Charlotte Dujardin

Charlotte Susan Jane Dujardin  (born 13 July 1985) is a British dressage rider and equestrian. She has been a World and Olympic winner many times. She is a powerful dressage rider of her era, She was the first to have a complete set of dressage titles at the same time. She has won six Olympic medals. She also has three gold medals. She is tied with cyclist Laura Kenny as Britain's female Olympian with many medals. However, Dujardin went out of the 2024 Summer Olympics after being not able to because of animal cruelty.

Early life
Charlotte Dujardin was born in Enfield. She grew up in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. She started riding horses as a two-year-old. When she was three, she won second place at her first Pony Club show jumping competition. Later, her mother bought and sold ponies for her daughters.

As a child, Dujardin was diagnosed with dyslexia.
She went to Vandyke Upper School in Leighton Buzzard. She later said, "I didn't really go to school that much". She left school at 16.

Dujardin won the Horse of the Year Show competition four times. was a winner at All England Jumping Course at Hickstead three times.

Career
Dujardin did dressage with a horse that she bought. She used an inheritance from her grandmother to do this.

In December 2012, Dujardin was riding a horse name Valegro. They won the 2012 World Cup freestyle event held at Olympia. They got a score of 87.875%. On 19 April 2015, in Las Vegas, Dujardin and Valegro won the FEI World Cup. They got a score of 94.169% on the last day of the competition.  This was their fourth World Title. They are the only pair to have ever held four world titles.

In 2019, Dujardin was taken out of the Longines FEI European Championships after blood was found on her horse, Mount St John.

Olympics
Dujardin and Valegro were picked to represent Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics. On 7 August 2012, Charlotte and Valegro were a part of the British team. The team won the gold medal in the team dressage event.

Dujardin and Valegro also won double gold medals for themselves at the 2016 Rio Olympics, making her the first British woman to retain an Olympic title for herself.

On 14 December 2016, Dujardin retired Valegro at age 14 after finishing a freestyle test.

International Championship results
 Results Year Event HorseScore PlacingNotes 2011  European Championships Valegro78.830%Team76.548%6thIndividual Special79.357%9thIndividual Freestyle 2012  Olympic Games Valegro83.663%Team90.089%Individual 2013 European ChampionshipsValegro85.942%Team85.699%Individual Special91.250%Individual Freestyle2014World Cup FinalValegro92.179%2014World Equestrian GamesValegro85.271%Team86.120%Individual Special92.161%Individual Freestyle2015World Cup FinalValegro94.196%2015European ChampionshipsValegro83.029%Team87.577%Individual Special89.054%Individual Freestyle2016Olympic GamesValegro85.071%Team93.857%Individual2018World Equestrian GamesMount St. John Freestyle77.764%Team81.489%Individual Special2019European ChampionshipsMount St. John FreestyleEL4thTeam66thIndividual2021Olympic GamesGio79.544%Team88.543%Individual2021European ChampionshipsGio79.829%Team87.246%Individual

Animal cruelty
On 23 July 2024, Dujardin pulled out of competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after a video emerged of her whipping a horse during training over and over. She whipped the horse around 24 times in one minute. She was shortly taken out from competition.

Dujardin said that she was "deeply ashamed" and the problem "was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or teach my students".

Writing and television
Dujardin let out her autobiography, The Girl on the Dancing Horse: Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro, in  (2018). She was on the Netflix show Free Rein.Charlotte Dujardin to appear in children’s TV show 

Personal life
Her then-fiancé Dean Golding wore a shirt that said, "Can we get married now?" after she won the gold medal at the Rio Olympics. On 6 March 2023, Dujardin gave birth to a daughter.

Related pages
 Natasha Baker – para-dressage rider and equestrian
 Hiroshi Hoketsu – dressage rider and equestrian
 Nicole Uphoff – dressage rider and equestrian

References

Other websites




Category:1985 births
Category:British dressage riders
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:English equestrians
Category:Living people
Category:Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Category:Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Category:Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Category:Olympic bronze medalists for Great Britain
Category:Olympic gold medalists for Great Britain
Category:Olympic silver medalists for Great Britain
Category:Olympic equestrians for Great Britain