For a heartwarming Olympic dressage story, look no further than Justina Vanagaité-Samuile. The Lithuanian rider is the first to represent her country at any Olympic equestrian event, and left the arena at Paris 2024 blowing kisses and waving exuberantly to the cheering crowd.
“It’s not just my first Olympics, it’s Lithuania’s – I’m making history!” she says. “It doesn’t feel real. Before my test I was anxious, nervous and happy – everything at once. I’m in shock – in my test I was just trying to do my best, and enjoy my horse, enjoy my ride and enjoy the venue. The Olympics is crazy.”
Crazier still is Justina’s 2,100km road-trip to Paris from Lithuania. She herself drove her Olympic ride Nabab to France in the van, taking a friend with her to act as groom.
“Our trip took four days,” she says. “We first stopped at Poznan in Poland, where Nabab rested for 10 hours. Then we went to another stable in Aachen. He was then meant to stay in Jardy, but I hadn’t booked the box in time and they didn’t have a spare one, so we stayed in Aachen for one more day. We then left at midnight, drove through the night, and arrived in Versailles at 6am.
“The first day I was thinking, ‘Oh, he must be so tired, I will give him four days’ rest,” explains Justina, who attended the opening ceremony as one of Lithuania’s flag-bearers. “But when I was lungeing him he was going round and round, snorting like a dragon. The next day he was jumping all over me so I said, ‘OK, you feel quite good, I will ride you’ – and he was a bit like a dragon. But I rode him all week without spurs and in a snaffle bridle.”
Olympic dressage: Justina Vanagaite on impromptu bareback training session
Justina has built up a reputation on social media for having a lot of fun with her precious horse, whom she nicknames Kebab. From one of her final training sessions before the Olympics, she posted a video of her doing pirouettes bareback in a headcollar.
“I was supposed to be lungeing him, but afterwards I thought maybe I’d just get on and walk, then I started to trot a little bit – and then I thought maybe we can do some movements and do a video,” she says.
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“I am a showgirl,” she adds. “But that doesn’t matter, I still get nervous. I am just happy I managed to hold it together compared with all the riders with so much more experience than me.”
Justina scored a creditable 69.20%, which puts her mid-division of the 30 riders to compete on day one of the grand prix qualifier.
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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.
