Gio rises to the occasion

Charlotte Dujardin enjoys a hat-trick of wins, while Carl Hester scores a personal best in the grand prix

- POLLY BRYAN

CHARLOTTE DUJARDIN demonstrated the strength of her claim for an Olympic team spot at this observation trial, but the grand prix classes were not without their surprises.

Charlotte’s less experienced ride, the 10-year-old Apache x Tango gelding Gio (Pumpkin) rose to top the leaderboard in the grand prix, sponsored by Horse & Country, scoring 79.13% to relegate his more mature stablemate, Mount St John Freestyle, to second.

Charlotte’s test with the 12-year-old Fidermark daughter Freestyle was marred by an uncharacteristic spook in her second piaffe, which also affected the subsequent transitions and left them on a score of 77.94%.

“The grand prix was a real learning curve for me,” Charlotte said. “Freestyle has been all around the world now and I thought I didn’t need to do an arena walk with her. But as I turned the corner she clocked something and it was just one of those things. Now I will always do an arena walk!”

Carl Hester achieved an international personal best of 77.5% for third with En Vogue, the hot 12-year-old Jazz son owned by Charlotte.

“He had plenty of nines and 10s for his good things and he felt amazing,” said Carl. “We did score a four for a late change after the extended canter, and for only doing 13 one-time changes – I asked for 15 but didn’t get the last two. But his general way of going and his confidence in the piaffe and passage was really good. We are making big strides forward.”

While Charlotte has prioritised Freestyle for grand prix specials so far, here Pumpkin had his chance to shine on his first attempt at the test in competition. While still green in parts, his half-passes, passage and pirouettes raked in big scores, and he banked 81.43%, with every judge bar one exceeding 80%.