‘I don’t like to keep horses in a cage’: European champion on listening to her dancing partner’s needs

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European Para Dressage Championships Michele George and Best of 8
Michèle George and Best Of 8 head the grade V freestyle at the European Para Dressage Championships
(Image credit: Benjamin Clark)

Michèle George topped her class for the third time at the European Para Dressage Championships, winning the freestyle on Best of 8. The result may not be a huge surprise given the pair are the current Olympic and world champions, however this is their first international competition since the Belgian rider broke ribs in a fall just before Waregem CPEDI back in April.

“I love dancing and apparently she does as well so it’s two creatures inviting each other to dance,” says Michèle. “I am capable of keeping all my focus and to enjoy it. That’s the main goal for me and automatically the performance is there. But today I really loved her attitude; her willingness to work and show ‘I’m the queen’. I had an amazing feeling in the warm-up and you know the feeling when you go into the arena and they grow.”

Martha Terry
Martha Terry
Features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion 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.