The final riders of the 14 countries competing for team honours, and all 16 countries represented by individuals, completed the Grand Prix dressage test on another hot and sunny day. Only the top 10 teams continue on to Saturday’s Grand Prix Special to determine the team medals. Sunday’s Grand Prix Freestyle is the Individual Final competition and is open to 18 combinations qualified from the Grand Prix – the top two combinations from each of the six groups and the combinations with the six next-highest scores.
Canada’s Camille Carier Bergeron and her mare Finnlanderin were Canada’s final entry, helping the team to finish these Olympics in 11th place. Competing in her first Olympics as the youngest dressage rider at 24 years old, Carier Bergeron rode a lovely test, but with two uncharacteristic but costly errors in the canter depart and in the zigzag.
“Those brought my score probably 2% to maybe 2.5% down so we would have been in the 70%,” she said later. “It’s a bit annoying to go under the 70% when you know you can do that 70% at the Olympics, but on the other hand, considering the heat and how she handled everything in there for me, it’s a win.”
Trained by Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu, the pair have only been competing together since February, as Carier Bergeron had wanted to compete her other horse, Sound of Silence 4, at last year’s Pan Am Games where they were part of the team bronze medal. She was delighted with how ‘Finn’ reacted to these crowds.
“I’ve been riding her for like eight months, maybe, in the ring,” she said of their partnership. “So it’s not like a long partnership, where we’ve been to other Games before in an electric atmosphere. I didn’t really know how she would be, but she was just like usual. She just showed up and was like, ‘Here I am, what do you want me to do?’ and she fought until the end.”
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (GER) and Dalera. (Cara Grimshaw photo)
The future is bright for Carier Bergeron, as Finn has her first foal on the ground, courtesy of embryo transfer. The filly is by Kjento, who twice won the Dressage World Championship for Young Horses with Charlotte Fry in the irons and was named the 2022 KWPN Horse of the Year.
(Read the report on the previous day’s Grand Prix tests and Canadian results here.)
Jessica von Bredow-Werndl of Germany was the very last entry of the day and scored the highest mark of the Grand Prix, finishing with 82.065 aboard TSF Dalera BB. Danish rider Catherine Laudrup-Dufour is close behind, scoring 80.792 with her mare Freestyle. German rider Isabel Werth riding Wendy rounds out the top three with a score of 79.363.
“I’m so grateful TSF Dalera BB showed again how amazing she is,” said von Bredow-Werndl. “She was listening to me from the first to the very last second, 100%. I’m emotional. She has given everything she can.”
Performing at Chateau de Versailles has been a thrill for her. “It’s the most amazing view I’ve ever seen. It’s difficult to describe because I’ve never felt this before. It’s the biggest and most beautiful dancefloor we have ever had.”
On the German team’s prospects in the Final, she remarked, “On Saturday, everything starts at zero so we have to be as good as we were today. It will be a new day, a new challenge. We will see on Saturday.”
“It was wonderful in there today, [Freestyle] was amazing,” said Danish rider Laudrup-Dufour of her horse. “When I pick up the first passage, I just said to her ‘now you can just dance’ and I follow along. My plan was to not ask for more than she offered, and she offered this result, so that was really incredible. I was just dancing with her and it felt great. I’m over the moon about the performance.”
Heading into the Grand Prix Special, Germany leads the team standings with a total of 237.546 followed by Denmark with 235.736, and Great Britain with 231.196.
Results here.
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