Access All Areas Lottie Fry

With all eyes on Tokyo, the young but talented Lottie Fry is a very real contender for the British dressage team, finds Martha Terry on a visit to her Dutch base

- Martha Terry

THERE are still three hours until daybreak when Lottie makes the short walk from her apartment to the yard. The British dressage rider is first in at 5.30am to start feeding the horses, and begins riding at 7am. In the Netherlands in January, it’s not light until well after breakfast. Not that it matters in the cosy barns at the Van Olsts’ yard near Breda, which houses stables, a 20x60m indoor school and horse walker. The large sliding doors are kept shut, heat lamps and radiators pump out warmth, and the horses’ sleek, unclipped coats look radiant.

There are around 200 horses on site, including broodmares, foals and youngsters, as well as the dressage stallions and geldings, but Lottie operates out of just one of the barns.

“I feed these horses before everyone else arrives at 7.30 am, taking a cart round all the stables,” says Lottie, looking immaculate at this early hour, dressed in black jodhs and gilet, with manicured black nails.

“We call the feed ‘brok’ — it looks like horse and pony nuts but it’s TopSpec and is specific to each horse’s needs — and we also feed lucerne, which is like chaff.”

In the tack room, Lottie’s dachshund Bami — meaning noodles in Dutch — is snuggled under a fleecy blanket, barking enthusiastically at any visitors. Outside, a flamboyant dapple-grey is being lunged in a pen, before being brought in under the heat lamps to be tacked up. This is Especial, Lottie’s third ride of the morning. The six-year-old is by Lottie’s grand prix ride Everdale, out of a Vivaldi x San Remo mare. Lottie loves the continuity of riding both sire and offspring.

“Most Everdales are like their dad; they all love to work and will keep going all day; everything comes so easily to them,” she says. “Especial’s been lunged just to get rid of a bit of his excess energy.”