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Laura Collett put a “devastating” week for the British equestrian team well behind her as she posted a new Olympic record in the eventing dressage phase at the Chateau de Versailles.
Team GB’s run-in to the opening day of competition had been overshadowed by the publication of a video of dressage star Charlotte Dujardin repeatedly hitting a student’s horse with a whip from the ground during a coaching session four years ago.
Dujardin subsequently withdrew from Paris on Tuesday and was issued with a six-month ban by equestrian’s governing body pending an investigation.
It's been devastating news the last week, but we're here to do a job so we have been very good at drawing a line and focussing on the job in hand and we want to show just how much our horses mean to us— Laura Collett
Collett, who was part of Britain’s gold medal-winning eventing team in Tokyo, admitted it had been a tough few days but she put that to one side to post a score of 17.5 penalties aboard London 52 and claim an overnight lead.
She said: “It’s been devastating news the last week, but we’re here to do a job so we have been very good at drawing a line and focussing on the job in hand and we want to show just how much our horses mean to us.
“I think the key thing is we work together, day in, day out – he’s my best friend (London 52).
“You don’t build those partnerships in five or 10 minutes, it’s years and years of hard work, getting the horse to trust you and you can’t do that by not building a partnership.
“It’s hard but we’re here to do a job and we’re fully focussed on that.”
Of her record-breaking performance, she added: “I have never enjoyed a dressage test so much.
“I had the time of my life – from the moment I entered the arena, he had his ears pricked and loved it and so did I.”
Teammates Ros Canter and Tom McEwen enjoyed similarly good days, incurring 23.40 and 25.80 penalties respectively, to leave Team GB in first place overnight.
Britain’s team scored a total of 66.70 penalties – another record low in the dressage element.
Canter has avoided delving into any of the controversy ahead of her Olympic debut, saying: “When I get to an event like this, I stay clear of social media so I haven’t read or watched anything around that matter, so I very much tried to stay in my bubble as it helps my performance.
“All I can hope is that as a team we can do the equestrian world proud this week, because welfare is always at the forefront of our mind.”
McEwen described the Dujardin case as “deeply sad” for equestrian sport, but does not believe it is the norm.
He said: “We are 110 per cent behind horse welfare. I definitely don’t condone at all Charlotte’s behaviour, but she has put her hands up to it, owned it and it’s not for me to say, it’s for the course, the process and the people to decide what punishment she should be getting for her actions.
“She is a human being at the end of it, so we have to respect her rights as well.
“It was a shock, but we have come here to do our job as an eventing team, so we have our focus and with eventing, you don’t really get too much time on your hands.
“We’ve seen the news, we’ve read it, it’s deeply sad for our sport, but at the same time I don’t believe our sport is like that and we move on.”
