The British team have taken the silver medal in the team dressage at the World Equestrian Games.
In a thrillling afternoon session under-pressure Laura Bechtolsheimer scored a huge personal best of 82.51%, which puts her into individual second place, two per cent behind Moorlands Totilas and Edward Gal. These two were the only riders to gain tens during their tests.
Carl Hester also put in a fantastic test aboad Liebling, who he only regained the ride on a couple of months ago, and scored 72.1%. Fiona Bigwood's plus-70% score from yesterday completed the team GB scoreboard, with Maria Eilberg and Two Sox as the drop score with 68.2%. This is Britain's first world dressage team medal ever.
The team competition was won by the Dutch, but they were not without their problems. Adelinde Cornelissen and Parzival were eliminated when judge Stephen Clark noticed the horse had some blood in his saliva. He must have bitten his tongie in the early part of the test, and it was very minor, but the FEI rules operate a no tolerance policy; any blood means immediate elimination.
Carl Hester said: "We all had our scores to aim for which Maria managed, Fiona did and I did. Laura was going for a 77%, so her mark is just wonderful. We're definitely going to be having big celebrations tonight."
Laura said of the test: "I knew we could get plus 75% as I've scored that with 'Alf' before, but that was the best he's ever gone," added Laura. "He made it so easy for me, there wasn't an area where he was weaker. He's rare in that he's a very powerful horse but also stays relaxed. To me he's the best horse in the world."
Individually third is Steffen Peters of the USA, who rode a fluid mistake free test on Ravel to score 78.5%.
The top thirty individual riders go through to tomorrow's Special, with all of team GB going forward.
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