Success for the Mount St John Stud continued on the third day of competition at the Le Mieux National Championships when Charlotte Dujardin masterfully guided Mount St John Freestyle to an emphatic win in the TopSpec Medium Open.
This relatively new pairing have undoubtedly formed a fantastic partnership and produced a faultless and hugely impressive test which was justly rewarded with a brilliant score of 77.86%.
Charlotte was delighted with the result, commenting: “I was really happy with my performance today. Freestyle is a new ride for me, I’ve had her from the beginning of the year and this is only her fourth Medium test ever. I was happy with the whole test from start to finish!” said a delighted Charlotte.
The combination has been unbeaten since the beginning of their competitive career together at the start of the year. They qualified for the National Championships at Keysoe summer regionals in August with a score of 75.77%, giving them a convincing victory.
Mount St John Freestyle is a six-year-old Fidermark-sired mare with a ‘fantastic temperament’. Despite finding the atmosphere rather electric whilst schooling the previous day, Freestyle showed her professionalism when it mattered. Charlotte said: “Yesterday she was a little bit hot and then today she was like a pro nothing fazed her. She’s never been in this type of atmosphere but she’s not a spooky horse. I’m really lucky in that sense, if anything, it just makes her lift and get a bit more excited. She’s a really easy horse and a real pleasure to ride.”
In the TopSpec Medium Open National Championship, world number one pony combination Phoebe Peters and SL Lucci were hot on Charlotte’s heals with a fabulous performance to give them 75.86%, more than four percent over third placed Laura Newton and Zebrano. This was a hugely emotional performance for Phoebe as it was her last ever test with the outstanding SL Lucci, as the pony is now for sale. A huge support team turned out to watch this pair and although emotions were running high before the test, Phoebe regained her composure to produce yet another flawless performance and round off her competitive career with Lucci in fine style.