Latest News
Double Gold Medalist, Sophie Wells MBE!!
(September 17, 2016)
Rio 2016 - Paralympics Games
Photo Credit: FEI
Sophie Wells MBE is one of the five athletes who will be representing Paralympics GB with Valerius to compete in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Team GB. Sophie's fantastic team of Angela Weiss, Sophie's Coach and Sophie Cassey who will be Valerius's groom during the Paralympics Games in action to support her together. North Midlands RDA would like to share with you all on her progress which has been inspired by everyone in the region.
Credit to FEI & Jon Stroud Media behalf of BEF
Horse Inspection
Credit to Jon Stroud Media
During the Horse Inspection before the competition starts on Sunday 11th September. Sophie's groom - Sophie is about to perform Valerius's Horse Inspection in front of the Para Dressage's official Ground Jury who were inspected the performance of all Team GB horses to confirm that all horses are accepted for the competition. Good job for Team Wells after good few days of training sessions.
Sophie ready to work hard over next few days..
Credit to Jon Stroud Media
Sophie and Valerius just started her journey by performing such a lovely test for the Team Test in the Grade lV class to scored a provisional score of 74.402% and finishing in second place of the class and will be back in action on Wednesday 14th September to perform her Individual Championship test. She commented on the performance - "It's awesome to be here and I just wanted to go in and do the best test for me and my horse and my support team." - Sophie Wells. What a good start!
![]() | ![]() |
After the Team Test on Monday, Sophie is back to performing her Individual Championship test and producing a sensantional performance of 74.857% which made her feel so emotional when she heard the confirmation of the result to say that Sophie Wells is the new Grade lV Individual Champion to win Gold! She reduced the tears and couldn't believe it, it is so so amazing to see her smiling and saying Valerius has made her dream come true as they both won Gold and will be performing Freestyle on Friday 16th September. We are beyond proud of Sophie Wells.
Team Wells are celebrating the proud moment!!
OFFICIAL: Sophie Wells - GRADE lV Individual Champion
VERY CLOSE FOR THE FREESTYLE TEST.....
On the morning of Friday 16th September, first of Team GB Equestrian riders - Sophie Wells performing her amazing freestyle with the music from Tom Hunt Dressage Music in the biggest arena ever and they both have done it very superb to scored such a wonderful 76.150% to take the Silver Medal by 0.15% however three judges had Sophie to win in their judging. What a very rewarding week for Team Wells coming home with TWO Gold & ONE Silver with Valerius. We are super proud of Sophie Wells in solo performance so far, also we just have heard that Team GB is retained the team title for 20 years, undefeated streak which they haven't been beaten in Paralympics since 1996.
What a finish for the Team Wells, we all enjoyed the journey of Sophie Wells in Rio de Janeiro. We are extremely proud of all the Paralympics GB Equestrian team and we look forward to seeing the Double Gold Medalist, Sophie Wells soon after the Rio 2016, Paralympics Games and returned to UK.
A massive congratulations to Sophie W, Natasha, Anne and Sophie C together where they added the team medal to their collection.
WHAT A FINISH TO THE COMPETITION - CONGRATULATIONS TO LEE, SOPHIE C, SOPHIE W, ANNE AND NATASHA!