‘Girl from nowhere’ stars on World Cup Final stage: ‘I’m the driver, the rider, the groom and the coach!’

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Justina Vanagaite and Nadab at the dressage World Cup Finals
FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final, Riyadh 2024,Saudi Arabia JUSTINA VANAGAITE of Lithuania reacts on NABAB in Grand Prix Freestyle during FEI Dressage World Cup Final in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 19, 2024.
(Image credit: FEI/Martin Dokoupil)

The World Cup Finals is an elite stratosphere, for the best riders of the world, the most valuable horses. But now and again, a story emerges to warm the cockles and allow all of us to dream.

Lithuanian rider Justina Vanagaitė brought her horse to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for this year’s FEI Dressage World Cup Final (16–20 April). If enthusiasm could win a class, Justina would be in a league of her own. The 34-year-old had already made history in Doha earlier this year as the first CDI5* dressage rider to compete without spurs. In Riyadh, she and her 11-year-old gelding Nadab looked to be loving every minute, performing their freestyle to dramatic orchestral music that suited this chunky horse, and finishing with a one-handed passage down the centre line. 

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.