Olympian Richard Davison romped away with the Dressage Grand Prix Freestyle at Britain's Horse of the Year Show at the weekend, scoring an impressive 78.75%, on Sunday, 10th October.
Riding the Countess of Derby's 11 year old Florestan gelding, Hiscox Artemis, Davison earned a collection of 8s and 9s.
“It was fab, Artemis rocked,” Davison said. “He was so easy to ride, all I had to do was point him and he picked up the beat.”
Reflecting on the class, International judge David Trott who awarded Davison 78% for technical and 83% for artistic marks said, “It was a very high standard and no-one made any technical mistakes. But Richard's test simply shone above the rest and displayed a high degree of difficulty.”
With more than 12 international grand prix wins over the last 12 months, Davison is creeping up the FEI world individual dressage rankings and is currently the second placed British rider behind Laura Bechtolsheimer.
Davison has made a point of producing Artemis carefully and said of his Olympic hopeful, “I held him back from WEG selection because I wanted to give him more time to develop and to show his real potential. These percentages are edging closer towards the magical 80% which is really satisfying.”
Daniel Sheriff and crowd pleaser Steph Croxford battled it out for second place with Sheriff narrowly defeating Croxford to post 73.35%.