Carl Hester into ninth place with Nip Tuck in Rio

Great Britain’s Carl Hester and Nip Tuck have gone into ninth place at the halfway stage of the second day of Grand Prix dressage in Rio.

The 12-year-old bay gelding was certainly on his toes today, spooking before entering the arena and repeating the feat in the middle of his test, giving them a scattering of 4s from the judges.

But Carl quickly recovered and was able to settle Nip Tuck and pull the marks back up to 7.5s and 8s, with a 9 for his second pirouette. They finished on a score of 75.529%.

The Germans now dominate the top of the leaderboard, with their first three riders all going into the top four. Only the USA’s Steffen Peters and Legolas in third is separating the German trio, with Kristina Broring-Sprehe and Desperados FRH sitting in first place ahead of Dorothee Schneider in second and Sonke Rothenberger in fourth.

Kristina produced a stunning test on Desperados, picking up two 10s from the judges to score 82.257%, more than 1.2pen clear of her compatriot Schneider.

Charlotte Dujardin is next into the arena at 6.24pm. She and Valegro hold the Grand Prix world record of 87.460% – and the British supporters will no doubt be praying she can score in that region today.

The team medals will be decided following the Grand Prix Special competition tomorrow. Britain currently sits in fourth place behind Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, but of course the current standings do not count Charlotte’s score – and hopefully it’ll be a good one.  

Carl Hester & Nip Tuck (c) Jon Stroud/BEF Photos