European Dressage Championships 2011 - History Is Made in Rotterdam
01 October 2011
"With Saracen behind me, all I have to do is ride" Carl Hester
An amazing gold medal win in the Netherlands meant the first European Team Title in history for a Great British dressage team, along with a new European record.
The British riders, Carl Hester, Laura Bechtolsheimer, Charlotte Dujardin and Emile Faurie, came top with a combined score of 238.678, putting rivals, Germany, into the silver medal position with their score of 226.110. This impressive score also topped the previous European Championships record, by the Dutch team in 2009, of 238.595. In fact, the British team were so accomplished that they could have put together any three of the riders’ combined scores and still won the gold medal.
Britain’s Carl Hester led the competition, riding Uthopia, with a personal best of 82.568%, achieving 10s across the board for the extended trot, closely followed by his Rider score of five 10s and two 9s. The winning pair then went on to get two individual silver medals in the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle.
Click on the link below to see the extended trot that earned all the 10's -
Saracen Horse Feeds are very proud to have been sponsoring Carl Hester since 2004 and supplying the feed for all his horses. His yard manager, Fiona, and Lizzie Drury, Saracen’s Senior Nutritionist, plan their individual diets and ensure that the nutritional and temperament needs of the horses are always met.
Carl, originally from Sark, has won an incredible 51 British titles and has been competing internationally for over 20 years.
He said of Uthopia, who he has trained since he was four, “This is even more fantastic because he is a family pet who’s turned into a superstar”.
Fellow team member, Charlotte Dujardin, is Carl’s pupil at his yard in Gloucestershire and also uses Saracen products with her horses. The competition in Rotterdam was her championship debut and she achieved the fourth-highest score in the team test of 78.830% with her horse, Valegro. For Charlotte to win a team gold and get two top-10 places is a credit to them both, and Carl was incredibly proud.
Inevitably thoughts now turn to the Olympics in London next year and, with a dressage team like this, surely Great Britain stands a great chance of a place on the podium.
Congratulations to all those involved in this phenomenal success.
