GREAT Britain’s Charlotte (Lottie) Fry and her Tokyo 2020 Olympic ride, Everdale, were convincing winners of the sixth leg of the FEI Dressage World Cup 2023/2024 Western European League in Mechelen, Belgium, last Friday.

Scoring 84.980 they pipped The Netherlands’ Marlies van Baalen and Habibi DBV for top spot, while two rising stars - Belgium’s Flore de Winne with Flynn FRH and Germany’s Rapahel Netz with Great Escape Camelot - filled third and fourth places.

The event attracted a truly international line-up, with Singapore’s Caroline Chew (Blue Hors Zatchmo) and India’s Anush Agarwalla (Sir Caramello OLD) amongst the first group of eight to come before the judges’ panel of Eduard de Wolff van Westerrode (NED), Jacques van Daele (BEL), Freddy Leymann (BEL), Isobel Wessels (GBR) and Christof Umbach (LUX). And it was de Winne and her fabulous nine-year-old stallion, Flynn, who were the first-half show-stealers, when putting it right up to the rest of the field with a great performance that set the second-half target at better than 80.330 per cent, much to the delight of her home crowd.

Final three

It came down to the final three to threaten that lead, van Baalen and the 11-year-old Habibi producing a lovely test for a mark of 81.160 that put them out in front, only to be immediately overtaken by Fry and her 14-year-old stallion, who were next into the ring.

In a ride that oozed precision, supreme confidence and class, this pair presented a picture of coordination, as they threw down strong half-pass and canter pirouette, along with multiple big-scoring flying changes and, of course, Fry’s particular speciality - extended canter that lives up to its name. The spectators knew they had seen something special, as they roared their approval when the score went up on the board. Last into the ring, German 24-year-old Raphael Netz didn’t let that un-nerve him or his new partner, Great Escape Camelot, the multiple U25 gold medallist steering the former ride of Switzerland’s Estelle Wettstein to the last of the over-80-per cent scores of the day, when earning 80.215 with the 12-year-old horse he has only been competing internationally since March of this year.

Great joy

There was great joy at the Belgian results during the post-competition press conference, in which Jeroen van Lent declared that Flore de Winne’s score was “another mark in the history of Dressage in Belgium getting the first 80 (per cent) in history, so as manager of Belgian Dressage I am a happy man!” he said.

De Winne agreed. “Yes, we’re back! It is unbelievable, nobody could have dared to dream that!” she said.

The excitement around herself and the very elegant stallion Flynn is growing with every outing. In London just a couple of weeks ago, the pair were already hugely impressive when finishing sixth in the Freestyle. At only nine years of age, the horse is still developing and the partnership he has established with his 28-year-old rider suggests there is so much more to come.

Improving

And of course Lottie Fry was also a happy lady. “It’s my third time here in Mechelen, but my first time winning, so that’s always more fun,” said the 27-year-old, who is second in the world rankings and who scooped double-gold at the 2022 World Championships. “I had a great ride yesterday and today on Everdale, I think these were two of his best ever tests, and he’s just improving all the time. And the atmosphere in there today was pretty incredible! Even for the Grand Prix, there were so many spectators, which we don’t always get, so that was really nice to see and the prize-giving was insane - it was like the roof was going to be lifted off!”

As 2023 drew to a close, the Western European League table still showed Sweden’s Patrik Kittel out in front, while French rider Morgan Barbançon is second and young German, Netz, had moved into third following Friday’s result, which has also boosted Fry into joint-sixth place.

With five more qualifiers to go before the series Final in April 2024, there is still plenty more action to come and the next leg in Basel, Switzerland, in two weeks’ time will get the New Year underway.