Tuesday, 02 September 2025
It’s been a quick change around following the silver success of the dressage team in France and now the British Equestrian para dressage team, in partnership with Agria, has arrived in the Netherlands for the the FEI Para Dressage European Championships 2025. The venue for this auspicious occasion is the Dutch National Equestrian Centre, which has held the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championships on previous occasions.
Across the next five days, Europe’s elite para dressage athletes will go head-to-head across the five grades for team, individual and freestyle medals.
This morning, under sunny skies, some 57 horses from 20 nations came under the watchful eye of the ground jury – which comprised Jeannette Wolfs (President, NED), Marc Urban (BEL), Sarah Rodger (GBR), Dr Jan Holger Holtschmit (GER), Marjukka Manninen (FIN) and Pia Pedersen (DEN) – for the first horse inspection. The inspection is an all-important welfare check to make sure the horses are in prime health and are fit and ready to compete.
First up for the British quartet was the team stalwart – the elegant 18-year-old Athene Lindebjerg, owned by Diane Redfern, Nick Durward-Akhurst and Romilly Hart – and partner of Grade 1 Paralympian, Mari Durward-Akhurst. This will be Mari and Athene’s second championship together, after realising a dream when they picked up freestyle bronze at last summer’s Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. The presentation duties were down to Mari’s personal coach, Rob Waine, and there was a moment of angst when Athene was sent to the holding box. However, she sailed through after a second trip down the presentation line.
Next up was the snow-white pocket rocket Strong Beau, owned by his Grade 1 rider Gabriella ‘Gabby’ Blake and her parents, Gavin and Estelle Blake. The duo is making their second FEI Para Dressage European Championship appearance, having claimed two bronze medals in 2023 at Riesenbeck in Germany. It was none other than 40-time championship medallist Sophie Wells who took the honour of trotting up ‘Beau’ for the judges, in her role as Gabby’s coach and mentor. Beau certainly had a spring in his step, popping in a few playful bucks on his return down the strip, but he was passed without issue.
Third to present was Fantabulous, whose coat is the colour of the soft drink from which he gets his stable name of ‘Fanta’. He’s the ride of team debutante Jemima Green, who also owns the young talent. A car accident in 2015 ended her eventing aspirations, with doctors saying she’d never ride again, but her determination and resolve have seen her through to making her first British team appearance in the Grade 2 division. Coach Georgie Nicholls accompanied Fanta and it was a resounding “accepted” for the seven-year-old gelding from the panel.
The final horse, Humberto L, also partners a rider who’s earned her first championship team place – Nicola Naylor, who competes in Grade 4 as a visually impaired rider. A pony-filled childhood gave Nicola a firm grounding and in her teens she had a passion for jumping but, as her sight deteriorated, she turned to her studies. A career followed, but when her daughter took up riding, she had a strong draw back to the saddle and developed a love of dressage. After a number of reserve call-ups, she now makes her full team debut. It was coach Sarah Millis, herself an international team rider, who did the trot-up duties with ‘Humbo’ and they passed.
The four equine stars were impeccably turned out by our team of grooms – Jenny Ellis, Maisie Hodge and Julie Riches – and huge credit to them for a sublime effort.
The final order of the day was the official arena familiarisation session, where horses, coaches and riders have a chance to experience the main arena while it’s fully dressed and the television cameras are in place – the aim is to give the horses a chance to acclimatise to the environment before the pressures of competition.
Tomorrow the competition gets underway in earnest with day one of the Grand Prix A tests, which will decide the individual medals. It will be Grades 1, 2 and 3 going down the centre line and the action gets underway at 09:30 local time (08:30 UK time).
Here’s where you’ll find our British combinations in the draw tomorrow:
The Grade 4 competition is on Thursday, which features just one of our British athletes:
You can watch all the action live on FEI.TV, powered by ClipMyHorse.TV, with a subscription or via the FEI YouTube channel. All the start lists and results are available via the Equipe platform and everything you need to know about the British squad and how the competition will progress on our online Para Dressage Hub.