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A new dressage superstar is crowned, medals elude the Brits and Fame loses his ‘hat’: catch up with the grand prix special action at the Europeans

Martha Terry Martha Terry

    • The first of two sets of individual medals were awarded today (Friday, 29 August) after the European Dressage Championships grand prix special concluded in Crozet, France.

    Don’t worry if you missed the action, we have all the stories and reactions here from throughout the day for you to catch up on.

    How the European Dressage Championships grand prix special played out

    • A new champion was born as Belgium’s Justin Verboomen took gold on his young stallion Zonik Plus. It’s hugely exciting when a superstar goes into orbit, and this nine-year-old was simply breathtaking to take the scalps of the vastly more experienced Mount St John Freestyle (Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour) and Wendy De Fontaine (Isabell Werth), who took silver and bronze. Zonik drew 10s from the judges for his pirouettes and piaffe-passage, and at his age it is tantalising to dream about what more he could achieve.

    Find out what an emotional Justin had to say after making history for his country

    • Becky Moody came close to her personal best in the special to finish fifth. During the grand prix, her ride Jagerbomb had been less “hot” than Becky had anticipated, but he was back to firing on all cylinders today – while losing none of the calmness she has put into more settled halts. Encouragingly, ahead of the final freestyle, Becky knows she has more in the tank as she rode a touch conservatively this time to ensure a mistake-free test.

    Find out what changes Becky made after she was disappointed by her grand prix

    • Carl Hester and Fame proved models of consistency to finish sixth with a super-accurate performance. Carl paid tribute to his friend of many years Fiona Bigwood, who jointly owns the stallion, explaining what a joy it is to share the championship experience with a good friend. Carl took a risk today in removing the ear bonnet from Fame, who can be reactive, but he felt that it would get soggy in the wet weather. With the team competition out of the way – plus, profound trust between horse and rider – he decided to experiment.

    How did the stallion react to competing without his bonnet?

    • Lottie Fry had an expensive piaffe mistake to finish ninth. Glamourdale had stunning highlights – notably his extended canter – but he was pegged back to ninth owing to the double-marking of that piaffe. However, Lottie was upbeat. She was delighted by the improvement in her pirouettes, which had been the weak point in the previous day’s grand prix, and is looking forward to unveiling her new freestyle where the show-stopping stallion is really set to shine.

    What did Lottie say about Glamourdale’s highlights and low points – and her secret new freestyle?

    With one day off for the horses after the special, Sunday (31 August) is the turn of the freestyle finale, with more individual medals up for grabs.

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    Martha Terry
    Martha Terry

    H&H features editor
    Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.
    Martha Terry

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