Lottie Fry vs Isabell Werth: European Dressage Championships gold to be decided by final team riders

It’s all coming down to the anchor riders in the battle for team gold at the European Dressage Championships in Crozet – Lottie Fry and Glamourdale versus Isabell Werth and Wendy De Fontaine.

Britain holds the slimmest of leads on 150.916, with Germany close behind on 150.42. The advantage came courtesy of Carl Hester and Fame, who, despite a couple of nervous early moments, recovered well to score 76.09%.

Germany’s Frederic Wandres and Bluetooth OLD could only post 74.21% – lower than Becky Moody and Jagerbomb’s 74.83% yesterday. That means both Carl and Becky have beaten their direct German rivals head-to-head, giving Lottie and Glamourdale a 0.49% cushion over Isabell.

The equation is simple: if Lottie outscores Isabell or finishes within 0.48% of her, Britain takes gold.

Can she do it? “Of course she can do it,” Carl said, “she’s done it before, but stallions can be very different, and we know that sometimes his first test isn’t always easiest, and then he gets better and better – I just hope she did a practice one outside yesterday!”

Battle for European dressage bronze

Denmark currently leads the chase for bronze on 142.562, with the Netherlands fourth (141.196) and Belgium narrowly behind (140.978).

On form, the Dutch are likely to slip back. Dinja van Liere and Hermes haven’t matched the marks of Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Mount St John Freestyle, or Belgium’s Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus in the buildup.

Earlier, Andreas Helgstrand and Jovian were unable to build a buffer for Denmark, scoring 71.34%.

“I was quite happy with him in the beginning, but then he wasn’t really listening to me, and I lost too many points in the passage,” Andreas said.

“I tried a different way today, with less pressure and just letting him find his rhythm. If I push too much, he makes mistakes, but today he got a bit slow. He didn’t make many mistakes, but with a horse like him, you really have to ride a lot.”

Belgium also faltered when Larissa Pauluis and Flambeau made costly errors in the one-time changes, resulting in 72.33%.

That leaves it all on Justin Verboomen and Zonik Plus, who would need to outscore Cathrine by 1.58% to snatch bronze – a tall order. But with Cathrine under pressure to go mistake-free, the door isn’t completely closed.

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