Superstar Sophie's Dazzling Double

No one could touch Paralympian Sophie Wells in the gala classes, as she showcased her talent to produce big horses with the lightest touch.

- Helen Triggs, Alice Collins & Leslie Bliss

BRINGING her tally of national able-bodied titles to three, Sophie Wells won the Magic prix st georges (PSG) with C Fatal Attraction and the Superflex inter I with her Rio gold medallist, Valerius, with two accomplished and crowd-pleasing performances on back-to-back nights.

In the inter I, Sophie rode 15-year-old Valerius to the Tom Hunt programme that won her the grade IV Paralympic medal in Rio. She has amped up the difficulty to inter I level and this was the first time she had ridden the floorplan in competition.

“I almost cried when I found out I’d won the inter I tonight,” said Sophie. “I didn’t expect to win last night either. Michael [Eilberg] has always pipped me to the post in the past. It’s so nice to prove that para work is no different to able-bodied dressage.

“I tried to make the floorplan more difficult, and make it interesting and different. Reece [Valerius] felt on edge and I thought maybe I should’ve done a warm-up test beforehand. I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I know him so well as I’ve had him for 10 years.”

It wasn’t apparent to the crowd but Sophie said afterwards that she couldn’t remember the test when she started as she was so focussed on trying to keep Reece’s energetic lid on. But her efforts paid offas she executed an eye-catching show featuring an extravagent extended trot out of halt, and canter pirouttes straight out of her tempi changes.

The music and choreography were well suited to Valerius, and and Reece’s hoof beats matched his music and in an evening where a lot of the film-score-type music used was relentlessly dramatic (whether suitable to the horse or not), it was refreshing to watch the light and shade in Sophie’s test, which finished with a quiet, soft walk section.