Australia’s Boyd Exell with his dreamteam of horses—Carlos, Celviro, Checkmate, and Zindgraaf—put themselves in top position after the first phase of the Polaris RANGER driving dressage Sept. 21 at the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018. | Photo: FEI/Christophe Taniere

Australian Boyd Exell produced a driving dressage masterclass at the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games (WEG) Tryon 2018 backed by a team of horses he rates as his “best ever” as he took a step toward claiming his third successive individual gold medal. The driving competition kicked off today at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, in Mill Spring, North Carolina.

The man who has dominated driving for much of the past decade shook off the lingering effects of breaking his ankle in July, finished with a score of 31.68, putting him 3.42 points clear of Team USA’s Chester Webber. For Exell it was his greatest dressage performance to date.

“In Kentucky in 2010 I did a 30 and the crazy thing is that was a beautiful test but we did not have the same power and movement of this team,” said Exell, who has seven FEI World Cup driving titles to his name. “Even when the crowd cheered on the way in, which some horses don’t like, I could just feel my team power up. It was like turning a V8 engine into a V10