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One-horse working rider competes with the elite at European Dressage Championships

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • A working rider with just one horse to compete vied for the top placings on the first day of the grand prix at the European Dressage Championships. Belgium’s Charlotte Defalque works 40 hours a week as a business manager for a consultancy firm, alongside campaigning her grand prix horse Botticelli.

    “Really I have two jobs,” says Charlotte. “I have long days and long weeks, working a minimum of 40 hours in consultancy, and doing the horse four days a week – it makes for a very long week! But I only have this horse to ride at the moment.”

    Charlotte is lying in 13th spot on 71.07% after the first day of the grand prix, the field headed by Carl Hester and Fame on 78.54%. The top 30 qualify for the grand prix special.

    This is the pair’s senior European debut after representing Belgium at the worlds last year, and here they posted their second best score to date. It is a longstanding partnership – Charlotte, 27, has been competing the Vivaldi gelding since he was in five-year-old classes and come through the ranks of juniors, young riders and under-25s.

    “I never dreamed he was going to be my grand prix horse,” she says. “I was only 15 when I got him, and we’ve done five-year-old classes, juniors, then under-25s and then I started doing grand prix, but not really seriously, just to learn the level, so he is exceptional.

    “He has his own personality, he can be totally with me or really annoying! We have got through this over time, but he really has ups and downs – his best and his worst are poles apart. He’s a bit strange but it’s just part of his personality but now he’s 17, I think he’s finally grown up.”

    Despite the horse’s veteran status, Charlotte says he’s a joy to keep fit.

    “Touch wood, he is in brilliant shape,” she says. “Yes, we manage his training a bit to help him in his body, but we don’t have any concerns. He’s like a 10-year-old, including in his head.”

    Following the European Dressage Championships, the “last big objective” for this extraordinary amateur rider living the dream with her childhood horse, is to go to the Olympics next year.

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    Horse & Hound has a team of reporters covering all the European dressage action. To keep reading on our website after five articles, readers will need to buy a subscription. Visit horseandhound.co.uk/join to buy a Horse & Hound website unlimited subscription or, for great value, visit magazinesdirect.com for a combined magazine and website subscription. If you are already a magazine subscriber, the cost to upgrade your subscription to include full website access is minimal – call 0330 333 1113 to find out more.

    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on dogs of all shapes and sizes. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs, one a street dog from Gambia who was abandoned at three weeks old. Now, her constant companion, whether by her feet at her desk or walking cross-country courses, is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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