Now what about that wedding?
Plea from dressage girl’s long-suffering fiance as she collects her third gold
DRESSAGE rider Charlotte Dujardin won a third Olympic gold on her ‘super horse’ yesterday – and then promised her long-term fiance they would finally get married.
She and steed Valegro put on an almost faultless display in Rio to bring the country’s gold medal tally to an incredible 16. It came as:
Sailor Giles Scott secured another gold with two days still to go in the Finn Class competition – his position means he cannot be beaten.
Former ballet dancer Sophie Hitchon won Britain’s first hammer medal in 92 years, setting a new UK record.
Team GB was second in the medal table, ahead of China, with 40 medals.
Cyclist Mark Cavendish was set to add to the tally in the men’s Omnium last night.
Miss Dujardin was cheered on by her fiance Dean Wyatt Golding, 37, who was in the crowd with a sign saying ‘Can we get married now?’ stuck to his T-shirt.
The rider joked afterwards: ‘He’s a wally. He’s already proposed. I have already got a ring on my finger. It is so he secures me and no one takes me away.
‘I did promise him after London that we would get married, it just never happened with competitions and everything. But I will make sure it happens now, he has hung on for a long time now,’ she said.
She gushed with praise for her £6million horse, with whom she claims to have a virtually telepathic relationship.
‘It was totally magical,’ said Miss Dujardin of their performance, ‘I just feel so lucky and privileged to have been able to ride with him. There will never be another Valegro.’ In fact their bond is so strong she once told her boyfriend – a South African former distance runner – she would never love him as much.
Miss Dujardin, 31, sank forward onto Valegro’s neck as she finished her routine to huge applause. On the podium, she struggled to hold back the tears before completing a lap of honour on horseback – medal aloft in her right hand.
Afterwards, Valegro – the best dressage horse in the world – was rewarded in typical fashion, with sugar lumps and apples. The Rio Olympics are to be the 14-year-old chestnut gelding’s last major championship, however. The horse is likely to be retired later this year.
Miss Dujardin, whose mother Jane once joked ‘could make a donkey do anything’ is now one of Britain’s most decorated female Olympians – level only with cyclist Laura Trott, who also has three golds.
Her former employer, mentor and owner of Valegro, Carl Hester, 49, had to settle for seventh place. He later praised Mr Golding’s ring-side wedding plea. ‘I can tell you now, if he said it face to face with Charlotte it would probably be a no – the horses come first,’ he said.
Equestrian is the only Olympic sport in which men and women compete against each other. The goal of dressage is for the horse and rider to perform to music in perfect harmony. Miss Dujardin and Valegro appeared to do just that: bouncing around together in time almost as one as temperatures
‘He’s hung on for a long time’
in Rio reached 32C. The rider said after competing earlier this week: ‘I can’t help but smile when I ride Valegro because I think something and he does it and I laugh and think, “How does he know?”.’
But things could have worked out differently for her and Valegro – worth an estimated £6million at his peak after London 2012, where Miss Dujardin won two gold medals.
Born in Enfield, north London, she attended a comprehensive school in Bedfordshire but admitted she skipped school often to go out riding instead. She left at 16 to pursue her equestrian ambitions but her family struggled financially.
They were only able to buy her first dressage horse when they received some inheritance from a grandmother – and then started buying and developing horses to fund Dujardin’s career. She has said: ‘Mum was very good at spotting a cheap one that was also a good one. I learned from that, so mum taught me a lot.’ In 2007, she asked established dressage rider and horse trainer Carl Hester for lessons. Hester said he noticed something special in her and she ended up staying with him, initially as a stable hand.
He allowed Dujardin to ride Valegro as a novice, but they proved such a successful combination that they stayed together, competing in their first event in 2011 and wowing crowds in London in 2012 with their Land of Hope and Glorythemed choreography.
But Miss Dujardin has revealed how her life turned sour three months after London when she termporarily split up with Mr Golding and learnt Valegro was to be sold.
‘I’d had the most amazing time of my life at the Olympics then it was as if it was crashing down. I’d lost Dean, I thought my horse was going to be sold.
‘It was heartbreaking. I cried buckets, but then, when Carl said, “OK, let’s keep him on for now and you can ride him at the Europeans”, I was like, “Oh my God, that’s such a relief”.’
Miss Dujardin now holds the complete set of individual dressage titles, the only rider ever to do so. She said yesterday: ‘I had to defend the title... and also because I knew it could be one of the last times with Valegro, I’m not going to do another Olympics with him.’