Access all areas: Dressage star Lottie Fry *H&H Plus*

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

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.

Martha Terry

H&H features editor

Martha is an experienced journalist who is mad-keen on horses and dogs. Her reporting CV includes the Paris Olympics, European championships, Aachen World Equestrian Festival and World Cup finals. After growing up with assorted liver and white springer spaniels, she enjoyed 14 years with two rescue dogs. Now, her constant companion is Fidget, an extremely energetic and habitually muddy black and white springer. Martha has written on topics as diverse as a top horse’s clone to the best GPS trackers for dogs, as well as equestrian and rural matters for Country Life, The Field, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph alongside Horse & Hound.