Toronto’s Jody Schloss, U.K. based Roberta Sheffield and Winona Hartvikson of Langley, B.C., three members of the 2020 Paralympic Games team, are the Canadian riders in the Para dressage event at the integrated World Equestrian Championships which run August 6-14 in Herning, Denmark.
The competition is also the first qualifier for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in Para dressage.
Sheffield, whose impairment is caused by chronic rheumatoid arthritis, is currently ranked fourth in the Grade III FEI Rankings. She is making her third appearance on the world championships stage. Her best result was fourth in the freestyle in 2014 in Normandy. She was 12th in the individual event in Tokyo last summer.
She is riding aboard Fairuza, a 13-year-old bay mare whose breeding derives from the U.K.-bred Gelderlander carriage horse. In her return to competition after Tokyo in March 2022, the 41-year-old, whose mother is Canadian, posted two victories during the CPEDI3* Keysoe International in England.
‘’This year, Fairuza and I have been seeking to capitalize on the fantastic experience we had at the Tokyo Paralympic Games,’’ Sheffield wrote on her website. ‘’We had a fabulous time and put in high quality, consistent performances to log 11 Canadian Team selection criteria scores, a few personal bests and winning several classes in very, very good company.’’
The 63-year-old Hartvikson, who has multiple sclerosis, competed at her first Paralympics last summer but brings more than 30 years of dressage riding, coaching and judging experience to the table. She joined the national team in 2017 and posted top-10 performances at the 2018 worlds and Tokyo Games.
Schloss, a two-time Paralympian, was already a rider before her car accident in 1996 and has competed at two Paralympic Games (2012 and 2020). Her first book entitled Anguish to Hope was published last year. It is about her own life and recovery and shows how a life after a brain injury can be successful.
Para dressage was first introduced into the FEI World Championships in 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky.
In Herning, the Para dressage competition runs from August 10-14. For more information on the event, please visit Herning2022.com.
