Charlotte Dujardin’s latest star, Royal Ascot, and other things the horse world is talking about

1. Charlotte Dujardin compares Imhotep to Valegro

British hopes ahead of the dressage World Championships were given a boost at Wellington CDI3* when Imhotep, who is known at home as Pete, produced personal best scores under Charlotte Dujardin to win both the grand prix (77.76%) and the grand prix special (78.36%). Charlotte told H&H after her tests: “Since Valegro, Pete is the one who’s given me that feeling of so much confidence in the arena. He’s a very inexperienced grand prix horse, but he always tries and I absolutely love that.” While the British team at the world championships may be without Carl Hester this time, there is still plenty for British fans to look forward to at the Herning World Championships.

Find out who else enjoyed success at Wellington

2. Royal Ascot gets under way today

Five days of top-class Flat racing is about to begin in Berkshire, and although it’s currently unclear when The Queen will attend the royal meeting (will punters be betting on the colour of the Duchess of Cornwall’s hat each day instead, we wonder?), there is no shortage of great action – and fabulous fashion – to look forward to. With a bumper 36 races to savour, however, picking a winner is no easy task, so we’ve called on the racing experts for their Royal Ascot tips ahead of this year’s meeting.

Read our experts’ tips

3. Are you ready for summer?

With a mini heatwave forecast for this week in the UK, you can bet that the flies will be out trying to spoil our horses’ field time. To help prevent these biting insects from irritating our horses, the H&H testing team have been putting a range of fly rugs through their paces. Find out how they’ve measured up to the task, and browse other rugs that are currently available in our helpful buyers’ guide.

Check out these fly rugs

You might also be interested in:

The stallion everyone’s talking about, a ‘thankful and proud’ new mum, and Explosion W: who won showjumping ribbons this week?

Which rider is going to work for Pfizer? Who celebrated by watching Love Island? Six things you might not know about last week’s Bramham

Champions crowned after record-breaking season

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Carol Phillips

H&H website editor

Carol is an experienced journalist and editor, who is also a passionate amateur rider and dedicated horse owner, having ridden since childhood. She has a particular interest in the emotional well-being and ethical training of horses, alongside veterinary matters, having garnered extensive first-hand experience of numerous equine health conditions through more than 30 years of horse ownership.