LOTTIE Fry successfully defended the first of her individual world championship titles, which she won in Herning in 2022, when she and the black stallion Glamourdale topped the leaderboard in the Grand Prix Special at the FEI Dressage World Championships at Aachen last Friday afternoon.

The class came to a dramatic conclusion with the first of the likely medal contenders, Denmark’s Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour riding Mount St John Freestyle, making some uncharacteristic errors in their test. Having topped the leaderboard by a considerable margin in the Grand Prix, which decided the team medals earlier in the week, Laudrup-Dufour and her 17-year-old mare were the favourites to take the first individual title.

A mistake in the first line of one-time changes, followed by a blip coming out of the second pirouette, caused groans from the full-capacity crowd and a lower-than-expected score of 80.927%. The combination went into the lead at that stage, but left the podium positions wide open for the remaining four combinations.

Reigning European champions Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus were next to enter the arena and, while the light-footed 10-year-old produced some highlights, they too made mistakes. Verboomen took a risk in riding expressive one-time changes on the diagonal, but like Laudrup-Dufour their risk did not pay off and their mistake resulted in marks as low as fours from the judges. Despite excellent pirouettes, they couldn’t quite claw it back and they went into second on 79.362%.

Germany’s Isabell Werth won the Grand Prix Special when the World Equestrian Games were held in Aachen in 2006 and, when she entered the arena after Verboomen riding her team gold medallist Wendy de Fontaine, she looked determined to repeat the feat.

Incredibly, Werth also had errors in the lines of changes and those, combined with a spook in the first piaffe, saw her unable to surpass Laudrup-Dufour. She went into second at that point on a score of 79.544%.

Lottie Fry and her own and the Van Olst’s Glamourdale had finished third in the Grand Prix, over 2% adrift of Laudrup-Dufour, and her score was trending lower than the Danish rider’s up until she began the canter tour. What followed was Glamourdale’s trademark display of enormous and correct changes and extensions, combined with sweeping half passes and sitting pirouettes. As the crowd clapped in time to her final centre line, it seemed clear she would overtake Laudrup-Dufour, and she did, on a score of 82.295%.

The medals were still not certain though, as Germany’s Katharina Hemmer was the final combination to enter the Aachen arena.

Riding Hubertus Schmidt and Nancy Gooding’s 14-year-old chesnut gelding Denoix PCH, with whom she also won a team gold medal at last year’s European championships, she performed what was arguably the most correct test among the top contenders. While Denoix PCH might not have Glamourdale’s power in canter nor Mount St John Freestyle’s precision in the piaffe and passage, the German pair performed a clear round and clinched the bronze medal on 80.866%.

Delight and disappointment

“I still can’t believe what just happened,” said Fry at the press conference afterwards. “Glammie was amazing in there. He was just giving, giving and giving. Whenever I was thinking, ‘stay safe’, Glammie was saying, ‘no, let’s take a risk!’ When everything comes together after such a long preparation, it is amazing. I have no words for him, he’s just incredible,” she concluded.

In contrast to Fry, Laudrup-Dufour was frustrated by her result. “I’m disappointed with my ride today,” she said. “We started really well and Freestyle is in amazing form. She’s fit and she likes the arena. I hope I can do better in the Freestyle tomorrow and do as good as ‘Free’ does. I have to let today be today, and focus on tomorrow. I’m excited to ride our new freestyle and have one more chance to show what an amazing horse she is,” she said of Saturday’s Freestyle.

Hemmer was delighted both by her performance with Denoix PCH and their bronze medal.

“I never dreamed of winning an individual medal in Aachen. We had mainly focused on the team competition and the Grand Prix. Achieving a personal best there was amazing. Everything after that would simply be the icing on the cake,” she said.

“I will never experience anything like this again: winning a World Championship medal on home soil in Aachen with my best friend.”