FOUR Marks-based international dressage rider Alice Oppenheimer is riding high on a wave of success after being crowned National Prix St George champion at the British Dressage Championships at Stoneleigh.

She secured first place with Georgina Pole-Carew’s eight-year-old, Tantoni Sir Socrates, topping the tables with a massive 75.08 per cent in a class hotly contested by leading riders from across the UK.

Oppenheimer, who is in the Lottery-funded World Class Podium Potential squad, was delighted with the win and now follows in the footsteps of illustrious former winners such as Olympic champions Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester.

Alice, who breeds and trains her own horses at the family stud in Four Marks, said: “I knew immediately it was a good test and I could go for the higher marks. He’s just the most incredible horse to ride and we seem to have built a fantastic rapport. He knows what I’m thinking and I now know what he’s thinking. He’s always so with me.”

The performance capped an already successful year for the pair, both nationally and internationally. They have not scored less than 70 per cent on British soil in the past 12 months.

More recently, the duo competed at the Horse of the Year Show, where they finished third in the Mount St John Future Elite Championship.