Chatting with Dorset Eventer Rosie Fry

We were recently very lucky to catch up with not only one of our Hiho Fans, but two! Today, we are catching up with Rosie Fry who recently invited us to go behind the scenes at her lovely yard, with a little help from another one of our Hiho friends - Becky Wren, a writing enthuasiast and now one of our guest writers here at Hiho. A big thank you to Becky for helping conduct this interview with Rosie. 

Why not read on to find out a little more about Rosie below. 

Chatting with Dorset Eventer Rosie Fry with Becky Wren

Now the eventing season has officially kicked off, despite the British weather doing its best efforts to hinder proceedings, we caught up with Dorset based 5* eventer Rosie Fry at her beautiful yard based at her parents’ home in the village of Halstock in west Dorset.

Rosie was very down to earth and modest during the interview, giving us an honest insight on what’s been happening in her world over the last year sharing the highs and lows of eventing.

Find out more about Rosie Fry…

A keen eventer since the age of 14, after attending university she returned home to Dorset and went full time professional a decade ago.

Horses are a real family affair for the Fry’s. Rosie helps with her parents’ horses over the winter whilst the eventers have some down time. And her mum is a massive support attending all the events and is her #1 everything.

With 13 horses on the yard back in work and ready to go, as well as some young ones in the field waiting to get broken in - it’s a busy time. However, Rosie has a great team of girls around her who help out and return during their university holidays to pitch in when they can.

This season she’ll be eventing 8 and even has a few show jumpers on the yard to sale which is a new area she’s been dipping her toe in and enjoying the experience jumping some bigger tracks at her local equestrian venue Chard Equestrian.

Chatting about eventing…

Rosie very sadly lost her top 5* horse Balou (True Blue Too) last year, which was a huge blow for the whole team, especially after winning the CCI4*L at Blair in 2021 and completing their first Badminton 5* together in 2022.

A winter of hunting and show jumping allowed Rosie to focus on something different – and enjoy it again, after falling out of love with it after the huge loss of best horse.

The start of the year has been slightly different without the 5* prep like last year. She has two lovely 4* horses Archie aka Arise Cavalier a 14-year-old gelding and Romantic an 11-year-old mare who she’s hoping to aim both for Bramham 4* this summer and Blenheim 4* in the autumn. As well as starting the younger horses eventing careers.

Chatting about show jumping…

We talked about how she’s enjoyed being an eventer turned show jumper over the winter and jumping some 1.30 tracks. She’d love to jump a 1.40 track – although admits that looks huge!

Having always hunted, cross country is her fun and best phase. Even though Badminton was enormous, she had so much faith in her horse and believed that he could do it.

Whereas when it comes to show jumping, she has to work more at it. Having a pole in an eventing class really does count, but jumping the two show jumpers over the winter in the bigger classes has been beneficial and will certainly help make the jumping phase in eventing not feel so big.

Chatting about life away from horses…

Rosie recently got engaged before Christmas, and her fiancé who’s also into horses, is great at persuading her to take time away and do normal things from working on their new house and the garden.

Favourite item of Hiho Silver jewellery from the collection…

At Blenheim horse trials last year, Rosie and Archie won the Hiho Silver ‘best dressed’ prize at the trot up. For her winnings she chose the cherry roller snaffle bangle in her cross-country colours which she loves wearing when going out.

Best piece of advice when it comes to eventing…

When in the lead at Blair CCI4*L in 2021 with Balou and going into the last day of show jumping she received a text with some great advice - ‘don’t try and jump a clear round, jump a good round’ which has really stuck with her when she goes into ring.

On winning Blair…

It felt amazing, a lot of years of hard work to get to that point and the relief that I’d not let the horse down. I knew he could do it. And it was a massive family affair, very special to have everyone there.

It was such a lovely afternoon catching up with Rosie, chatting to her about her horses and was a privilege to go behind the scenes watching her school her stunning 4* horse Archie in the Dorset sunshine.

From all of us at Hiho Silver we wish Rosie and her team all the best for the season ahead and look forward to following her progress with her talented horses throughout the year.

You can find Rosie Fry on Instagram @rosiefry, on Facebook – Rosie Fry Eventing or visit her website – www.rosiefryeventing.com