To the wire
ANYONE who says dressage is boring or predictable probably wasn’t present at the team final here. With a fresh new format designed to provide excitement and tension right up until the final moment, the competition delivered on every front.
This year, team medals relied solely on the special, and with just three to a team, the pressure was intense. Carl Hester was first up for the Brits, and he may have been competing at his sixth Olympics, but he revealed that having no drop score was playing on his mind here, especially with his hot 12-year-old Jazz son En Vogue being somewhat unpredictable in such an alien environment.
“He was a boy going in, and he came out as a man tonight”
CARL HESTER ON EN VOGUE
“For somebody like me, who thinks about these sorts of things, it’s very intense,” he said.
But his worries were put to bed when he and the gorgeous Vogue pulled off a beautiful special that got Britain off to the ideal start in the team competition.
“Charlotte [Dujardin] said, ‘You don’t have a choice, you have to go for it, ’” said Carl, who simply could not have been happier after his test. “I have struggled with Vogue’s nerves and finding the right balance, but today, the cliché was true
