Dujardin's Battle Plan for 2018 WEG Team Selection

Dressage

Great Britain

Riding on the 81% GP debut score that Dujardin achieved on Mount St. John Freestyle at the national show in Hartpury last weekend, Team Hester has revealed its battle plan for British WEG team qualification.

Dujardin has made a whopping come back to the Grand Prix ring on Emma Blundell's Mount St. John Freestyle (by Fidermark). In a Test of Choice class with four riders, Dujardin scored 81.1% for her Grand Prix test in which it is allowed to carry a whip.

Dujardin was officially entered to make her international debut on Freestyle at the CDI Nieuw en St. Joosland in The Netherlands on 5 April 2018 (and also compete Hawtin's Delicato there), followed by the CDI Hagen in Germany three weeks later.

However, with an 81.1% national score creating a shock wave in the dressage world, a slightly safer strategy has been chosen to ensure British WEG team selection.

Joosland will continue to be the platform for Freestyle's international show debut, but the very high profile CDI Hagen three weeks later has been dropped. The entire German A-squad is expected to make its appearance in Hagen, alongside top Scandinavian pairs.

After Joosland, Dujardin and Freestyle will do two smaller CDI's in the UK: the invitational CDI in Windsor on 10 - 11 May 2018 (which usually has a starters' field of 10 British pairs and the odd foreigner) followed by the CDI Bolesworth, hosted in their backyard, on 13 - 17 June 2018.

After achieving a career best result with Nip Tuck at the 2017 European Championships in Gothenburg, Hester is focusing on 10-year old British Hanoverian gelding Hawtin's Delicato (by Diamond Hit) this year. Carl told Eurodressage that he aims for a WEG team spot with Delicato, who Charlotte competed at international small tour level in 2017 and who also made his national GP show debut in Hartpury last Saturday (76.8%).

"I need to do some national shows first," Carl said. "Roosendaal is on our list as is Windsor, Bolesworth and probably Rotterdam, so I imagine Delicato will start with me at Windsor."