Lottie Fry and Glamourdale are Double Gold Medalists at the Herning 2022 World Championships
Thursday 11 August 2022
Last night, the Blue Hors FEI Dressage World Championship reached its stunning finale – the Grand Prix Freestyle test to music, and it was Lottie Fry and Glamourdale who received a standing ovation from the Stutteri Ask Stadium as they danced their way to Freestyle gold... casually smashing the 90% barrier in the process!
Lottie and ‘Glammy’ have captivated the Herning crowds this week, having already won individual gold and team silver earlier in the week and they were expectant for what was to come. Lottie had put out several social media teasers on what her new Joost Peters-masterminded music entailed, but it did little to prepare us for just how special it was.
Brian May’s rock rendition of God Save the Queen got us underway as the pair passaged to halt, then it was out again in perfect synchronicity to Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’. A complicated floorplan had been ideally crafted to showcase all of Glammy’s party piece moves – Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ was set to the breathtaking extended trot, which merged into Millennium for the extended canter, then Genesis’ ‘Land of Confusion’ made an appearance for further canter work. The pesky pirouettes were nailed against another Robbie track, ‘She’s The One’. Then, the Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ was used for the two-time tempis, while – of course, we had to – the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ set the tempo for the one-time changes. A clever passage tour to God Save the Queen had the stadium crowd clapping in time, followed by a standing ovation after the final salute.
The audience knew they’d witnessed something truly special – and the birth of a new freestyle queen. It was a captivating routine that used the best of British music as the background to a floorplan of maximum difficulty, expertly executed by a young, almost precocious, pairing who blew everyone away with their power, personality and presence. They’d been trending in the high 80s throughout, based on the technical marks, but where would the artistic scores land them? The answer – a whopping 90.654%. A total of 24 10s were awarded across the seven judges, and each one was fully warranted.
“It’s absolutely incredible, like unbelievable,” gushed Lottie. “I just had the best feeling in there I’ve ever had. I had so much fun and he had so much fun and we literally just loving it the whole way round. It’s just a really nice, relaxed feeling the crowd seriously amazing. Glamourdale went in there and knew what he had to do and he could feel the atmosphere. If there’s a lot of crowd, he’s going to show off even more – I can just sit there, it felt so easy and he was just bouncing through his music.”
“I didn’t dare to imagine this. I know everything is possible with Glamourdale – he is the best horse in the world, but to be able to show off what he did tonight is amazing. I guess there is more pressure today, but I love the music and he loved the music, and my main thing was I wanted us both to enjoy it. Hopefully, this is just the beginning – it’s his first major championships, and I think the next few years will be really exciting for him. Getting a +90% is something all my idols do, and I didn’t expect to do it,” she reflected.
“I was loving every second – as soon as the music started, I could hear the crowd. Some were even singing along to it, it was just the most incredible feeling. I could really sit up and relax and he was enjoying it, and it was just the most amazing feeling in the world. I picked the lines to show off his incredible extended canter, but there is so much, it took weeks to get a floorplan to fit inside the time because I wanted to do a 10-minute freestyle, and that’s just not possible. It really captured all his amazing points. I’m speechless about the music. We knew we wanted a special British theme and he’s heard these songs at stallion shows before, so he basically picked them out for me. He really danced to it tonight.
“What Glamourdale did was just out of this world, I was loving every second,” she said. At least 11,000 others loved every second too, and the millions watching from all over the world, too.
Waiting for the final results
Two competitors remained and they were Lottie’s biggest medal rivals. Dutch duo Dinja van Liere and Hermes have seriously impressed this week and were leaders on day one of the Grand Prix test. A bronze in the Grand Prix Special cemented their credentials as potential prize winners. They put up a spirited performance, which Dinja said felt more controlled, to score 86.900% to go second behind Lottie.
It was then the turn of the host nation’s dressage darling, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufor with Sarah Pidgely’s uber-talented 10-year-old, Vamos Amigos – the favourite of many to take the freestyle gold heading into the championships. Their Les Misérables-inspired score was impressive and correct – the judges really rewarded the artistic elements of the performance. It was going to be close as Lottie waited expectantly for the score in the media mixed zone with her dad, Simon. The announcer gave out each judge’s score and some were over 90% – it was agonizingly close, but 89.411% was the final average percentage. A second world championship gold belonged to the petite, unassuming Yorkshire rider.
There were few dry eyes in the house as she climbed the podium to take her medal, but the tears of joy quickly turned to laughter as she was soaked with champagne spray by Cathrine and Dinja because, in her youthful inexperience, Lottie struggled to open her bottle of fizz! So, Britain has a new Freestyle World Champion, one of the sport’s most coveted prizes.
Britain’s dressage quartet end a very successful week – Olympic qualification secured, a team silver and Lottie taking double gold. With a team of young horses coupled with low milage established rides and some of the most talented riders around, Paris can’t come soon enough.
Check out all the scores from yesterday by visiting the British Equestrian online Herning Hub.
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