Paralympic equestrian stars all set to dance on Versailles stage

Main image: Groom Ash Campton with Lord Larmarque, who will be ridden by Grade I athlete Stella Barton of Australia. Image by FEI/Liz Gregg.

Inside Paris | Presented by RB Sellars

Established stars will seek to hold off the challenge of emerging athletes as Para Dressage makes its entrance to Paris 2024 at the spectacular Château de Versailles.

A total of 76 athletes from 30 nations will assemble for four days of competition spread across five days from Tuesday, 3 September to Saturday, 7 September.

The first two days will be Individual Medal Events in all five Grades.

Grade III

Grade III will open proceedings on Tuesday, and will also be the last of the five Individual Freestyle Events – featuring the top eight combinations – on the final day of action.

But Denmark’s Tobias Thorning Joergensen will be unable to defend the two Individual titles he won on his Paralympic Games debut at Tokyo 2020, withdrawing on Sunday after his horse Jolene Hill was deemed not fit to compete.

The 24-year-old was widely seen as the favourite in Grade III after also striking double gold at the FEI World Championship 2022 on home ground in Herning – plus silver in the team event – and two more individual golds at last year’s FEI Para Dressage European Championship in Riesenbeck (GER).

Great Britain’s Natasha Baker, the most successful of all the Para Dressage athletes in Paris, with four individual golds, two team golds, and two individual silvers – both at Tokyo 2020 – will be seeking a return to the top of the Grade III podium.

The 34-year-old returns on Dawn Chorus for her fourth Paralympic Games but her first as a mother, having given birth to son Joshua in April 2023.

“It makes me incredibly proud. To be at the top of my sport again is such an incredible feeling, especially with Joshua as my number one supporter. I’m really excited for the new challenge and to see what we can achieve in Paris,” she said.

Frenchwoman Chiara Zenati, one of three 21-year-old para equestrians competing at Paris 2024, will carry home hopes of a medal on Swing Royal in Grade III, after finishing fifth on her Paralympic Games debut as an 18-year-old in Tokyo.

“The fact that the Games are in France puts higher pressure on me than if they were somewhere else. My biggest dream for Paris will be to win a medal,” she said.

Grade II

The opening day will also see medals decided in the Grade II individual test, where the likes of Austria’s Pepo Puch – with seven Paralympic medals including two silvers in Tokyo 2020 – on Sailor’s Blue and Britain’s Georgia Wilson – double bronze medallist in the Grade II Individual and Freestyle in Tokyo 2020 – on Sakura will go for gold in the absence of 14-time Paralympic champion Lee Pearson (GBR).

But they will face competition from another great Dane, Katrine Kristensen, a double World Champion in 2022, and 69-year-old German Heidemarie Dresing, who after two fourth-place finishes in the Grade II individual events on her Games debut aged 66 in Tokyo, won double gold at the European Championships in Riesenbeck in 2023.

Dresing, riding Dooloop, will be the oldest para equestrian competitor in Versailles.

Aussies in action: For Australia, we of course have Bridget Murphy and seven-year-old mare Penmain Promise (Triple Trees Prince Perfect x Mariana Lodge Yvonne, by Acheron Hot Chocolate). ‘Macey’ is owned by Bridget in conjunction with Rossanne Mason, and Kate Arton is her groom in Paris.

“Super happy with our last training session. Macey feels amazing. We’re ready to do what we came to do,” said Bridget following her arena familiarisation on Tuesday.

Bridget Murphy & Penmain Promise: Tuesday 3 September, 12.12pm CEST, 8.12pm AEST

Grade I

Twenty-one-year-old Italian Carola Semperboni will partner the oldest horse competing at these Games – 21-year-old Paul – in the Grade I events, where Roxanne Trunnell of the United States will seek to defend the first of her two individual titles from Tokyo on day one.

Since Tokyo, the 39-year-old has retired her golden mount Dalton and teamed up with another black gelding, Fan Tastico H.

Trunnell will face competition from Latvia’s Rihards Snikus on King of the Dance, a combination which took double silver in Tokyo, and Italy’s Sara Morganti, who won double bronze in 2021 on Royal Delight but now partners Mariebelle after winning World Championship Freestyle gold in 2022.

Another one to watch in Grade I, the category for athletes with the greatest impairment and ridden in walk only, is Britain’s Mari Durward-Akhurst. The 30-year-old, currently ranked world number one, will be making her Paralympic Games debut riding Athene Lindebjerg, the black mare who won gold with eight-time Paralympic champion Sophie Christiansen (GBR) at Rio 2016.

Norway’s Jens Lasse Dokkan, meanwhile, will continue his remarkable record of competing at every edition of the Paralympic Games since Para Dressage was introduced to the programme in 1996.

The 63-year-old, who won his first Paralympic Games medal at Sydney 2000 and has five overall, will compete – on Aladdin – in his seventh Games after finishing fourth in both individual Grade I events in Tokyo.

Aussies in action: For Australia in the Grade I we have Stella Barton and 17-year-old stallion Lord Larmarque (Locksley II x Veroska, by Veritas AA). ‘Bug’ is owned by Jade Moody and his groom in Versailles is Ashleigh Campton.

Stella Barton & Lord Larmarque: Tuesday 3 September, 2.30pm CEST, 10.30pm AEST

Grade IV

The second day of competition will see the individual test medals decided in Grades IV and V, which will be ridden in walk, trot and canter. These are the two Grades in which the athletes have the lowest level of impairment.

Dutchwoman Sanne Voets, on Demantur, will be seeking a fifth Paralympic medal – a haul including double individual gold and team silver from 2020 – in Grade IV, with fellow Tokyo medallists, 64-year-old Swede Louise Etzner Jakobsson on Goldstrike B.J. and Belgian Manon Claeys, now riding Katharina Sollenburg, likely to be contending again.

Another Paralympic Games debutant, 26-year-old Dutch athlete Demi Haerkens on Daula, announced herself by winning European Championship gold last year.

Aussies in action: Dianne Barnes and 14-year-old German-bred Oldenburg mare Sorena (Sir Donnerhall II x Romina, by Rotspon) will represent Australia in the Grade IV. Sorena is owned by Sharyn McCombe and the mare’s groom in Versailles is Rebecca Haythorpe.

Dianne Barnes & Sorena: Wednesday 4 September, 10.18am CEST, 6.18pm AEST

Grade V

Grade V could see another battle between 50-year-old Belgian Michèle George, whose two Individual golds on Best of 8 in Tokyo took her Paralympic medal tally to five golds and one silver, and Great Britain’s Sophie Wells, a four-time Paralympic champion with eight medals overall. Wells returns for her fourth Games and will now partner LJT Egebjerggards Samoa in Paris, after a minor veterinary issue ruled out her original horse Don Cara M.

Brazil’s Rodolpho Riskalla on Denzel, a silver medallist from Tokyo, and German Regine Mispelkamp on Highlander Delight’s, who won Freestyle bronze at the same Paralympic Games, are others likely to be in contention.

Aussies in action: Lisa Martin is lining up for her second Paralympics for Australia, this time with her own seven-year-old Hanoverian gelding Vilaggio (by Vilancio out of Davinia, by Blue Hors Don Romantic). Maddison McAndrew is Vilaggio’s groom in Versailles.

Lisa Martin & Vilaggio: Wednesday 4 September, 2.26pm CEST, 10.26pm AEST

Team & Freestyle Competitions

After a rest day on Thursday, 5 September, the team event – where Great Britain will target an eighth consecutive gold medal since 1996 – is scheduled for Friday, 6 September, with three athlete/horse combinations from each nation joining forces in a bid for a place on the podium.

The final set of medals will be up for grabs on 7 September in the Individual Freestyle Events in each of the five Grades in what is expected to be a dramatic conclusion to the Para Dressage in Versailles.

You can read more about the competition format here.

Source: FEI press release, edited by EQ Life