Lottie Fry and Glamourdale top 86% in London freestyle: ‘He was on fire and I can’t thank the crowd enough’

Lottie Fry has taken the lead in the London Horse Show dressage freestyle to music, scoring 86.645% with her own and Van Olst Horses’ Glamourdale.

Britain’s world champions and double Paris bronze medallists started with Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust, with a punchy cry of “Let’s go” out of their first halt. Their test finished with a piaffe pirouette on the final centre line to God Save The King and an excellent final halt. Lottie gave a fist pump, a big smile and a wave to the crowd, clearly pleased with her ride in the FEI Dressage World Cup presented by Bret Willson Dressage International Ltd and supported by Horse & Hound.

“The feeling I had tonight was incredible, he was on fire,” said Lottie, who is based in the Netherlands with her owners and trainers the Van Olsts so doesn’t often ride in front of a home crowd. “I’m so grateful to be able to do that in London in front of this crowd. I can’t thank you enough for your support this year, running up to Paris and there. It makes me a little emotional to be able to come back to England and be able to ride in front of you.

“This was really the perfect end to the year for me. ‘Glammy’ was absolutely incredible in that it was really a feeling I’ve never experienced in my whole life before. He was just on fire and to do it in front of the home crowd in London is just very, very special.

“Yesterday Glammy really showed me how much he has improved since Paris and it was also one of the best tests I’ve ever felt. But unfortunately, we had a little misunderstanding, which was very costly, and tonight he was just on it – there were a few small exciting moments, but I think that just made it even more exciting for all of us.”

Much of Lottie Fry and Glamourdale’s London Horse Show dressage freestyle test was excellent – suspension and power was on offer, great positioning of the movements and the black stallion has so many gears and strong adjustability. But it wasn’t flawless as the pair had a muddle at the start of the two-time flying changes and an error in the one-times, which Lottie repeated towards the end of their performance.

Nonetheless, it was a strong comeback after the pair were surprisingly beaten yesterday by their Paris team-mates Becky Moody and her home-bred Jagerbomb. Becky will ride in just a few minutes to see if she can overhaul Lottie once again, though she would need to achieve a personal best by 2% to do so. Isabel Freese of Norway and Total Help OLD also beat Lottie and Glamourdale yesterday with second place and will be the final pair in the ExCeL arena this evening, so the tension will be high right until the end of the class.

The halfway leader, Dinja van Liere with Hartsuijker sits second now on 80.225% with British national champions Lewis Robertson-Carrier and Diego second best of the home side in fifth on 76.31%.

End of class update: Lottie won the class, with Isabel second, Dinja third and Becky fourth. 

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