PARA-EQUESTRIAN rider Anne Dunham is aiming to avoid the unwanted tag of being part of the first Great Britain squad to taste defeat.

The British dressage side are unbeaten in the European Championships, World Championships and the Paralympics, as they prepare for the upcoming FEI European Championships, which take place in Deauville, France, next week (September 17-20).

Dunham, who is now based in Worton near Devizes, having formerly been at Broad Hinton, has been on every para team since the inaugural Europeans in Portugal in 2002 and is part of a five-person strong squad heading to France .

The five-times Paralympic gold medallist insists that nobody wants the stigma of being the first team to return without a gold medal.

“The longer that goes on, the greater the pressure and the more the other countries want to knock us off and work to do that,” Dunham told the Gazette & Herald.

“Nobody wants to be on the team that doesn’t bring back the gold because we have always done it.

“It wouldn’t be for want of trying and it would be nothing against the people who are on the team, but you just don’t want to be the first squad to not bring home the gold.”

When Dunham first entered the sport, it was done on borrowed horses, with riders' numbers pulled out of a hat.

The 66-year-old says that the sport has ‘grown up’ since then and expects the competition to be fierce and despite having not missed a championship, she does not take any call-up for granted.

“It is never something I come to expect, because it is a strong competition amongst para-riders,” she added.

“It is always a pleasure to find that we are going again.

“I want to get placed as high as possible and if possible win, but realistically I would like to be in the top three. There is high competition but it is achievable.”

Dunham’s horse Lucas Normark spent a large part of last year out following an operation on ligament and tendons in his front legs, but returned to competition in March and is said to be on track for the Championships.

“The horse is going very well,” said Dunham. “He is much stronger and scoring higher than we expected.

“We are about where we would hope to be at this moment in time before going out to a major competition.

“One of the major steps is to get the horse as fit as possible and keep him fit and to look at his weaknesses in his movement and to put down a plan to improve those.”