Denmark’s riders dominated the scoreboard after the first day of Olympics Dressage qualifiers on Tuesday. Nanna Skodborg Merrald and her chestnut gelding Zepter delivered the day’s most outstanding performance, achieving a total score of 78% in jury ratings. This score secured Skodborg Merrald the lead in her group, surpassing Dutch rider Dinja van Liere. Despite achieving the highest score of the day, Skodborg Merrald, who finished 11th at her first Games in Tokyo 2021, maintained a cautious approach. She expressed her happiness with her performance but acknowledged a desire for improvement, highlighting Zepter’s piaffes and passage as areas for refinement. These demanding trot movements require the horse to walk with extremely collected high steps.
Another Danish rider, Daniel Bachmann Andersen, topped a different group, with Germany’s Frederic Wanders, in his first Olympic appearance, finishing second. Britain’s Becky Moody, who was called in as a last-minute replacement for Charlotte Dujardin following her suspension over alleged horse abuse, achieved the highest rating in a third group. Patrik Kittel from Sweden came in second in this group.
The first day of dressage Grand Prix, held under temperatures exceeding 30 Celsius, saw riders execute the sport’s most challenging exercises, including pirouettes, piaffes, and flying changes, within an 8-minute ride. Wednesday will see the first rides from some of the discipline’s leading figures, including top-ranked Germans and defending Olympic gold and silver medalists Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Isabell Werth.
The qualification process for the individual final will involve the top two athletes from each of the six groups and the six with the next best scores. Additionally, the top ten teams will qualify for a separate team final.
