RETIREMENT on the cards for the mighty Valegro; Charlotte Dujardin and Isabell Werth rewriting Olympic records and Judy Reynolds achieving her ambition of making it into an Olympic dressage final.

These were the highlights of a sweltering day in Rio where the temperatures hit 90 degrees and when even the normally cool, calm and collected Dujardin admitted to feeling under immense pressure to deliver a back-to-back individual gold.

Of course Irish eyes were focussed on the opening group of six horses when the pride of Kildare Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K, owned by her parents Joe and Kathleen, were hoping to make their mark.

Ireland’s previous best result in dressage at the Olympic Games was at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, when Anna Merveldt and Rapallo (11th) had also qualified for the Olympic dressage final.

The new Olympic format sees the top 18 riders from two qualifiers go through to the Grand Prix Freestyle, set to the rider’s own choice music, when the individual medals are decided.

Reynolds, based in Hunxe in Germany, was already delighted to have made it to the final. However two errors during her test produced a score of 75.696%, some four marks short of her personal best in the Freestyle and kept her pegged in 18th place.

In his second piaffe, he was being very helpful and thought about his piaffe too long in the end, so it was the wrong time to be helpful

“I’m a little bit disappointed to be honest [with the test/judges scores]. It was a pity to make two mistakes today, when we hadn't made any all week and where mistakes weren’t expected, especially in that pirouette. That was expensive. And then in his second piaffe, he was being very helpful and thought about his piaffe too long in the end, so it was the wrong time to be helpful. So I’m disappointed to make mistakes and that has brought the score down” Reynolds said afterwards.

AMAZING

“I haven't seen any of the other rides but just having seen the scores, they [judges] also haven't been all that generous. That’s what it feels like looking at the scores, but I’m delighted to have got that far, it’s been amazing.

“Maybe I got a bit greedy in there, maybe I went a bit too much but it’s the last day so it was well worth giving it everything I had and I’d do the same again.”

Declaring herself “absolutely delighted” with the whole Olympic experience, she was not surprised with her end result, saying: “I just wanted to have a go at the final and I proved I could do it. I’m very, very proud of JP [Vancouver K]. I suspected I might end up bottom of the class when you look at the people that were going to make it into the class”.

I just wanted to have a go at the final and I proved I could do it. I’m very, very proud of JP

As for future plans with the 14-year-old Jazz gelding; “There has been no plan. This is the end of the plan, so we’ll have a break and maybe a holiday,” added Reynolds, who goes to the European Pony Championships in Denmark this week to supervise her student Emily Kate Robinson, selected for the Irish dressage team.

SHAMROCK

JP’s trademark shamrock quarter marks had company today, “Today we had shamrocks and Olympic rings on him so Libby [Dudman, his groom] made him very smart”.

Carl Hester held the lead with Nip Tuck (82.553%) who improved five marks from Friday’s Special until the last group of six horses.

“The difference today was he was so relaxed,” explained Dujardin’s mentor.

The lead changed hands twice in as many horses with first Kristina Broring-Sprehe, who was on the victorious German gold medal team last Friday, posting a score of 87.142% with Desperados FRH.

She was immediately followed by Dujardin whose new Freestyle, partly set to a samba soundtrack, saw her become the only rider to break into the 90s when Valegro earned a score of 93.857%

Connecticut beautician and barmaid Laura Graves then produced the best American individual result (85.196%) which saw her and Verdades ultimately finish just outside the medals on 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.

EMOTIONAL DUJARDIN

At the press conference afterwards, an emotional Dujardin revealed that the 14-year-old Valegro, who has won individual gold at two Olympics, plus the World Equestrian Games and European championships, is facing retirement.

“I owe it to him to finish at the top. We’re not sure when but it’s definitely on the cards” adding that she would discuss the details with Carl Hester when they returned home.

He’s been the horse of a lifetime…I owe it to him to finish at the top

“He’s been the horse of a lifetime, he’s been a complete legend,” she said gratefully, adding that she had felt under immense pressure to win in Rio, compared to London where she said she had 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.”

MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

She will walk down a centre line of a different kind as her patient fiancé Dean Golding seized the moment with a sign reading ‘Can we get married now?’ taped to his shirt while watching her win gold.

Another question asked by a German reporter was whether Carl Hester had in fact brought her to the famous Rio de Janeiro landmark, the Christ the Redeemer Statue, to pray for a gold medal, as he had promised at the team medals press conference.

“Yes, he did! It was really cloudy but I still got on my hands and knees and prayed, maybe that helped!” said the second British woman to win three Olympic gold medals.

Werth has also added another two medals to her considerable collection and now goes into the Olympic history books as the first athlete to win 10 medals in equestrian sports.

Applauding his connections decision to consider retiring Valegro, one which she said she had “great respect for”, Werth added that it was “always a great decision to stop with a horse at the top level.”

The 47-year-old lawyer has no intention of retiring herself, indicating that she is aiming for her sixth Olympic Games at Tokyo in four years time.

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