IRELAND’s Judy Reynolds and Vancouver K will be sixth to go in this afternoon’s Olympic final, the Freestyle to Music, in the Deodoro arena.

They will enter at A at 2.50pm Irish time this afternoon, following Patrik Kittel and Deja and just before a short break.

The Irish pair have been inundated with good wishes from their bases in Ireland and Germany since they qualified for the Olympic final on Friday by scoring a personal best of 74.09% in the Grand Prix Special.

Judy’s father Joe, the new chairman of Dressage Ireland, posted a message of thanks on his Facebook page in the last hour, writing: “Message of goodwill are pouring in from all quarters, horsey, non-horsey, business, motorsport, friends and neighbours. We are very grateful to everyone. Judy reads them all but this morning her mind is on other things!”

Reynolds and ‘JP’ were the first Irish combination to qualify for the Olympic Grand Prix Special in 24 years, following in the footsteps of Anna Merveldt and Rapallo, who qualified for the Grand Prix Special at Barcelona in 1992. At that time, the Olympic Grand Prix Special was also the individual final and Merveldt placed 11th in the final.

Judy is the fourth Irish dressage rider to compete at the Olympic Games. As well as Merveldt, Ireland was represented in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea by James (Shea) Walsh and Robby. And at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, USA by Heike Holstein and Devereaux.

Holstein was the youngest dressage rider at the Atlanta Olympics and went on to compete for Ireland in 2000 at the Syney Olympics with Royale and the 2004 Olympics in Athens with Welt Adel.

In London 2012, Anna Mervedlt returned to represent Ireland with Coryolano.

Speaking to The Irish Field after securing her place in the Olympic final at Rio, Reynolds said she was targeting a top-15 place today.

“I don't think we can equal Anna’s record. I’m just delighted to be there and if we can manage a top-15 [place] that would be fantastic,” said a hopeful Reynolds.

I said coming here that I want to get into the final and once we got here, who knows? We all start from zero

“I said coming here that I want to get into the final and once we got here, who knows? We all start from zero,” she said. “We’ve got some great scores in the Freestyle, 79.7% is our best to date, it would be nice to get an 80%!”

DRESSAGE FREESTYLE TO MUSIC START LIST

2:00 Steffen Peters(USA) Legolas 92

2:10 Anna Kasprzak (DEN) Donnperignon

2:20 Allison M. Brock (USA) Rosevelt

2:30 Fiona Bigwood (GBR) Orthilia

2:40 Patrik Kittel (SWE) Deja

2:50 Judy Reynolds (IRL) Vancouver K

BREAK

3:15 Hans Peter Minderhoud (NED) Johnson

3:25 Cathrine Dufour (DEN) Cassidy

3:35 Carl Hester (GBR) Nip Tuck

3:45 Beatriz Ferrer-Salat (ESP) Delgado

3:55 Diederik van Silfhout (NED) Arlando

4:05 Tinne Wilhelmsson Silfven (SWE) Don Auriello

BREAK

4:30 Kristina Broring-Sprehe (GER) Desperados Frh

4:40 Charlotte Dujardin (GBR) Valegro

4:50 Dorothee Schneider (GER) Showtime Frh

5:00 Severo Jesus Jurado Lopez (ESP) Lorenzo

5:10 Laura Graves (USA) Verdades

5:20 Isabell Werth (GER) Weihegold Old

HOW TO WATCH

Follow @theirishfieldHW on Twitter for Susan Finnerty's blow-by-blow commentary on each competition and stay tuned to www.theirishfield.ie for all the latest news on Judy and all the competitive action.

Viewers in Ireland can watch the dressage online at RTE (www.rte.ie/sport/olympics/live/) and RTE has told The Irish Field: “Judy will be shown live on RTÉ News Now and we will make sure viewers on RTÉ2 are kept up to date with the competition as it progresses throughout the day.”

Also for viewers in Ireland, equestrian action is available on the BBC Red Button channels.

REIGNING CHAMPION

Defending their individual Olympic title, Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro will enter the arena at 4.40pm.

Holding all three world records in Grand Prix, Grand Prix Freestyle and Freestyle, along with a double gold at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Game 2014 in Normandy (France) and Grand Prix Special and Freestyle gold at the FEI European Dressage Championships in Aachen (Germany) in 2015, this pair have been unbeatable.

Not only that, they became the champions of the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Dressage series in both 2014 and 2015.

Valegro has the biggest heart, he’s very intelligent and very brave. His only weakness is that, like me, he loves his food. He gets “hangry” when he can’t eat

Dujardin and her 14-year-old gelding produced a spell-binding performance in the Grand Prix Special (85.071%) to help the British team to team silver.

“I can’t help but smile when I ride Valegro”, she said. “Today I didn’t even have to ask him to do a thing, he just did it himself! He enjoyed it and it felt easy, he just tries his heart out.”

The 31-year-old is really enjoying her second Olympic experience.

“Some people come to the Olympics under pressure, but they still have to do the same as at any other show so I’m enjoying it and having the time of my life. I’m in the village with the world’s best athletes. ‘Oh there’s Roger Federer, oh there’s Nadal, or Murray’ and I’m star-struck! I’ve been pin-swapping and everything, it’s just great fun!”

“Valegro has the biggest heart, he’s very intelligent and very brave. His only weakness is that, like me, he loves his food. He gets “hangry” when he can’t eat and if I have food in my hand he’ll follow me wherever I go!”

Germany's Kristina Bröring-Sprehe and Desperados FRH are expected to make Dujardin and Valegro work for their title, having been beaten by them by just 0.25 percent at the Freestyle in Aachen last summer.

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