Glamourdale – Lottie Fry’s world champion dressage stallion who makes crowds gasp
Glamourdale is one of the most decorated dressage horses of all time. The powerhouse black stallion catapulted into global stardom after carrying Lottie Fry to double individual gold at the 2022 World Dressage Championships – his defining breakthrough moment.
Since then, he’s added team gold at the 2023 Europeans, double bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the 2025 World Cup title to his record.
“He’s the biggest showman in the world!” Lottie says. “The second he enters the arena, he grows, he lifts his legs, and when you see him coming in, you can’t not look at him. He’s so beautiful, he has such a presence.”
Glamourdale’s early years
Bred in the Netherlands by Joop Rodenburg and born on 10 May 2011, Glamourdale is sired by Lord Leatherdale and out of Thuja (by Negro).
He was bought as a foal by Gertjan and Anne Van Olst and has since lived at their Den Hout base.
At three years old, Glamourdale topped the 2014 stallion inspection and took reserve champion at the KWPN performance test the same year.
Lottie Fry moved to the Netherlands in 2014, just 18 at the time, to train with the Van Olsts. She first sat on Glamourdale in 2017, when he was six – and the impact was instant.
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“I had never sat on anything like that before – he was always so special,” she recalls.
In 2018, the pair won the coveted seven-year-old title at the World Breeding Championships in Ermelo, the Netherlands, with Lottie becoming the first British rider to win this esteemed title.
In a sign of things to come, Glamourdale gained 10s for his canter, with Lottie reporting that even then, it felt “like you’re flying”.
“We all knew at home that his canter deserves 10s, but we didn’t know if the judges would agree with us,” she said.
Rise to stardom
Glamourdale had a light but flawless small tour season in 2019, going unbeaten internationally and breaking the 80% barrier to win the inter I at Aachen CDI4*.
He sat out 2020, then stepped up to grand prix in April 2021, making his international debut at Hagen CDI4* with a 74.46% under Lottie. That year, he competed selectively, as Lottie prioritised her Olympic and European Championship campaign with her team ride Everdale.
It was in 2022 when Glamourdale exploded onto the top level. He posted a personal best 78.68% in the grand prix special at Lier CDI4*, then 80.98% at Opglabbeek, where judge Isobel Wessels called their test “a privilege to judge.”
“They moved from one movement to the next with such ease and lightness – everyone was spellbound,” Isobel said.
He followed this with a double win at Compiègne CDIO5* and was selected for Britain’s Herning World Championship team.
Herning 2022: Glamourdale breaks through
At Herning, Glamourdale led Britain to team silver with a plus-80% grand prix. He and Lottie then stormed to gold in the special with a personal best of 82.5%, lighting up the arena with their expressive canter work.
“To get 82.5% at the world champs is what dreams are made of,” said Lottie afterwards. “Glamourdale was incredible. He went in there and just did everything I could ask.”
Two days later, Lottie and Glamourdale struck gold again – this time in the freestyle, breaking the 90% barrier, scoring more than 24 10s, with a bold, crowd-thrilling routine set to a soundtrack of iconic British anthems arranged by Joost Peters.
From Another One Bites the Dust on entry to Millennium and Angels by Robbie Williams in the canter work, Bittersweet Symphony, and a spine-tingling God Save the Queen to close, the performance was both technically brilliant and emotionally charged.
Crossing into the elite “90% club,” Lottie was in disbelief: “I didn’t dare to dream about it, to be honest – it’s something all my idols have done. I never expected it would happen to me.”
Glamourdale: one of the best the world has ever seen
Those medals in Herning changed their lives forever. From that point on, Glamourdale wasn’t just a champion – he was a global phenomenon, and the most talked-about horse in dressage.
Glamourdale made his British debut in December at the London International Horse Show (LIHS), where he and Lottie drew in a wave of new fans and delivered another career high. They rose to the moment with a jaw-dropping 90.99% – the highest score ever recorded at LIHS outside the world records set by Totilas and Valegro.
“The atmosphere in there was incredible,” Lottie said. “From the moment we entered the arena, the audience was amazing. I can’t wait for the next few years.”
More titles and records followed. The pair kicked off 2023 ranked first in the world for the first time. It marked the first time a British dressage rider has headed the FEI world rankings since Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro held the position in 2016.
“I texted Anne, but she wasn’t looking at her phone,” recalls Lottie. “I’d sent her a message all in capitals saying ‘ME AND GLAMMY ARE NUMBER ONE’, but she was out at dinner for New Year’s Eve, so I had to text a friend who was there to tell Anne to look at her phone. Of course, then she panicked thinking it was an emergency, but when she saw the message, it was so exciting.”
The battle with Dalera
The 2023 Europeans were framed as a battle between the world’s top two horses: Glamourdale and Olympic champion TSF Dalera BB, ridden by Jessica von Bredow-Werndl.
Dalera set the bar with a personal best of 84.61% in the grand prix. Anchoring the British team, Lottie Fry needed 78.71% to clinch gold, and delivered 81.26%. It wasn’t enough to beat Dalera individually, but it sealed Britain’s first team gold since London 2012 and their first European title since 2011.
A mistake in the one-tempis cost Lottie and Glamourdale a podium finish in the special, but the freestyle was an electrifying showdown between two horses at their peak.
Jessica and Dalera set the bar with a European Championship record-breaking 92.82%. Lottie, undaunted, delivered a brilliant 92.38% – her own personal best – in one of the most thrilling head-to-heads dressage has seen.
Dalera bested Glamourdale once more at the 2024 Paris Olympics, closing out her dominant era with a sweep of gold medals across both championships.
Lottie and Glamourdale took the team and a hard-fought individual bronze, edged out by rising star Wendy De Fontaine under Isabell Werth.
The result led to murmurs that perhaps Glamourdale’s peak had passed – but he silenced the doubters with a dominant comeback, going unbeaten, again, in 10 straight tests and clinching the 2025 World Cup Final.
With major titles across every championship and what many call the best canter tour in history, Glamourdale has secured his place among the all-time greats. And he’s not done yet.
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Oscar joined Horse & Hound in October 2023 and is the magazine’s dressage editor and sports manager, overseeing coverage of equestrian sport. After studying equine science at Myerscough College, he spent four years working for leading dressage rider Emile Faurie, competing at the 2015 National Dressage Championships and travelling with the yard to CDIs including Aachen and Saumur. He holds a master’s degree in Literature from York St John University (2021).