There’s a new queen of dressage.
Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry made it two victories in a row with the expressive Glamourdale to take the Blue Hors Grand Prix Freestyle this evening at the Ecco FEI World Dressage Championships. It happened the day after she beat the odds and Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour’s Vamos Amigos to win the Grand Prix Special.
Charlotte and the extravagant black stallion earned 90.654 percent for their freestyle as part of a British medley to tunes that included “God Save the Queen” and “Another One Bites the Dust.”
Lottie Fry and Glamourdale.
Odd juxtaposition, but the judges obviously liked it, giving her two 10s for choreography, use of the arena and inventiveness. They weren’t reluctant to hand out more 10s for everything from the extended canter (the gait in which Glamourdale excels) to extended trot, two-tempis and rhythm, energy and elasticity.
“He was just dancing and I was literally loving every second,” said an ecstatic Charlotte, only 26 years old and unable to believe what happened to her in front of 12,000 cheering fans at the Stutteri Ask Stadium in Herning, Denmark.
“I think I never dared to dream of a 90 percent,” she said, explaining that she really appreciated, “the fact that we got it here tonight at the world championships in our second-ever freestyle together with amazing new music.
“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.”
She was so excited that she jumped up and down when she stood on the top spot of the podium.
Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour is greeted by Princess Benedikte of Denmark during the medal ceremony.
The competition, presented by Helgstrand, included a bevy of stars, but what made it most exciting was that many saw it as a face-off between Glamourdale and Vamos Amigos, the anchor of the Danish gold medal team that triumphed in the Grand Prix over the weekend.
Cathrine looked nervous as she was led into the arena on her bay gelding, but he was on point, as always, when they got going to themes from “Les Miserables,” which earned 10s and one 9.8 for her music and its interpretation.
Vamos Amigos lacked the expression of Glamourdale, though he was perfectly correct, but what cost Cathrine was the extended trot. It garnered a 6, a 6.5 and a 7, in addition to 7.5s. In the end, her score of 89.411 fell just short of her rival’s. But she was happy anyway.
“It was crazy good to enter the arena today with all the audience meeting us already when we passed through the entrance of the arena,” commented Cathrine.
“I think we have had fantastic sport, what a medal podium we have. And I really thrive under this kind of pressure, it just makes me better. This championship has been good for Denmark and our sport.”
In third place, as was the case in Monday’s Grand Prix Special, the Netherlands’ Dinja van Liere on Hermes found her technical marks lagging behind her artistic marks (80.143/93.657) for a total of 86.900. The three women celebrated on the podium and off, joyfully shaking their bottles of champagne and spraying them on each other until officials told them to go get their horses for the victory pass.
The medalists take their victory pass.
Isabell Werth of Germany, the world’s most decorated dressage rider, wound up ninth on DSP Quantaz (83.339) who is workmanlike but not particularly exciting.
“It was a great experience for Quantaz. He needs more routine, but I am very happy with him today, he really listened to me,” said Isabell.
“We had some mistakes in our 2-tempis and he waited for me to tell him what to do next. We love to compete in this great atmosphere, and in the last piaffe pirouette I was hoping for the audience to cheer–which they did.”
Right behind her was the woman who hold’s the world’s freestyle record, Charlotte Dujardin, but Valegro her multi-gold medal mount is long retired and she was dealing with Imhotep here. He had never done a freestyle, and it was quite a credible effort, good for 83.132 percent. He’s only nine and full of energy, so she was clever not to be too clever and make the challenges she posed doable. Her mentor, Carl Hester, has said Pete, as the horse is known, may be the best he and Charlotte have ever had. That’s saying something.
“I’m so happy with Pete,” said Charlotte, who rode to the same music with which she won individual bronze at the Tokyo Olympics on Gio.
“He’s done absolutely amazing this week and I couldn’t have asked any more from him,” Charlotte enthused.
“He has taken everything in his stride, he’s gone beyond what I thought he could have done here. He’s dealt with the atmosphere and the crowd amazingly. When I go in, they all applaud and he stays very calm. He’s never been in that environment before, so I’m absolutely thrilled with him.”
The USA’s only competitor among the 15 who qualified for the Freestyle was Adrienne Lyle, sixth on Salvino (83.704). This was a first for her with the U.S. team. Adrienne missed competing in the freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics when Salvino wasn’t feeling up to snuff after he and his rider contributed to the team silver medal, and the freestyle at the 2018 world championships was cancelled due to heavy rain.
Adrienne Lyle finally gets her chance to ride the freestyle with Salvino at a team championship. (Photo courtesy U.S. Equestrian)
Herning offered a most welcome opportunity for her to really show off the stallion.
“He was very electric today in the warm-up,” Adrienne mentioned.
“This is the third time he’s been in the stadium now packed with people and he started to realize there was a big crowd in there and had a few more nerves than we normally do, but once we got into the ring, he took a breath and he knew what his job was and what he was doing and that’s what makes him such a special horse.”
She already satisfied her other ambition in coming to Denmark when the U.S. team finished sixth to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which was the squad’s main goal.
For full results, click here.
(Feature photo of Lottie Fry courtesy of British Equestrian Federation/Jon Stroud)
