EQUESTRIAN riders Sophie Christiansen, Anne Dunham and Sophie Wells all impressed in their first outing of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Five-time Paralympic champion Christiansen, who hails from Sunningdale, finished top of her class on board Athene Lindebjerg yesterday.

They scored 77.522% - the highest score at the competition so far.

Former Charters School pupil, Christiansen, said: “She’s so young [nine years old] so to cope with that arena, I was over the moon.

"It felt a bit tentative but I know that there’s more to come. Athene’s been absolutely amazing, for any nine year old to go out and do that, she doesn’t really like noise but she absolutely knows her job.

“[As a current gold medallist] I do put myself under pressure, but at the end of the day I can only do the best I can.”

Before that came the Grade 1a Team test and Lincoln’s Wells – riding Valerius – was first for ParalymicsGB. She got things off to a great start with 74.405% to finish second on the Grade IV scoreboard.

Wells, who won team gold and individual and freestyle silver at London 2012, said: “I feel really good, he went in and he listened to what I asked him to do.

"He got a little bit nervous when he first went in, which is understandable as he’s never been to a Paralympics before, but he concentrated and he did what I wanted him to do today.

"There were no big mistakes in the test which is important for day one, and it’s nice just to get in there."

Christiansen is followed on the class leaderboard by teammate Anne Dunham, riding Lucas Normark, who scored 73.957%.

Five-time Paralympian Dunham, 67 , said: “I was pleased, it was hard work but you expect it to be hard work. The arena felt enormous, I felt like a very ting dot in there.

"The three of us, me, Amber [Anne’s groom and daughter] and Lucas, we were a team in there and we really focussed on each other.

“It was much better than I had hoped for; it was hot and he’s not great in the heat, he gets a bit sluggish but I was really pleased with him, and he went in there and went for it. I really enjoyed it.”

Final team rider Natasha Baker, riding Cabral, will compete today in the grade II class which will mark the half-way stage of the team competition.