The ECCO FEI World Championships in Herning may have drawn to a close, but we will be talking about it for a long time yet. The championships were filled with glorious successes, agonising near-misses and a plethora of fabulous horses and riders who provided us all with so much excitement.
It can be hard to put the story of the Ecco FEI World Championships into words (although we’ve done our best – don’t miss the 11 August and 18 August issues of H&H for the full story), and sometimes numbers can paint the picture. So here are our favourite facts and stats that emerged from Herning – some might surprise you….
10 – years to the day since Britain won gold at the London Olympics, they landed team silver in at the Herning World Championships, with Charlotte Dujardin featuring in both teams
20 – years since Britain’s Richard Davison rode his Herning home-bred Bubblingh’s mother, Ballaseyr Royale, at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain
8 – horses on the dressage team podium were competing at their very first major championship: Charlotte Dujardin’s Imhotep, Lottie Fry’s Glamourdale, Richard Davison’s Bubblingh, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour’s Vamos Amigos, Benjamin Werndl’s Famoso OLD, Isabell Werth’s DP Quantaz, Frederic Wandres’ Duke of Britain FRH and Ingrid Klimke’s Franziskus.
5th – the position Britain’s dressage team were lying in overnight, at the halfway point of the team competition
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82.508% – Lottie Fry and Glamourdale’s winning special score – 1.529% more than their personal best in the special to that point
3 – the number of horses with which Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour has won individual medals with in the past four years: European bronze with Atterupgaards Cassidy in 2017 and 2019, European silver and bronze with Bohemian in 2021 and now double world silver with Vamos Amigos.
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour at the World Dressage Championships with Vamos Amigos
(Image credit: creditUnknown)
0.66% – separated the combinations in sixth to 11th in the freestyle
24 – marks of 10 given across Lottie Fry’s gold medal-winning freestyle, for trot half-pass, extended trot, extended canter, two-time changes, plus rhythm, energy and elasticity, harmony between horse and rider, choreography and use of the arena, music and interpretation.
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