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‘Not every day is a perfect day – patience and positivity are very important’: Lottie Fry shares her training mantras 

In this exclusive interview for H&H subscribers, Lottie Fry explains how she gets to know her rides in order to train them as individuals – all the way to the Olympic podium

  • “I’m very lucky,” says Lottie Fry. She moved to the Netherlands in 2014 to train with the van Olsts and has lived there ever since. Anne van Olst is a five-time Olympian and Lottie’s trainer and mentor, and the operation focuses on stallions at stud, dressage, training, youngstock and buying and selling horses. Lottie’s good fortune is in the horses she rides. 

    She explains that Anne’s husband, Gertjan van Olst, “is breeding horses all the time, and always trying to improve”. There are currently 27 much-garlanded stallions on the Van Olst site including household names such as Everdale and Glamourdale.

    Lottie adds: “One of the top attributes that Gertjan’s looking for is good character. It’s very important, right from the beginning, especially for stallions, because they need to balance the breeding and the sport – and it’s very difficult unless they have good character.”

    London Horse Show: Lottie Fry rides Nalegro in a demo

    Lottie Fry rides Nalegro in the Dressage Unwrapped demo at the 2022 London International, while her trainer Anne van Olst (left) and commentator Lee McKenzie look on. Credit: Peter Nixon

    What exactly is “good character”? It means “they love their job”, Lottie explains. “I love it when you get on a horse and they want to please and want to do the job for you. It makes my job easier! They’re very easy to train, and the breeding offspring we have are so talented as young horses.”

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