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Valegro
Valegro (born 5 July 2002) is a gelding ridden by the British equestrian Charlotte Dujardin in the sport of dressage. He stands 16.2 hands (66 inches, 168 cm) and has the stable name of Blueberry. He is a double World Champion in Dressage, he won Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle at the World.[1] CareerHaving joined Carl Hester's stable in Newent, Gloucestershire as a groom, Dujardin was offered the opportunity to develop the novice Dutch Warmblood gelding by Hester and co-owner Roly Luard, with the later intention of the horse being ridden in competition by Hester.[2] Valegro remained unbeaten since CDI Kapellen in January 2012.[3] The combination became part of the team which won gold in a European Dressage Championships event in Rotterdam. They then won the FEI World Cup grand prix at London Olympia in 2011, setting a world record for the Olympic grand prix special discipline scoring 88.022%, in April 2012.[4][5][6] Selected to represent Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics,[7] in the first round they set a new Olympic record of 83.784%.[8] On 7 August 2012 the pair were members of the team which won the gold medal in the team dressage event.[9] Two days later they won the gold in the individual dressage event with a score of 90.089%.[10][11] At the 2013 European Championships in Herning, Charlotte and Valegro won both the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special with 85.94% and 85.69%.[12] At Olympia 2013 he beat the Grand Prix Freestyle world record (by around 2%) he set the new record to 93.975% (the record was previously held by Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas). At Olympia 2014 he improved his own Grand Prix Freestyle world record (94.3%) and his own Grand Prix world record (87.46%). Valegro also achieved a gold medal in the individual dressage at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with a score of 93.857%, and was an integral part of the Silver medal winning Team for Great Britain, at the same event. In 2016 Breyer released a model of Valegro.[13] RetirementOn 14 December 2016, Valegro and Charlotte Dujardin marked his retirement from competition with a performance given at the London International Horse Show 2016 and televised live by the BBC.[14] It was followed by a farewell ceremony with Valegro's owners, and companions Charlotte Dujardin, Carl Hester and Alan Davies.[15] BreedingValegro is sired by the legendary KWPN stallion Negro, by Olympic Ferro. Furioso II is his great great damsire.[16] See alsoReferences
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