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‘I brushed my teeth and Glamourdale listened to his music’ – how double Olympic bronze medallist Lottie Fry prepared for glory in Paris
One of the most hard-working riders in dressage, double bronze medallist Lottie Fry, recalls the shocking build-up to the Games for her sport and how it made her team stronger – plus how Glamourdale enjoyed his holiday afterwards, even if Lottie didn’t…
Lottie Fry can’t remember where she was when she received the call that she’d been selected with Glamourdale for the British dressage team at the Paris Olympics. Best guess? “I was riding… I must have been riding”. It’s a fair assumption; Lottie rides at least 12 horses a day, six or seven days a week.
After telling her owners, Anne and Gertjan van Olst, she found “a little bottle of champagne in the fridge, so I thought, I’ll just open this at midday! It was the first exciting moment of hopefully many to come”.
Lottie’s Olympic debut on Everdale in 2021, alongside Carl Hester, Charlotte Dujardin and Gareth Hughes, netted a team bronze in Tokyo, under the shadow of a pandemic. Different challenges this time meant that travelling reserve Becky Moody replaced Charlotte Dujardin with just a few days in hand.
Not ideal, but the mark of greatness is rising to the occasion, and Lottie says: “We had such a good support team, handling everything for us and making sure we could concentrate on why we were there. It brought the team closer together and made us want this more. The team atmosphere was very special and supportive; we wanted to get that medal. We had to put it behind us to do what we were there to do.”
Spoken like a true sportswoman – for whom the mental focus is easily as important and impressive as the physical. A total team score of 232.492% in the grand prix special secured team bronze, and 88.971% for Lottie’s freestyle earned her an individual medal of the same colour. Both results clearly illustrate Lottie’s remark when she concludes with some understatement: “I think we brought the positive back”.
Lottie Fry: “Even more motivated and determined”
The scale and beauty of Versailles only redoubled her commitment to be “even more motivated and determined”. She says now, speaking less than a month later: “There will never be a setting as beautiful as that. It may be a once in a lifetime experience to ride there, it takes your breath away, seeing the arena, the height of the stand, the view of the palace. Whatever you expected could never be that.”
Lottie had considered changing Glamourdale’s music for Paris, explaining: “He first rode it at Herning, at the World Championship, where he won. It was very difficult and we came to the conclusion that it couldn’t be any better because any time we changed it, just small pieces, it wasn’t as good. We wanted to put a French theme into it, to relate it to Paris, and we did that in a few of the pirouettes, which was beautiful. But he already had the best music in the world – why try to change it?”
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Lottie’s focus in the run-up to the Games was not particularly the grand prix, though important for qualifying, as she explains: “We’ve done hundreds of grands prix and Glammy knows his job, he loves to go into the arena and doesn’t give me too much to worry about. The main focus was going into the special for the team and freestyle for the individual.”
How does an Olympic medallist prepare for these great moments? For Lottie, she explains: “I like to have some quiet time. I go through the test in my head many times, I ride it through, I listen to some music as well. I always brush my teeth – then it means I’m fresh and ready! When I’m outside the stable waiting to get on I always walk the test as if I’m holding the reins.” And then, a moment with her horse. “Before the freestyle, Glammy always hears his music, just before I get on. I play it to him and stand with him and he always listens to it so he knows what’s coming up.”
The “biggest showman”, Glamourdale
Charisma is key for successful dressage horses and Glamourdale is “the biggest showman in the world!” Lottie says, with obvious pride and delight. “He loves it, loves attention, and wants everyone to look at him. 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.”
It makes sense that Glammy loved his lap of honour as much as Lottie did after winning individual freestyle bronze, taking in the atmosphere alongside Jessica von Bredow-Werndl and Isabell Werth, the two German riders who took gold and silver respectively. With the roar of the crowds, after the “sheer excitement, it’s a very happy, special feeling being there with the team and the other teams, or as an individual, on the podium, all feeling similar thoughts”.
Looking back on her time in Paris, is there anything she’d do differently? “No, I don’t think so and it’s something I would never even think about,” she says, showing that steel-clad mental focus again. “It was amazing, even if it didn’t go as well as it did, you still know you’ve done your best on the day and you can’t change it now. It’s very important to be grateful for the experience, I enjoyed every second of it and Glammy did as well.”
While in Paris, Lottie had only a flying visit to the Olympic village. “I had a photo with Joe Fraser, one of the gymnasts – I said to him, I watched you on the TV last night!” she recalls. It was only meeting other athletes that made Lottie appreciate that “just getting to the Olympics is incredible and everyone is inspirational”. She drove home to the van Olstzs in the Netherlands straight after the individual prize-giving and press rounds, getting back by about 10.30pm.
The girls on the yard were ready with Prosecco, cakes and British flags. “Glammy had all the carrots laid out in his name”, says Lottie. The next morning, Lottie says: “I was straight back to riding all the other horses, it was a full-on day. Glammy’s had a nice holiday, doing fun things, relaxing. And quite a few fans have visited him – he’s very happy.” For Lottie though, no holiday. A day off? Perhaps a lie in? No. “That’s just horse people for you,” she says, happily.
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Born in Australia and bought up in the Midlands, Kate has ridden since childhood. After completing her degree and living abroad for several years, she became an award-winning BBC radio producer and Channel 4 documentary producer after which she became a freelance journalist, contributing to the Daily Mail, The Times, The Telegraph and others. She also collaborated with top jumps trainer Nicky Henderson OBE, to write his best-selling memoir, Nicky Henderson: My Life in 12 Horses. She owns currently cares for retrained National Hunt racehorse, Stop the Show.
