Valegro and Uthopia Passed Away

Dressage

Great Britain

Two legendary horses for international dressage sport and British Dressage have passed away on the same day: Valegro and Uthopia.

Carl Hester announced the new on 1 December 2025 on his social media account, calling them "two of the greatest horses of our generation."

"Without question, this is a loss that just feels hard to comprehend," Hester opens his statement. "Trying to write a tribute to these two horses feels harder than I imagined. The yard just doesn’t feel the same without them, there is an emptiness in the air."

Golden Era Horses

Valegro and Uthopia did more than win medals and write history, they gave our sport a golden era. They both showed that greatness can be gentle, sensitive and harmonious and they made a nation proud and inspired so many.

Being part of their journey will always remain one of my proudest achievements and the whole team and myself are deeply grateful for the joy they gave to us at home but also to their fans around the world.

Their entire lives ran in parallel; they travelled to the shows side by side, lived in neighbouring stables, grazed in the same fields and retired together. Their bond and companionship were absolute.

As life as old boys advanced, so too did the health challenges, so allowing them to leave this world together was the final act of loyalty and dignity I felt I could give them, honouring a partnership that had never been separated in life.

They leave behind a huge void, the yard has changed forever and so have we. They were our family and I will love and miss them always.

The impact they had will remain but sadly, we don’t get to keep horses forever. We only get to carry what they leave inside us. And these two left us so much."

Dujardin's Statement

Valegro's passing prompted Charlotte Dujardin to break her almost one-year silence on social media with a post dedicated to Valegro.

"Dear Blueberry,

I love you. I don’t know how to start this with any other words. I knew of course this day would come, but I don’t think I could ever be ready for it. And I’m sitting here, summoning up the courage to write this, knowing I’ll never have the words, knowing they’ll never be enough, but wanting to share something anyway because so many people loved you and it just feels like the right thing to do. You have been and still are so loved.

`You have been my constant, my rock. Through the highest highs and the lowest lows, your gentle presence, your steady heartbeat, the silent moments we shared together have been my everything, the place I could always go to. In those quiet moments we had so many conversations without words; you loved me completely, as I am. You saw my heart and I yours.

I’ve never sat on a horse like you, Blueberry. It was always your heart and your mind that made you the best. We grew together, learned together, believed together. You would enter the arena and just know how special you were - I could feel you grow. The hush of the crowd as everyone turned to look at you. It would make me sit a little taller, shoulders back, head up - I just wanted to do you proud, to show the world what you were capable of; I could feel every muscle in your body move, every breath you took, every shiver of excitement and we would just melt into each other, it was like you could hear my heart speak and I yours. A partnership that everyone talks about, but you can’t really know until you’ve experienced it. And we danced Blueberry, didn’t we dance…"

Eurodressage will dedicate two longer, tribute articles to this great horses, coming up later this week...