Mary King

Mary King punched the air with delight after producing a brilliant championship dressage test from Imperial Cavalier at the London Olympics.

First out after lunch, the crowd had swelled aprreciably from the morning and, as she approached the arena, team trainer Yogi Breisner motioned to the camera crews to keep away from an obvously on his toes Imperial Cavalier.

As King entered the arena, she put her finger to her lips, begging the home crowd for silence so she could keep the tightly coiled horse in the right frame off mind for the dressage test.

Commentator Ian Stark said that it was the most relaxed he had seen the horse at a major championship test and he only lost marks for slightly bringing his head up in the extended trot, and losing the canter change sequence slightly towards the end, King having to bring all her experience into use in keeping him from anticipating the canter out of the walk section. The pair earned a 40.90 score, which put them into second place - a great start to the English challenge which had earlier seen a good test, 51.70 for Nicola Wilson on Opposition Buzz.

King punched the air as soon as the test was finished, and the crowd erupted with their appreciation.