Golden duo headline WEG dressage team

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Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro will have their chance to complete their hat-trick of gold medals when they compete at next month’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy (23 August – 7 September).

Team mates

The Olympic and European champions will be competing at their first World Equestrian Games, having not yet made their Grand Prix debut at the time of the last WEG in Kentucky in 2010.

Charlotte is joined on the WEG team by trainer and mentor Carl Hester. Carl is riding his up and coming Grand Prix star Nip Tuck rather than his Olympic ride Uthopia. Carl has said that he wants to be able to help Charlotte throughout the competition and this isn’t possible when he’s competing Uthopia, as they’re close in the rankings and therefore usually drawn at similar times.

“I’m lucky to have three horses qualified and the three owners have been so supportive,” said Carl.

Join the club

They’re joined by their fellow team members from the 2013 European Championships Michael Eilberg and Gareth Hughes.

Michael recently joined the elite ‘80% club’ in dressage when he and his selected rideHalf Moon Delphi scored 80.475% in the Grand Prix Freestyle at Aachen.

“It’s been brilliant; we had a great show out in Aachen, so this is just the icing on the cake. To get to the 80% mark at that show is a fantastic feeling; it felt like she was growing each time we went into the arena,” he said.

Gareth will be riding his mare Nadonna, who also competed at last year’s Europeans. “It’s great to be on a team with Carl and Charlotte with their experience, and Michael, who was obviously on the team last year at the Europeans, and I’m very proud to be a part of Team GBR again,” he said.

In reserve

Michael has also been selected as a direct reserve withMarakov, as has Carl and Dances With Wolves. The non-travelling reserves are Lara Griffith (Andretti H) and Daniel Watson (Fideramber).

The Brits are hoping for a strong performance to qualify them for the Rio 2016 Olympics. “We set our goal after London to qualify at the World Equestrian Games for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, to do this we need to be in the top three nations,” explained Richard Waygood, Chef d’Equipe.”Achieving qualification this summer will allow us to campaign next year with as much flexibility as possible, without having to worry about qualification.”

Tough competition

All riders compete both as individuals and also as part of the team in the team competition at the Championships, where the three best scores count towards the overall team result in the Grand Prix. Individual medals are awarded for both the Grand Prix Special and Freestyle tests.

Germany are firm favourites to win the team gold medal, having been victorious in Herning at the last Europeans. They have selected a stellar team ofMatthias Alexander Rath (Totilas),Helen Langehanenberg (Damon Hill NRW), Kristina Sprehe (Desperados FRH) and Isabell Werth (Bella Rose).

But Carl Hester is confident that Britain will once again finish on the medal podium. “I’m certainly looking forward to the chance of bringing home medals for Britain,” he said. “I know that if we can all post our best results on the day, we’re in with a great shot of a medal.”

Equestrian Team GBR is supported by the UK Sport National Lottery funded World Class Programme.

Meet the team

  • Charlotte Dujardin OBE (29) from Newent, Gloucestershire with Mrs Roly Luard and Carl Hester’s Valegro
  • Michael Eilberg (28) from Redditch, Worcestershire with Mr Jon and Mrs Julie Deverill’s Half Moon Delphi
  • Carl Hester MBE (47) from Newent, Gloucestershire with Mrs Jane De La Mare and his own Nip Tuck
  • Gareth Hughes (43) from Bishops Itchington, Warwickshire with Mrs Jane Brewin’s DV Stenkjers Nadonna