Charlotte Dujardin

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Charlotte Dujardin
OBE
Charlotte Dujardin 2012 Olympic Dressage-1.JPG
Dujardin and Valegro compete
at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Nationality British
Born (1985-07-13) 13 July 1985 (age 39)
Enfield, Greater London, England
Residence Newent, Gloucestershire, England
Sport
Country  Great Britain
Sport Equestrian dressage
Coached by Carl Hester
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals 2012 Summer Olympics, Gold, team dressage
2012 Summer Olympics, Gold, individual dressage
Highest world ranking 1
Medal record
Equestrian
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Team dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Individual dressage
(with Valegro)
World Equestrian Games
Gold medal – first place 2014 Normandy Spécial dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2014 Normandy Freestyle dressage
(with Valegro)
Silver medal – second place 2014 Normandy Team dressage
(with Valegro)
European Dressage Championships
Gold medal – first place 2011 Rotterdam Team dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2013 Herning Spécial dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2013 Herning Freestyle dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2015 Aachen Spécial dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2015 Aachen Freestyle dressage
(with Valegro)
Silver medal – second place 2015 Aachen Team dressage
(with Valegro)
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Herning Team dressage
(with Valegro)
Dressage World Cup
Gold medal – first place 2014 Lyon Individual dressage
(with Valegro)
Gold medal – first place 2015 Las Vegas Individual dressage
(with Valegro)

Charlotte Dujardin OBE (born 13 July 1985) is an elite British dressage rider. The most successful British dressage rider in the history of the sport and the winner of all major titles and world records in the sport, Dujardin has been described as the most dominant dressage rider of her era.[1]

Riding Valegro, Dujardin currently holds the complete set of the available individual elite dressage titles; the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin is the first, and to date only, rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.[2]

In addition, she forms part of the current Great Britain team for Team Dressage; as such she is also the current Olympic, and a former European, Team Dressage champion.

In 2015, Charlotte became Global Ambassador for the Brooke Hospital for Animals – an equine welfare charity that focuses on improving the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules in 11 countries around the world. It is her first official charity partnership.[3]

Early life

Born in Enfield, Dujardin was brought up in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire where she attended Vandyke Upper School.[4][5] She started riding as a two-year-old,[6] returning her elder sisters' horses from the show jumping ring to the horse box.[7] Aged three, she achieved second place at her first Pony Club show jumping competition outing.[7] To finance their hobby, their mother Jane Dujardin bought and sold ponies for her daughters to ride to enable them to continue riding.[8]

Leaving school aged 16,[9][10] Dujardin won the Horse of the Year Show competition four times and was a winner at Hickstead on three occasions.[10][11]

Career

After encouragement from her trainer, Debbie Thomas,[6] Dujardin took up dressage with a horse bought from her grandmother's inheritance.[7][8] In February 2007, after seeking employment with Carl Hester,[6] he gave her some coaching and spotting her talent he offered her a job as a groom at his yard in Newent, Gloucestershire, where she has since remained.[7][9][10] Dujardin's owned-horse is Fernandez.[6]

In 2011, Dujardin was asked to develop the novice Dutch Warmblood gelding Valegro by Hester and co-owner Roly Luard,[8][12] with the intention of that horse being ridden by Hester.[8] However, after competing in their first dressage Grand Prix event in 2011,[10] the combination became part of the successful team which won gold in a European Dressage Championship event at Rotterdam. The pair then won the FEI World Cup Grand Prix at London Olympia in 2011, setting a new World Record for the Olympic Grand Prix special discipline point-scoring at 88.022%, in April 2012.[11][13][14] In December 2012 Dujardin, again riding Valegro, won the 2012 World Cup freestyle event held at Olympia with a score of 87.875%.[15] On 19 April 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, Dujardin and Valegro won the FEI World Cup with a score of 94.169% on the final day of competition. This was their fourth consecutive World Title making them the only competition pair to have ever held four consecutive world titles.[16][17]

Olympics

Dujardin and Valegro were selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics,[18] and in the first round the team set a new Olympic Record of 83.784%. On 7 August 2012 the pair were members of the team which won the gold medal in the team dressage event.[19] Two days later, in a routine accompanied by music which included Land of Hope and Glory, The Great Escape and the chimes of Big Ben;[7] the pair won the gold medal in the individual dressage event with a score of 90.089%.[20]

She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to equestrianism.[21][22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://score.normandie2014.com/results/dressage/DRE-PRI-IND-RF.pdf
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ http://eventcontent.hippoonline.de/1000/docs/R_06_mark.pdf
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60367. p. 24. 29 December 2012.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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