Great Britain won the second leg of the FEI Nations Cup™ Dressage 2013 series at Rotterdam, The Netherlands where team member, Charlotte Dujardin, produced the biggest score of the competition with a strong performance from her London 2012 Olympic Games double-gold medal winning partner, Valegro. Just over 1.5 percentage points gave the British the edge over the host nation in the final analysis, while, despite fielding only three riders, Sweden lined up third.

However it is the Dutch who hold the advantage at the top of the league table as the four-leg pilot season moves on to Aachen, Germany next week. The British failed to start at the opening round in Vidauban, France last month when, having arrived with only three riders, one horse didn’t pass the first horse inspection.

This time around they brought the full complement of four horse-and-rider combinations, and although two of the side, Daniel Watson (Fideramber) and Gareth Hughes (DV Stenkjers Nadonna) were considerably less-experienced, the combined scores of the best three team-members secured success. Dujardin finished at the top of the individual rankings with 82.191, Carl Hester was fourth with Fine Time on a mark of 71.532 and first-timer Hughes was most impressive when slotting into seventh with DV Stenkjers Nadonna when posting 70.149. British pathfinder, Watson, scored 67.830 with Fideramber.

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