Mikala Gundersen & My Lady Having Fun Readying for Danish Championships
12 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Mikala Gundersen & My Lady Having Fun Readying for Danish Championships
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
When Janne Rumbough bought My Lady for Mikala Gundersen to compete in Florida the goal was one day to bring the horse back for the Danish Championships, but most of all to have fun.
Eighteen months later My Lady, a 13-year-old Danish Warmblood mare, will be ridden in the championships this week, but the Florida-based Mikala says she feel no pressure from Janne, just for the pair to do the best possible and have fun doing it.
This will be the third time Mikala has returned for the championships in the decade since moving to Wellington, Florida–home of the world famous Winter Equestrian Festival–with her show jumping husband, Henrik Gundersen, and their two children, Claudia and Casper. The other two championships were with Leonberg, a Rhinelander stallion now 19 years old.
The Danish-born Janne Rumbough, a longtime resident of Palm Beach, bought My Lady (Michellino x Itterstern) for Mikala to compete. Janne is an adult amateur rider who, at the age of 69 last winter, rode a horse she bred and trained through the ranks in their first CDI Grand Prix.
Since Mikala began competing My Lady at CDI Grand Prix career in February, 2012, the record includes two CDI5* Grand Prix Special victories.
In their first tour in Europe, the pair have also been named to the Danish team at the Rotterdam Nations Cup along with fellow Florida resident Lars Petersen and Mariett, Lisbet Seierskilde and Jonstrupgaardens Raneur and Maria Anita Andersen and Blue Hors Loxana.
After Rotterdam and the Nations Cup in Aachen, Germany a week later the Danish team will be named for the European Championships at Herning in Denmark.
Mikala traveled with My Lady and Lars and Mariett from Florida to Europe in a journey that “surprised me with how well she traveled and how calm she has been about the whole trip.”
While Lars and Mariett went on to Denmark, Mikala and My Lady stabled in Trittau, just outside Hamburg, at a small private barn owned by Britta and Klaus Thormählen.
Ernst Hoyos, who has been her trainer for many years, went to the barn every day to work with the pair before they left for the championships outside Copenhagen.
“My Lady is going very well and I can’t wait to show her again,” Mikala said.
“It’s nice to be back in Europe even though I miss my family very much… and also the warm weather. It is freezing cold over here these days and I’m wrapped up in blankets with my feet on the radiator every night” in a small apartment she rented close to the stable.
Her nearest neighbors, she said, are some sheep “who greet me every morning when I open the door. Yes, we’re definitely in the countryside.
“I’m sure everyone in this tiny little town knows about the strange Danish American person who traveled all the way from sunny Florida with a horse on the plane to go to some horse shows here in this cold rainy weather. They look at me like I’m nuts.”
Janne will be at the Danish championships although hasn’t been in Denmark for a long time but is “very excited about her Danish mare going to show on home turf.”
“It’s been an amazing journey so far and I’m looking forward to whatever is ahead of us. There is absolutely no pressure from Janne’s side, which I really appreciate. Our motto is: ‘We are having fun’.”
