Aachen, Germany—Aug. 16  

There’s not much new about Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro adding another individual gold medal to their count—what was new about the Grand Prix freestyle gold they picked up at the FEI European Championships was that it was by just a whisker.

Dujardin consistently puts up record-breaking scores on “Blueberry,” leaving her competition many points behind. But today’s medal was particularly hard-won, with Germany’s Kristina Bröring-Sprehe only 0.25 percent off Dujardin’s winning score when taking silver with Desperados FRH, while Spain’s Beatriz Ferrer-Salat produced another sensation when claiming the bronze with Delgado.

It couldn’t have been closer: Bröring-Sprehe gave the performance of her life with Desperados and almost won gold. In the end, the 29-year-old ranked second with a personal best score of 88.80 percent, just behind the defending champion, Dujardin, who finished on a score of 89.05 percent. Four of the seven international judges placed the British Olympic gold medalist first, but three of the judges had hung the gold medal around the neck of Bröring-Sprehe.

Dujardin and Valegro presented the freestyle routine that they performed to win the Reem Acra FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas earlier this spring. The reigning World Champion and Olympic gold medalist performed a fantastic round to the film music of “Taming dragons made easy” until she made two big mistakes in the two tours of the flying changes.

“I overrode the flying changes,” she said immediately admitting that it was her mistake and was full of praise for her gold partner, Valegro. “It was a long, strenuous week for all of the horses here. I am overjoyed and very proud of him.” She grinned mischievously when asked about the close result. “The fact that Kristina is breathing down my neck, makes the sport even more exciting. It would be really boring if I was winning by miles all the time!”

Charlotte Dujardin celebrated yet another individual gold medal with Valegro in the Grand Prix freestyle at the FEI European Championships. Photo by Paul Harding

She explained that Valegro would have two to three weeks off now and then she would gradually start to get him ready for Rio. “And I hope that I will get my flying changes sorted out by then,” laughed the two-time gold medal winner of the FEI European Championships at Aachen.

Listen to Dujardin discussing her test…

Bröring-Sprehe enchanted the crowds with an immaculate, harmonious freestyle routine in Aachen’s Main Stadium. “That was the best freestyle I have ever ridden,” explained the overjoyed 29-year-old. “Desperados was unbelievable and riding here in this atmosphere in Aachen was fantastic!”

The penultimate performance of Bröring-Sprehe and her fabulous black stallion was close to perfection. The 28-year-old rider came to Aachen this week with a weight of expectation on her shoulders, and although she didn’t get the result she wanted in the team competition she was very impressive when taking silver in yesterday’s Grand Prix Special.

Today however the horse-and-rider combination were in a different league altogether, lighting up the ring with spectacular passage and piaffe, the tiniest of pirouettes and breath-taking extended trot. The defending champions were chasing a big score of 88.804 as they set off, and it was difficult to know if they would beat that score.

Kristina Bröring-Sprehe on Desperados on their way to individual silver in the Grand Prix freestyle of the FEI European Championships. Photo courtesy of Rolex 

Bröring-Sprehe knew after her super ride that anything was possible. Standing next to her teammate, Isabell Werth, she watched Dujardin’s ride in anticipation and explained laughing. “Isabell practically held my hand, because I was so nervous.” She was annoyed for a second, because gold had been within her grasp, but …”I am satisfied all round and who knows, perhaps I can do it even better next year,” she said grinning in the direction of the European Champion, Dujardin.

After celebrating team gold and two individual silver medals, Bröring-Sprehe will continue celebrating next week. Her church wedding with Christian Bröring is scheduled for next weekend—a further highlight in the summer of 2015 for the two-time vice European Champion.

Bronze went to the Spanish rider, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat with Delgado, who finished on a score of 82.71 percent—perhaps that was the biggest surprise at these European Championships. Ferrer-Salt was almost perplexed about her result. “We travelled to Aachen with the aim of qualifying the team for Rio, which we succeeded in doing. Then, in the Special I wanted to qualify for the freestyle. That worked too. But the fact that I am taking a medal home with me is simply incredible!” she said.

Beatriz Ferrer-Salat’s patience with Delgado after years of injuries paid off with individual bronze in the freestyle at the FEI European Championships. Photo courtesy of Rolex

She has been riding her 14-year-old partner, Delgado, for eight years, but she has encountered many ups and downs with him over the years. “He was constantly injured. I missed the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, because he was injured. I couldn’t ride in London, because he was injured. I kept having to rest him,” she said.

The veterinarians had told her: “He won’t recover.” But she worked out a rehab program for him over one and a half years, together with a chiropractor and a masseur. Since then he has been consistently healthy, he is in top form and won the European Championships bronze medal with a wonderfully elastic freestyle in Aachen. The music for her freestyle routine is an own creation of a friend of hers, who composed it especially for her and Delgado.

According to the German Chef d’Equipe, Klaus Roeser, Isabell Werth’s ride with Don Johnson four fourth place in the freestyle was outstanding. “If anyone had told me that I could almost win a medal here with Don Johnson, I would never have believed it,” beamed Werth. “To finish fourth, just scraping by the bronze medal, was a fantastic result. I am very proud of Johnny. It is a great feeling to have a ‘second weapon’ up my sleeve for Rio in addition to Bella Rose.”

Werth was awarded a score of 82.48 percent for her successful ride. Third, fourth and fifth places in the freestyle competition at these European Championships were very close: with only 0.303 percent separating them—which is a sign for the top quality of the European top pairs.

The fans of the Portuguese dressage sport celebrated a premiere. A dressage rider from Portugal competed in a European Championships final for the first time ever. Goncalo Carvalho has already taken part at World Championships, Olympic Games and European Championships in the past, but he never made it into the freestyle final before.

“I am very, very proud!” beamed the 33-year-old. His goal is to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio, and during the show in Aachen he has got a step closer to this target.

The spectators were able to “co-judge” the European Championships competitions in Aachen via an app that was jointly developed by the organizers and the software manufacturer, SAP. Their result differed slightly to that of the judges: Gold went to Kristina Bröring-Sprehe with a score of 86.71 percent, silver went to Dujardin (83.01%) and the crowd in Aachen awarded the bronze medal to Isabell Werth (82.18%).

See full Grand Prix freestyle results.