IF ever there was a major championship stage to bow out on, Valegro did it in style in Rio de Janeiro when the 14-year-old won back-to-back individual Olympic titles with Charlotte Dujardin.
In fact, Valegro is now the third horse in Olympic dressage history to achieve this, following Rembrandt (1988, 1992) and Salinero (2004, 2008). And while Dujardin became one of three riders (Sweden’s Henry St Cyr and Germany’s Nicole Uphoff are the others) to have won two individual gold medals, she will need to find a Valegro replacement in time for Tokyo to match Dutch rider Anky Van Grunsven’s collection of three golds.
Tokyo and Olympic records may have been far from the British team’s minds last Saturday when their bid to win back-to-back titles after their Greenwich win was foiled in the Grand Prix Special by the German team.
Two of its silver medal London team Dorothee Schneider and Kristina Broring-Sprehe were again on the Rio team, together with Sonke Rothenberger and another about to make Olympic history, Isabell Werth.
german domination
Werth achieved her ninth Olympic medal and the German dressage team tally of Olympic golds rose to 13 after the Special, which also decided the 18 riders for Monday’s individual final. She sealed the German team victory with her win (82.98%) on Weihegold Old, aided by Schneider’s third place (82.61%) on Showtime FRH. Sandwiched between the two Germans was Dujardin (82.98%), who felt it was Valegro’s lack of match practise, since his break after last year’s European Championships, which caused their temporary slip.
The US team has been out of the dressage medals since Athens but Laura Graves and Verdades clinched their Rio bronze and also booked the pair’s place in Monday’s final with their test.
It was a subdued German team who attended the press conference afterwards, having heard of a car accident, involving the canoe slalom coach Stefan Henze, who sadly later died from his injuries.
Freestyle
Monday’s Grand Prix Freestyle took place on a sweltering ‘Brazilian winter’ day, when the temperature hit 90 degrees. Carl Hester held the lead until the last group of six horses with Nip Tuck (82.553%) who had improved by five marks from Friday’s Special.
“The difference today was he was so relaxed,” explained Dujardin’s mentor.
The lead changed hands twice in as many horses in that final group with first Kristina Broring-Sprehe, posting a score of 87.142% with Desperados FRH.
She was immediately followed by Dujardin, whose new samba-influenced freestyle saw her become the only rider to match the Rio weather and break into the 90s with Valegro’s score of 93.857%.
Laura Graves then produced the best American individual result (85.196%) which saw her and Verdades ultimately finish just outside the medals in fourth place.
The very last rider Isabell Werth was now the only rider who could potentially deny Dujardin matching Michael Jung’s London-Rio individual gold medal feat and, while the multi-Olympian was clearly delighted with her 11-year-old Oldenburg mare Weighegold Old’s result (89.071), it wasn’t quite enough to topple the British pair.
It did, however, create a new record as Werth is now the first athlete to win 10 medals in equestrian sport.
At the press conference afterwards, an emotional Dujardin revealed that World Equestrian Games, European and now dual Olympic individual gold champion Valegro is facing retirement and that she had felt under immense pressure to win in Rio, compared to London, where she said she had “no expectations to deliver gold”. “Today was really, really magical. For the first time, I felt really nervous. Valegro gave me the most incredible feeling and put a smile on my face.
“He couldn’t have done anymore if he tried.”