Mount St John Freestyle and Quantico Withdrawn from 2018 Olympia Line-Up

Dressage

Great Britain

The line-up for the 2018 CDI-W London world cup qualifier held at the Olympia International horse Show on 17 - 18 December 2018 has lost a bit of its shine: both Mount St. John Freestyle and Quantico have been withdrawn.

Charlotte Dujardin already announced ten days ago that she would not be competing her top ride Mount St. John Freestyle (by Fidermark) at Olympia. In an interview with Horse and Hound the WEG bronze medal winning Dujardin stated that the 9-year old Hanoverian mare Freestyle suffered from a cough.

"Freestyle had a cough recently and had to have time off,” Carl Hester told Horse&Hound. “She’s now back in work but Charlotte and I want to give her time to get back into full condition. We’re mindful that she’s a young horse competing at the highest level and want to give her enough time.”

Instead, Dujardin will take over Carl's WEG team bronze winning ride, Hawtins Delicato, and compete the 10-year old Diamond Hit son at Olympia.

Spanish Juan Matute Guimon also announced his withdrawal from Olympia as his horse, the 12-year old Hanoverian gelding Quantico (by Fighting Fit), suffered from a colic attack.

"Quantico has had a colic and we didn’t want to push it with the long trip ahead to London," said Matute. "Our priority above all should always be the health and well being of our horses. I’m upset that I won’t fulfill my dream of competing at this event, but I’m glad he is doing fine now and it was nothing major."

The annual line-up of riders at Olympia is never a big surprise with the top Brits competing in their final CDI of the year, alongside the steady return Dutch duo Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud. This year they are joined by the British based Dane Ulrik Moelgaard, French Marie Emilie Bretenoux and Stephanie Brieussel, Belgian David Engelen, Portuguese Maria Caetano, Swedish Minna Telde and German Frederic Wandres.

Olympia will also be the venue where the new shortened Grand Prix test will be ridden for the first time. Surprisingly, despite its lower difficulty level, the class will count for the same amount of FEI World Ranking Points as a classic Grand Prix test. It provides riders competing at Olympia a privileged opportunity to score ranking points more easily.