Lottie Fry has already gained – take a deep breath – person gold within the 2018 Below-25 Eu Dressage Championship, person gold on the International Breeding Dressage Championships for Younger Horses in 2018 (with a then seven-year-old Glamourdale) and 2021, group silver on the 2021 Europeans, in addition to group gold and person silver on the 2023 Europeans, group silver plus person gold in each the particular and freestyle (with a private supreme of 90.995% on Glamourdale) on the 2022 International Championship, plus group bronze on the Tokyo Olympics (with Everdale), and group and person bronze on the 2024 Paris Olympics with Glamourdale. She is but to rejoice her thirtieth birthday.
Lottie Fry and Everdale galvanize at London World Horse Display in 2023. Credit score: Peter Nixon
All this, and but, when requested how the Olympic medals specifically have modified her lifestyles, she replies with a stunned giggle, “I’ve by no means truly thought of it!”. She wears her impressive luck very frivolously.
With a bit of of delicate prodding, she admits that it’s essential to grasp the fulfillment, and at the back of that, the paintings that is going in to make all of it glance really easy. Easy hardly is. The debrief after any festival “is going on for a very long time and remains to be happening now”, she says, “it’s a continuing dialog, how we will be able to reinforce, what are we able to do higher in long run”.
She is predicated closely on Anne van Olst, her instructor and proprietor who “sees me journey each and every unmarried day at festival and is all the time having a look. We’re all the time operating in combination to get the most productive, we talk about the way it feels, the way it appears. We plan every coaching consultation, so we all know what is going to occur on a daily basis.”
Lottie used to be operating one week a month, elderly 16, in trade for courses with Carl Hester and it used to be Carl who attached Lottie with Anne van Olst, a a success Danish dressage rider, five-time Olympian and Danish nationwide champion, and now Lottie’s trainer and mentor. Lottie moved to the Netherlands in 2014 as an adolescent and he or she begins her operating day at 5am.
As an adolescent Lottie Fry skilled with now teammate Carl Hester, who put her in contact with mentor, instructor and proprietor Anne van Olst within the Netherlands. Credit score: Peter Nixon
She says, “horses aren’t a task or a profession, it’s a way of life and we truly put 24 hours an afternoon, seven days per week into the horses. We make a large number of sacrifices to be the place we’re. It’s lovely superb to have one thing to turn for all of the paintings. My partnership with Glammy isn’t one thing that occurs very ceaselessly – it’s very particular.”
Once we talk, Lottie’s getting ready for the International Breeding Dressage Championships for Younger Horses, with two six-year-olds, and subsequent 12 months she can have “a couple of extra” rides able to start out competing at grand prix for revel in, and he or she expects to have Everdale and Glamourdale able to organize for subsequent season.
As for emerging stars, she cites Kjento, sired through Negro (sire of Valegro, dam-sire of Glamourdale) with whom Lottie gained the International Breeding Dressage Championships for Younger Horses as each a six-year-old (scoring 96%) and seven-year-old, and Nespresso (additionally through Negro), with whom Lottie has already competed the world over, together with a win within the grand prix freestyle at Lier in March. “All of that may stay me busy!”, she says.
Lottie Fry and Kjento win the seven-year-old identify on the Dressage International Breeding Championships 2022. Credit score: Hippo Foto
Riders she’s inspired with come with Andrew Gould, who turned into the brand new change for Paris when Becky Moody stepped into Charlotte Dujardin’s position within the group at quick realize. “It used to be unbelievable to have him there, he’s were given a great horse, Indigro, and it’s now not a very easy position to be [as reserve]. He used to be so supportive and a truly just right teammate and a laugh. Additionally we noticed with alternates Yas Ingham and Joe Stockdale, it’s a truly tough place and all 3 had been lovely superb”.
Andrew Gould, Paris Olympic reserve with Indigro, crammed his unenviable position extremely, providing enhance to his teammates all through the contest. Credit score: Kevin Sparrow Pictures
Dressage, along side all equestrian recreation, has come underneath the glare of an unwelcome highlight, with acquainted questions on welfare, social licence, and whether or not there may be even a spot at enthusiastic about horses in recreation, all making nationwide headlines. Taking a look at the way forward for dressage, for Lottie that is inextricably related with convincing the sceptics concerning the remarkable care the horses obtain.
She says, ”I truly hope we will be able to get it throughout to the general public how a lot we like and adore the horses. They couldn’t need for the rest, they’re handled to the most productive each and every unmarried day. Other folks don’t see it as it’s at the back of the scenes, in order that they don’t see how all our horses are sorted, and the way glad they’re to do their activity. I do know from revel in they love to enter the arenas, they like to compete and carry out, it’s part of who they’re, and it’s one thing I’m hoping everybody will see.”
Lottie Fry adores her Olympic spouse Glamourdale, and needs extra other folks to look how a lot he enjoys his activity. Credit score: Peter Nixon
Lottie can hint her equestrian lineage again to Sixpence, her first pony (“white, tiny, cheeky”), the primary in a limiteless line of ponies and horses. “I’ve to thank each and every unmarried one who has contributed to my profession, and my lifestyles as a rider,” she says.
Lottie has returned house from Paris 2024 with two bronzes, and a memento mascot so as to add to the gathering – she has one from Tokyo – and her eyes firmly at the long run. “I’m very motivated,” she says. Her luck is her rocket gas. “It truly drives you to understand that it’s conceivable, and it makes you hungry for extra.”
Lottie Fry and Glamourdale win person bronze on the 2024 Paris Olympics – luck is what motivates her. Credit score: Peter Nixon
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