ALLTECH FEI WEG 2014 Normandy: Great Britain Lead the Para Dressage Competition at the Halfway Point

Thanks to three of the four British team members topping the leader board of their respective grades, plus Sophie Christiansen scoring 74.261 in the Ia competition to finish currently in third, the team lead with a total score of 226.202 after the first round of tests have been completed.

Christiansen provided the drop score by less than half a percent but still has the chance of increasing her overall team mark with her Individual Championship Test on Thursday. Fifth member of Team GB, grade Ib rider Ricky Balshaw is representing Great Britain as an individual this year on his 2013 European Championships horse, the nine year old Danish bred LJT Engaard’s Solitaire. The pair posted a score of 71% after the horse broke in his walk work twice, but before this error they were averaging a mark of 74%, which would have been good enough to put them into bronze medal position at this half way point, rather than the eighth place that they are currently in.

British Team Chef D’Equipe, David Hunter is pleased with the team performance and confirms that currently all of his objectives are being met. “All five riders have done extremely well across the two days, and the four riders in the team have done very well indeed,” he said of them, “I couldn’t have asked for a better result and the horses, their performance and the whole support staff have done a superb job.”