Charlotte Fry Claims Double Victory at 2021 CDI Exloo

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2021 CDI Exloo

British 2019 European Championship team rider Charlotte Fry has continued her Tokyo campaign with a vengeance by winning the Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle with PB scores on her two rides at Exloo CDI3* in the Netherlands on 5 – 9 May 2021.

In windy conditions at the Hippisch Centrum Exloo, the home nation’s Edward Gal dominated Wednesday’s Grand Prix with Totilas' sons Toto Jr. and Total U.S. claiming first (78.82%) and second (77.78%) respectively. The 25-year old young British challenger, however, clearly meant business with a 76.84% PB performance with Everdale to complete the podium and taking fourth with Dark Legend on 75.45%.

Gal had to withdraw from the remainder of the competition due to sickness so couldn’t participate in the Special and Freestyle – two classes of great quality – whilst Charlotte upped her game even further with two outstanding performances for Van Olst Horses and her country.

On Thursday morning, Charlotte and Dark Legend (by Zucchero x Tango) presented their brand new Freestyle programme, ‘Let me take you dancing’ to give a masterclass of precision riding, balance and musicality. They were the unanimous winners of the judging panel of Francis Verbeek van Rooy (NED) at E, Alban Tissot (FRA) at H, Susanne Baarup (DEN) at C, Maarten Van Der Heijden (NED) at M and Elke Ebert (GER) at B.

Contemporary music and a well-executed high degree of difficulty was awarded with 81.460% to put them ahead of Adelinde Cornelissen with the Parzival full brother Fleau De Baian (78.325%) and Marieke van der Putten with Her Majesty TF (76.415%), both for the Netherlands.

At Exloo in 2018, Charlotte and her superstar dancing partner Dark Legend, now 13, were freestyle gold medallists at the FEI U25 European Championships. They’ve continued to develop into a world class senior combination and were on the British team at the 2019 European Championships in Rotterdam.

Fry and Dark Legend at the 2021 CDI Exloo

Charlotte added to her Exloo success with a strong Grand Prix Special performance of 77.213% aboard Van Olst Horses’ 12-year-old breeding stallion Everdale (by Lord Leatherdale x Negro) - pictured last month. They presented an accomplished test with much elasticity and power to finish ahead of the Netherlands’ Marlies Van Baalen aboard Go Legend and Adelinde Cornelissen with Governor-STR, her closest rivals, who scored 74.319% and 74.106% respectively.

With the eight-year-old Everdale son, Inclusive, Charlotte was second in the Prix St Georges with 73.333%. This was the young stallion’s international debut.

“Wow, we had an amazing time at Exloo CDI!” said Lottie on Facebook. “Everdale scored two PBs of 76.84% in the GP for third place and then won the Special on 77%! Dark Legend was fourth in the GP with 75.45% and then also had a new PB to win the Freestyle on 81.56%! Inclusive made his international small tour debut and was second in the PSG with 73%. What an amazing team we have at Van Olst Horses making this possible! Especially Anne van Olst for her incredible training every day.”