s 2022 feat by winning double world individual gold in Aachen. The pair had mixed results in the interim four years, but prioritising variety and harmony lifted them back to the top.

Given a long rein in the warm-up, Glammy will storm off towards the main arena. Once there, he appears to be in his element and gives his all to his rider.

Fame and Carl helped the British team win silver at the World Championships, securing 2028 Olympic qualification. The pair delivered a masterclass grand prix, scoring 77.31% to push Britain briefly into the lead during a high-stakes third rider rotation.

The pair then finished sixth in the grand prix special with a score of 78.3% in extreme heat. This marked Carl’s highest-ever individual finish in a special at a World Championships throughout his 36-year career.

Carl says: “Fame lights up in the atmosphere now rather than running from it. He used to be frightened of the atmosphere and now he grows in it.

“He has always, for four years now, given me everything in a championship, which is unbelievable.”

There’s no doubting “Bomb” and Becky Moody’s popularity. Is it because theirs is the fairy-tale story that dreams can come true if you work hard enough and just keep going? Is it the harmony that they have consistently shown in the arena and cements them as a fabulous partnership? Is it that Becky bred, part-owns and competes Bomb on the biggest stages of all?

Becky says: “Bomb always wants to make people happy and he’s such a happy person himself. If he were human, he’d be the one at the party going up to everyone to say hello.”

They had their defining moment with victory at this year’s World Cup Final in Texas, and went on to wow tens of thousands in the atmospheric World Championship arena for sixth place.

Previous Dressage Horse of the Year Award winners

The previous winners of the Dressage Horse of the Year Award are:

• 2025: Jagerbomb, challenged the sport’s most decorated names while becoming role models for the next generation
• 2024: Jagerbomb, scored a personal best in the grand prix special at the Paris Olympics helping Britain win bronze
• 2023: Glamourdale, 2022 world champion and individual silver medallist at the 2023 Europeans

Prior to 2023, the Horse of the Year Award ran across all equestrian disciplines, and the winners include:

• 2022: Vanir Kamira, the much-loved veteran mare, who added Burghley to her previous Badminton win
• 2021: the world’s best showjumper and Olympic champion Explosion W, ride of Ben Maher
• 2020: the legendary Valegro was crowned the horse of the decade (2011-2020) by H&H readers
• 2019: Piggy French’s ride Vanir Kamira may be “a pain in the arse 352 days a year”, but this true five-star horse “comes into her own at Badminton and Burghley”
• 2018: Arctic Soul, the former racehorse turned elite eventer, ridden by Gemma Tattersall
• 2017: Nip Tuck, Carl Hester’s outstanding equine partner
• 2016: Valegro, the elite dressage star and world record breaker, ridden by Charlotte Dujardin

About the Horse & Hound Awards 2026

The Horse & Hound Awards are celebrating their 11th year, being held in partnership with NAF and Agria.

As ever, the Horse & Hound Awards winners will be nominated and voted for by you, with the exception of the Horse & Hound Lifetime Achievement award, which is decided by a Horse & Hound panel. We intend to recognise both the big names who have made 2026 special and the unsung heroes who make it possible for all of us to enjoy equestrian sport and our horses, at every level.

The winners will be revealed at a glittering ceremony at Dallas Burston Polo Club in Warwickshire on 25 November, where some 300 people, including heroes of the summer’s World Championships, will gather to enjoy a glamorous evening of champagne, winner reveals, BAFTA-style speeches and dancing.