Sark’s Hester a medallist for fourth Games in a row

Following on from the dressage team gold at London 2012, silver at Rio 2016 and bronze at Tokyo 2020, the Sark star joined forces with Charlotte Fry and Becky Moody to win another bronze for Great Britain in the Grand Prix Special on Saturday at the Chateau de Versailles.

The British team qualified in third place behind Germany and Denmark, but took an early lead after Moody scored 76.489% aboard Jagerbomb.

Hester was next up on Fame, slightly bettering Moody’s mark with 76.520%, with Fry was last to ride for Team GB with Glamourdale and her score of 79.483% secured bronze behind gold medallists Germany and Denmark, who took the silver.

The bronze medal comes after a testing period for the British equestrian team, with three-times dressage gold-medal winner Charlotte Dujardin having withdrawn from the Games just days before the opening ceremony, meaning reserve rider Moody stepped into the team.

Dujardin dropped out of Paris and was provisionally suspended by equestrian’s governing body, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, pending an investigation into a video from four years ago which showed her repeatedly hitting a student’s horse with a whip from the ground during a coaching session.

‘It’s been really difficult, very hard, and as I said before, we’ve had to put it out of our minds,’ said Hester, who enjoyed a long relationship with Dujardin as her mentor.

‘I’ve had to concentrate on the team and I’m lucky in a way that I had Becky to deal with every day and help, which helps me focus on something else.

‘We have full-time jobs most of us, then you come here and you have one horse to ride and you’re just going out of your mind with what not to think about all day and what to do all day.

‘It’s been a long week but I feel fantastic now it’s done.’

While Hester, the oldest member of Team GB at Paris 2024, was appearing at his seventh Olympics, Moody was enjoying a dream debut with her gelding Jagerbomb, who she bred herself.

‘What an incredible stadium and the crowd were fantastic and my horse was a total legend,’ she said.

‘I think because I bred him and we’ve done everything together, he’s just a total dude – a lovely, lovely horse.

‘He’s been quite spicy here this week and Carl has helped me out an awful lot to find that inner calm in both of us, but it has been fantastic and he’s been amazing.’

In yesterday’s Dressage Individual Grand Prix Freestyle, Hester and Fame scored 85.161% to finish in sixth place out of 18 combinations.