Stars are born

Tokyo 2020’s dressage line-up was notable for the abundance of upcoming equine talent at the Games. Alice Collins gives us the lowdown on the new names

- Alice Collins

WITH a couple of weeks to catch our breath after a jaw-droppingly exciting Games, there is now a fresh set of newly minted Tokyo dressage Olympians, and some newcomers made quite the impression.

Lottie Fry, at her first Olympics, helped secure that precious team bronze alongside Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin.

“It’s still sinking in what happened out there,” says the 25-year-old, who recorded a 77% personal best in the grand prix on Everdale, following up with a 76.85% special.

“Riding down the centre line, I thought, ‘I’m at the Olympics; I can hardly believe it.’ I loved every second in the arena,” she enthused, pointing out that a medal of any colour was a brilliant result with so many quality teams in the hunt.

“It was so fun and the whole team spirit was incredible. There was so much support so you could just concentrate on your ride and everything else was taken care of.

“I just want to do it again now. I can’t wait for Paris. I hope we can get back out there. Everdale will be 15 then, and I want another go.”

Lottie is still keeping her medal under her pillow – for now.

“I will put it in a proper place soon, but for now I still need to be able to look at it whenever I want,” she adds. “I still need to see it to believe that it all really happened.”

Although Charlotte is a household name, her horse Gio is green as grass, and had only ever been to three CDIs in his life before Tokyo – the same tiny number as Carl Hester’s horse En Vogue, whom he started riding only a year ago.