Dressage-News

Anna, the mother of two young children, said the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile last October was a challenge when she competed Fire Fly on the rider’s first major stage.

After the duo made a rapid rise in rankings ahead of the Pan Ams, she said, her father gave her the best advice: “And he was just like, ‘just ride your horse like it’s any other horse show.’ And so it was good for me.”

She has the same approach with Fayvel, a horse that she taught for the owner, amateur rider Cynthia Davile but who had a neck issue and suggested Anna take over the ride this year of the World Cup Final and the Olympics.

Annd said she doesn’t think about the pressure of competing in major events.

“I just don’t think about it. I mean, that’s what I did with Chile,” she said. “I really focused on the training of my horse because I found that if I put that sort of pressure on myself, I put it on my horse. And I was like, and then the more light I am and just really focused on just little things and the details of my ride and what I want to accomplish with my horse and make better, the better that I ride. That’s just what I’ve learned about myself.”

With her U.S. Olympic ranking of Fire Fly in fourth and Fayvel currently 11th but will jump much higher with this week’s results she hopes to make the squad of eight that will go to Europe ahead of the Games that will be the first competition there for Anna.

She plans to seek a start in the CDI5* in Wellington, the only dressage competition at that level in America, that will be limited to 15 horses.

Sweden’s seven-time Olympian Tinne Vilhelmson Silfvén on the 12-year-old KWPN mare Hyatt scored 69.348% for the CDI3* Grand Prix win.

Canada’s Camille Carier Bergeron on Finnländerin, a 14-year-old Oldenburg mare, was runner-up on 67.804% with Ashley Holzer of the U.S. and based in Wellington was third on Hansel on 67.739%.