last updated on September 25, 2006 01:00

At their first foreign international show, Spencer Wilton and Dolendo won both the grand prix and grand prix special with 68.167% and 70%.

Spencer and the 12-year-old Donnerhall offspring left for the Saumur CDI in France (21-24 September 2006) the day after winning the grand prix freestyle at the Blue Waters National Dressage Championships last weekend.

Commenting on his meteoric rise to fame this summer, Spencer said: “It feels peculiar to have just gone out there and won, but in a nice way. I have worked for one of Dolendo’s owners, Carl Hester, since 1998 and have ridden hundreds of novice tests over those years, which all goes towards doing well at the top level.”

Spencer has had the ride on the 17.1hh chestnut gelding, owned by Ann Cory and Carl, for six years and therefore knows him well, but they had a sticky start to the competition.

“He still surprises me. When we went into the indoor arena for our grand prix test, he came out of the tunnel, saw the crowd, turned around and went straight out of the tunnel again,” he said.

Undeterred, they went on to produce two mistake-free tests after Spencer “had a little growl down his ear”.

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