A fairytale f inish
Julie Payne puts in a heroic performance under pressure, sealing gold for Britain
IT’S never easy to be the first rider into the arena to compete for a team medal. Even less so when the previous day’s performance hadn’t quite gone to plan. But if anyone can handle a stressful situation it’s the multi-medalled Sophie Wells, the “veteran” of the British team with the weight of 10 championships behind her, despite being the youngest of the four at just 27 years old.
The 10-year-old C Fatal Attraction had given Sophie a tricky time the day before, suffering with tension in the buzz of the city-centre venue.
But despite having to contend with the hustle and bustle of the Gothenburg morning rush hour just behind the fence at C, “Jorge” produced a mature, settled grade V test to get the British campaign off to an ideal start.
The expressive son of Fidertanz, who was bred by Astrid Bolton, has no single particular strength; he’s good at everything. When tension creeps in he can get a little short in the neck, but Sophie skillfully rode him forward into a soft, attractive frame, cranking up the power for the final centre line.
“He was much happier today compared to the individual test yesterday — more rideable and at peace with his environment. I could show him off,” said Sophie, who looked a tad disappointed with her score of 73.58% — indeed, nobody would have been surprised if she’d scored over 74%.
“Every championship comes with a different dynamic, and here it’s about looking to the future,” added Sophie, who has trained the gelding since he was a five-yearold. “I could have brought Reece [Valerius, her Rio gold medallist], but Jorge needed the opportunity. It’s all about confidence with him; he’s a ball of energy to ride.”
Suzanna Hext may be competing at her very first championships, but her ride
Abira provides more than enough experience for the both of them. This very special 17-year-old gelding is owned by Pammy and Charlie Hutton, having partnered Charlie to four Europeans in junior and young rider ranks. The sparky bay looked thoroughly delighted to be back in a championship environment, flicking his toes and showing off to the crowd as he and Suzanna banked a valuable 72.08%. It wasn’t a mistake-free test, as a stride of canter snuck in ahead of the right pirouette, but H&H blogger Suz was delighted.
“He was mega — more settled than in the individual test yesterday, and really listening to me,” she said.
“He’s a horse of a lifetime and I owe so much to the Huttons,” the former two-star eventer added, recalling the moment she went to her long-term trainer Pammy three years after the fall in 2012 that left her partially paralysed, and asked for her help in getting her life back.
“My accident was the day before the opening ceremony for London 2012 — it’s amazing to be here now, nine operations later, winning gold at a championship. But without that horse I wouldn’t be here. When Pammy offered him to me, I was so surprised I thought, ‘Are you ok?’”
SUBSTITUTE PROVES HER WORTH
IT’S been a tough championship season for British Dressage,
with only the young rider team completing their Europeans with the same four combinations that were originally selected. But, as always, heartbreak for one rider has made dreams come true for another. When Natasha Adkinson had to withdraw Sweet Caledonia just before travelling to Sweden, it opened the door for Erin Orford to make her deserved championship debut, after narrowly missing out on selection on a number of previous occasions with the 14-year-old Dior (Pimms).
“A week ago, I was told to pack just in case, and then the next day I received the call saying Pimms was on the ferry,” said Erin, for whom the magnitude of the occasion still hadn’t quite sunk in.
Kickstarting her first Europeans with an individual bronze (p40) is impressive and Erin gave it her all once again in the team test, producing some super work from the fiery Dimaggio mare, who glides through the test like a dancer. It was a surprise not to see a plus70% mark appear, with 68.85% the confirmed score.
“The quality of work felt good — we both had more confidence and trusted each other out there, but I would have liked to put forward something stronger for the team,” Erin said.
THE PRESSURE RISES
WITH just one rider left to compete, Britain was in an
unfamiliar position: third. The Danes had stormed to the top of the leaderboard with four mega rides, including that of 17-yearold sensation Tobias Thorning Joergensen, who topped the grade III with Brunnholms Caribian.
A tense test from the individual grade IV champions, Sanne Voets and Demantur, dropped the Netherlands out of contention for gold and, with the pressure rising, British supporters, riders and journalists could be spotted gazing wide-eyed at scoreboards and muttering under their breath as they frantically tried to calculate the score Julie Payne and Athene Lindebjerg needed to put Britain in front.
Athene’s former rider Sophie Christiansen, who boasts a masters in maths as well as eight Paralympic gold medals, was on hand via Whatsapp to confirm that Julie needed to produce a chunky 74.6% — no mean feat on a championship debut.
But Julie, who suffers from multiple system atrophy, is one very special lady. A selfproclaimed adrenalin junkie, she has the enviable ability to make pressure work for her, not against her, and, having ridden at a high level for most of her life, Julie is a natural in the saddle, appearing far more able than your average grade I rider.
But the apparent ease with which she rides belies the constant battle being fought between her mind and body, which is unpredictable at the best of times.
As silence descended across the Heden arena, Julie conjured up a flawless performance from Athene. This gloriously graceful mare is almost therapeutic to watch, eating up the ground with her huge walk, which is full of purpose, yet totally relaxed.
It always seems to be the case that the more crucial the score, the longer it takes to materialise. When 78.1% finally appeared after an excruciating few minutes, the British contingent flooded into the warm-up arena to congratulate Julie, who shook her head with disbelief at what she had just achieved.
“That was the hardest test I have ever ridden in my life,” she confessed. “It took absolutely everything I had but Athene gave me everything. My legs didn’t want to work, my pelvis didn’t want to move, but she just stayed with me.
“I hadn’t worked out the score I needed — I hadn’t even read my score sheets from yesterday as I didn’t want to get distracted by what I thought the judges wanted — I just wanted to do my best— but I knew the team gold was riding on me.
“But there’s no ‘I’ in team and we couldn’t have done it without all of us. What a team!”
What a team, indeed. THIS championship was the first under the new competition structure, in which the individual test was performed first, and the team medals were determined solely from the results of the second day’s team tests, rather than a combination of both scores.
“It feels very strange doing the individual championship test first — it’s a much harder test to do on day one,” said Britain’s Erin Orford.
It certainly created increased intensity within the team competition, and was praised by Rio gold medalist Natasha Baker who was commentating in Gothenburg (see comment, p37).
As well as brand new tests within each grade this year, this has also been the first championship featuring the relabelled grades.