The London International Horse Show 2021

The weeks before Christmas are traditionally the week of the London International Horse Show. Held at a different location this year due to a renovation of ‘Olympia’.

The organization has done everything it can to bring ‘Xcel’ into the Christmas spirit as in other years and they succeeded.

Together with Dark Legend and groom Steven Caley, Charlotte Fry traveled to London to participate at this show in her “own” Great Britain. The short Grand Prix was held on Thursday morning, in which 15 combinations started. Dark Legend put down one his best tests of the season with unfortunately a minor miscommunication on the AC line. Dark Legend thought he was done after the piaffe, but because of the new test, had to show one more passage. Lottie was able to recover this effortlessly with a top score of 74.526% as a result.

Later in the day there was a big surprise for Lottie. Since ‘London’ is the last competition of the year in England, British Equestrian often takes the opportunity to award various prizes. For example, each year the “Raymond Brooks Memorial Trophy Award” is presented to the rider of 25 years or younger who has shown the most potential for future success in the past year in the disciplines of dressage, jumping or eventing. Many now famous riders have won this price before, such as Charlotte Dujardin, Scott Brash and Ben Maher.

Friday was all about the Freestyle. To the tunes of “Let me take you dancing” the couple danced very harmoniously through the arena. Dark Legend was on, was excited and did its very best. With a top score of 81.945%, the couple left the arena to loud cheers from the massive crowd. In the final standings they only had to leave Charlotte Dujardin in front of them and were therefore able finish this special competition with a second place in the Freestyle to music.

Photo: Jon Stroud