Charlotte Dujardin

Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin (born 13 July 1985) is a British dressage rider, equestrian and writer. A multiple World and Olympic champion, Dujardin has been described as the dominant dressage rider of her era. She held the complete set of available individual elite dressage titles at one point: the individual Olympic freestyle, World freestyle and Grand Prix Special, World Cup individual dressage and European freestyle, and Grand Prix Special titles. Dujardin was the first rider to hold this complete set of titles at the same time.

With six Olympic medals, including three gold medals, Dujardin is Britain's joint most decorated female Olympian of all time with, and second most successful female Olympian of all time behind, Laura Kenny.

Early life

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

Leaving school aged 16, Dujardin won the Horse of the Year Show competition four times and was a winner at All England Jumping Course at Hickstead on three occasions. As a child Dujardin was diagnosed with dyslexia.

Career

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

In 2011, Dujardin was asked by Hester and co-owner Roly Luard to develop the novice Dutch Warmblood gelding ''Valegro,'' with the intention of that horse being ridden by Hester. However, Dujardin competed on Valegro in their first dressage Grand Prix event in 2011, 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 by point-scoring at 88.022%, in April 2012.

In December 2012 Dujardin, again riding Valegro, won the 2012 World Cup freestyle event held at Olympia, with a score of 87.875%. On 19 April 2015 in Las Vegas, 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; they are the only competition pair to have ever held four consecutive world titles.

Olympics

Dujardin and Valegro were among the rider/horse pairs selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics, In the first round this dressage team set a new Olympic Record of 83.784%. On 7 August 2012 the pair were members of the British team which won the gold medal in the team dressage event. 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; the pair won the gold medal in the individual dressage event, with a score of 90.089%.

Dujardin and Valegro also won double individual gold medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, making her the first British woman to retain an individual Olympic title. With three gold medals and a silver, Dujardin was briefly the most successful female British Olympian in the history of the Games before cyclist Laura Trott surpassed her record with a fourth gold. Dujardin and Valegro set a new Olympic dressage score of 93.857 in the Grand Prix Freestyle.

On 14 December 2016, Dujardin retired Valegro at age 14 after completing a freestyle test at the Olympia London International Horse Show. The event was televised live on the BBC
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