- Text © Eurodressage (this article expresses Eurodressage's' eye-witness account and opinion about the competition).
Britain's leading dressage rider of the moment, Charlotte Fry, flew high on home soil aboard her life-changing horse, Glamourdale, and won the World Cup qualifier CDI-W at the London International Horse Show on Friday afternoon 19 December 2025.
In a field of 14 riders of which five were Brits, Fry had her redemption ride after a mission gone awry to get on the individual podium at the 2025 European Championships in Crozet last summer. "We got our confidence back here," Fry said beaming, yet in a hurry, at the press conference. "It hasn't been the easiest year, but we finished this year on the highest of highs." She then ran off stage, clutching a glass of Taittinger champagne in celebration of her repeat London World Cup win, and hurried to the airport.
Reminiscing Olympia
Hosted at the spacious ExCel exhibition center on the outskirts of Britain's capital, the London Horse Show is the highlight equestrian sports event of the year in the U.K.. Its dates are annually the week before Christmas and with gold and red winter decoration full on display, the show brings out a warmth and festive fuzziness that makes attending so much fun. Champagne bars, a huge trade fair, competitions across disciplines, demos, displays, Q&As, it goes on for five days and leaves not a single soul bored.
Jackpot
This year the London Horse Show experimented with its timetable and rescheduled the two dressage classes to different slots. It turned out to be jackpot. Instead of holding dressage early in the week, the Grand Prix was scheduled for Thursday noon, while the freestyle was held on Friday afternoon, instead of making it a midweek, black tie, evening affair. The result was a sell-out crowd for the Kur on Friday as visitors most likely stayed on for the adrenalin filled, evening show jumping programme.
The same week as London the Germans gather in Frankfurt for a CDI 5* and their annual Louisdor and Burgpokal final. Frankfurt offers an absolute banger of a programme but Frankfurt will never have the appeal of London; especially for the globe-trotting city slicker who also wants to go to Harrods, have afternoon tea, and catch a musical, opera or play on the weekend.
The Season of Giving
On Thursday in the Grand Prix seasoned judges Peter Storr (GBR), Marietta Almasy (FRA), Elke Ebert (GER), Susanne Baarup (DEN), and Clive Halsall (GBR) were not yet jingling in unison. Fry and Glamourdale won the class but the marks went from 76.957% to 82.717% and with come back kid Charlotte Dujardin there was a spread from 74.674% to 79.783%, clearly exposing how unsure they are where to re-position the fallen angel of British dressage. The gap Dujardin left in her one-year absence was successfully filled by Becky Moody. In the Grand Prix her marks also veered between 71.413% and 77.500%.
In the freestyle the scores are always much higher -- nothing new there - but they felt particularly generous today considering some poor walks, a lack of collection and self carriage in much passage work, and riding not such tidy as seen in Crozet in August; probably because of the electric indoor atmosphere. Several riders were hurrying their horses forward in a tempo that was a bit too up tempo, while others were so obsessed with collection that they closed their horses so much in front the back became locked and stiff. Either way, there were plenty of savoury tests, super horses, fun music, and the overall the atmosphere was a total blast, so here is quick review of some of the observations I made...
Redemption Ride
Fry had Glamourdale on point. The piaffes worked out better, particularly the rhythm was much more steady and secure even though the horse was not always taking enough weight behind. One piaffe pirouette clearly did not know what it wanted to be: a passage volte or a piaffe turn. The extended walk was also not super relaxed, but the ground cover was sufficient. The canter is always like moonwalking: ground covering, smooth, easy, big, expressive. It clearly was Lottie's redemption ride, making up for the missed opportunity in Crozet. The judges rewarded her accordingly with 89.170% for the win.
Fry commented, “we came up with a super cool idea to have all flying songs, because he is Glamourdale Airlines — he flies in the arena so why not make the music to match him? This was one of the best tests he’s done and it was the most amazing feeling I’ve ever had. It was really fun to do it with that music in London so I can’t not be happy.”
In the Mood
Becky Moody was this year's ambassador for the London Horse Show and the crowds have embraced her and "Bomber" tightly. Becky and her 11-year old home bred KWPN gelding Jagerbomb (by Dante Weltino x Jazz) made a special effort to ride a totally new freestyle, Christmas inspired and created for the occasion.
Moody and "Bomber" danced to the full array of the world's most famous Christmas songs, riding short lines across the 20 x 60 m arena in extended trot, canter, half pass, zig zag, circles, bent lines, left, right, on and on. The "choppy" lines seemed similar to her Beatles' floorplan and Jagerbomb proved himself a benchmark of rideability and willingness. He answered to any of Becky's aids and did the job admirably, always staying nice in the frame, supple in the contact and foaming exemplary.
They scored 86.410% for second place. “We tried to have a little bit of fun with the music, it was really cool,” she said afterwards. “I’m incredibly lucky to have such a phenomenal horse, he has a heart of gold. I loved doing the (Christmas) music,” said Becky Moody. “I just wanted everyone to have fun in there and for it to be a little bit different. We did pick the music more to entertain the crowd than necessarily to get the best score in the world.” Moody also stated, "everyone wants to edge towards 90%, but we’ve got a bit of work to do. It’s what we want and absolutely what we need. It's so exciting for the sport because we’ve got some phenomenal horses and riders, training and riding in a phenomenal way — and it’s so exciting to be part of that.”
becky was third in the Grand Prix after a disrupted warm-up. “We didn't have the best prep (in the Grand Prix) because he pulled a shoe off about 15 minutes before I was due to go in. That meant that I had about three minutes after that was put back on so it wasn't our finest test."
German Based Riders
“I’m super happy today, he was much better than yesterday," said Freese at the press conference. "We managed to ride without mistakes. He’s a breeding stallion, so warming up with other horses isn’t always easy for him. I’m really proud that he was fully concentrated as soon as we entered the arena.”
The German based British rider Susan Pape (née Draper) made her London debut with the 14-year old American owned KWPN mare Giulilanta (by Jazz x Flemmingh). She rode to Tom Jones' music and had her chestnut mare in fifth gear. The trot and canter on the short side were ridden extremely forward and in the half pass right the hindlegs trailed a bit. The pirouettes went well, the tempi changes were straight. She rode the floorplan combo of collected walk - piaffe turn - extended walk.. a combination first inserted into a choreography by Swedish Tinne Vilhelmson. Guess who came up with this idea... Cees Slings ! Pape scored 79.805% for fourth place
Facing the Music
Double Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin faced the music --- I mean the big British crowd --- publicly for the first time since her one-year suspension was lifted. She has competed at CDI's in Wellington Heckfield, Le Mans and Kronenberg this autumn but at the CDI-W London she got re-introduced to riding in front of a really big crowd. Based on the cheers and applause she got from the homies, her sins seem to have been absolved... at least by those here at ExCel.
This big hiccup at the end of the test made the score drop to a still very generous 79.230%. Dujardin dodged a bullet by finishing fifth, which meant she did not have to sit in on the press conference, where the British media had gathered. Charlotte has been adamantly avoiding speaking to the press in the past few month and didn't have to face them today. However, she did provide a statement to the organising committee on Thursday after she placed second in the Grand Prix.
"I'm absolutely overwhelmed, to be perfectly honest,” said Charlotte. “Audrey [Alive and Kicking] has done one show this year, which was in Le Mans, she's never been in a show with this atmosphere, this big. There's so much going on. She's a very inexperienced Grand Prix horse. I think she's only done five Grands Prix prior to this so it was a really big ask coming here but I know she's a very honest horse. Going back in that arena, there's something so special about riding here. Going around the edge and having so many people cheer me on and shout out, "Go Charlotte," it was very, very emotional and just so good. It gave me a real buzz to be back.”
Photos © Jon Stroud - Peter Nixon - Astrid Appels
Related Links
Scores: 2025 CDI-W London
Eurodressage Coverage of the 2025-2026 World Cup show circuit