EQUINE
20 | THE WELLINGTON ADVERTISER | JULY 25, 2019
Local youth competing at international dressage competition BY JAIME MYSLIK
MARYHILL – A local dressage rider is taking on international competition this August during the FEI North American Youth Rider Championships in North Salem, New York. Anna Swackhammer, 15, of Guelph-Eramosa, will be competing for the second time in the juniors competition for riders aged 14 to 18. Swackhammer and one of
her team Ontario teammates were the youngest riders in the competition last year and they brought home a bronze medal in the team competition. This year looks promising. Swackhammer has been riding since she was about five years old and began at Sonnenhoff Stables in Maryhill when she was eight. She started competitively riding five years ago and is coached by Ute Busse, a certi-
It’s kind of like a dream if I could do the Pan Am Games or the Olympics - just don’t know how far away that is. - DRESSAGE RIDER ANNA SWACKHAMMER
fied level three dressage coach and certified dressage judge. Dressage was always
the only riding option for Swackhammer. “Then when I came here
with dressage I liked it a lot so then I never had a reason to try jumping,” she said. “I like all the difficulty in the movements and I love watching it too. “How it looks in the end.” Up until just over a year ago Swackhammer was competing at a much lower dressage level with her pony. That’s when she found Wrazzmatazz, a 16-year-old Dutch warmblood. “I knew I kind of wanted
to do the junior riders so I was looking for around that level horse,” Swackhammer said. “So he came here in the winter for ... training and then I started riding him and I really liked him.” When they competed at the North American Youth Championships last year they’d only been riding together for a few months. “She learned a lot during CONTINUED ON PAGE 21
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