Great Britain dominated the Para Dressage events with Lee Pearson winning all three gold medals in Kullen’s Ib class while Germany and Denmark were also strong.

Kullen and her mount Nickshar Nomination finished eighth out of 12 in the opening discipline – the Individual Team Test – before ending up 16th of 17 in the Individual Championship Test and 15th of 17 in the Individual Freestyle Test.

She told a reporter from Cincinnati.com that she enjoyed the experience.

“Everyone here has been fantastic,” she said on Monday. “The place is just beautiful.”

Kullen, who made the comments while celebrating in a green and yellow straw hat with a cold beverage, said she was sad the event is over but was “looking forward to going home.”

It was the first time Para Dressage events had been held as part of the World Equestrian Games, an event which this year featured 633 athletes and 752 horses.

n Continued page 46

Over the 16 days of competition the event attendance topped 507,000.

Pearson was a commanding winner in the Individual Team Test, getting a total score of 73.818 per cent to finish four per cent clear of Norway’s Jens Lasse Dokkan with Denmark’s Stinna Tange Kaastrup just over one per cent further back in third.

Kullen also wasn’t far of the pace with 60.727 per cent good enough to get her eighth.

The Great Britain rider was just as successful in the Championship Test with a score of 76.435 per cent, again the margin was almost four percent but this time he was clear of Countryman Ricky Balshaw with Kaastrup again taking bronze.

Pearson took out the trifecta in the Ib class with his best score in the Freestyle Test, scoring 82.500 per cent with Kaastrup second on 77 per cent. Kullen was in 15th with 61.550 per cent.

This is the first time that para equestrian has been included in the World Equestrian Games and even though Pearson has won nine Paralympic gold medals, he was still nervous going into the competition and delighted with his success.

“Every gold medal is special, but this one is different because it’s our first time at the WEG. So we will go down in history, even though we weren’t as comfortable as we like to be with the other teams breathing down our backs,” he said.

The World Equestrian Games have been going since 1990 but 2010 is the first time that all eight disciplines, which include combined driving, dressage, endurance riding, eventing, para equestrianism, reining, show jumping, and vaulting, have been contested at one location and the first time they have been held outside of Europe.

Australia won its first goal medal at the World Equestrian Games on Wednesday when Boyd Exell took out the driving gold medal with near flawless performances in both the dressage and marathon events.