Don't Rule Out Brits

Horse & Hound’s dressage editor Alice Collins assesses what looks to be a tight race for the bronze, while one team’s fire-power make them odds-on favourites

- Alice Collins

THERE may be a gaping Valegro shaped hole in this year’s British team for the first time in seven years, but do not kiss goodbye to the chance of a medal.

These four men — Carl Hester, Emile Faurie, Gareth Hughes and Spencer Wilton — have all ridden on championship teams before, so the pressures won’t be a shock and they’ll be well positioned to bring their horses to their performance peaks just at the moment they motor down the centre line.

Germany have two exceptional combinations in Isabell Werth on Weihegold and Sönke Rothenberger on Cosmo — both of whom contributed handsomely to their nation’s gold medal at the Rio Olympics last year — and they are favourites for team gold.