British world champion Lottie Fry and her gold medal-winning ride Glamourdale have powered into the New Year at the top of the world rankings.
This is the first time Lottie – and Glamourdale – have held world number one spots. It also marks the first time a British dressage rider has headed the FEI world rankings since Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro held the position in 2016.
The FEI split its dressage world rankings last autumn. It previously listed the top-ranked horse and rider combinations, but now humans and equines have their own respective lists.
Lottie, 26, and the Van Olst Horses’ 12-year-old stallion scored double gold at the 2022 World Dressage Championships in Herning and ended the year with double victory in front of a home crowd at London International Horse Show.
The pair broke the 90% barrier twice in their sparkling 2022 season – in the freestyles at Herning and London – and they also scored major wins at internationals in Belgium and France.
Glamourdale rose from 70th to top the standings. His stablemate Everdale, who Lottie partnered to Olympic team bronze in Tokyo and European team silver the same year, has risen from 16th to ninth in the world standings.
Lottie’s world silver medal-winning teammate Gareth Hughes also starts the year among the top 10, rising from 15th last month to 10th. His world championship ride Classic Briolinca, who the Hughes family co-owns with Julia Horning, takes the tally of British-partnered horses in the top 10 to three, ringing in 2023 at seventh in the world.
Denmark’s 2022 world team gold and double individual silver medallist Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour retains her place as second in the world, with German dressage legend Isabell Werth in third.
Former world number one Jessica von Bredow-Werndl starts 2023 as fifth in the world. The reigning Olympic champion had time away from the circuit this year to have her second child and returned to competition in October, after she was “denied” permission to return sooner in a dispute over the FEI’s maternity leave protocol. The FEI has since updated its maternity leave policies.
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