British dressage riders showed what they were made of last night (Tuesday 13 December) at Olympia by pulling off a British first, second, third and fourth in the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Qualifier.
Charlotte Dujardin with Valegro won the class - their Olympia debut,with a personal best of 81.043%, bettering her previous personal best, recorded at the European Championships, by over 2% and were the only combination to score over 80% on the night.
Charlotte, who has had a very successful year, only took part in her first Grand Prix this January, where she produced a winning performance with a record debut score of 74%.
Charlotte brought the Olympia qualifier to a thrilling close beating British riders Laura Bechtolsheimer (Mistral Hojris), her mentor and coach Carl Hester (Uthopia) and Richard Davison (Hiscox Artemis).
Laura produced a strong test to score 79.23% to take second place; Carl on Uthopia achieved third with 75.44% after notching a couple of mistakes in the pirouette and Richard Davison on Hiscox Artemis took fourth with a good test to post 72.596%. Henriette Andersen with Louis d'Or scored 68.085% to finish ninth.
All five riders will be taking part in the Reem Acra World Cup Freestyle class this evening. Laura will also be giving a Dressage Masterclass earlier in the day.
You can catch the action from Olympia tonight on the BBC Red Button (Live) – 8pm-10.30pm or on British Eurosport / Eurosport Live - 8pm-10.30pm Qualifier
Please check BBC and Eurosport websites for schedule changes
Interviews with Laura, Charlotte and Carl after the Grand Prix Class at Olympia are now available, courtesy of Lloyd Bell on the Team GBR facebook page