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.