For most, just having to look after their horses and themselves at the Longines FEI European Eventing Championships in Luhmühlen (28 August-1 September) would be enough, but for Sanna Siltakorpi from Finland, a baby is also now on that list.
“I had a baby girl called Elle nearly five months ago,” explains Sanna, whose boyfriend is fellow Finnish Europeans competitor Elmo Jankari. “I was back riding two weeks after giving birth — I had to as riding is my job and I didn’t know what else I was meant to do!
“At the moment it’s not difficult juggling being a mother and riding as she’s nice and calm at the moment, but we will see what happens when she learns to walk and wants to do other things apart from eating and sleeping!”
Based on the same yard, Sanna and Elmo have 30 horses between them, but Bofey Click is her selected Europeans mount. They scored 39.9 in their dressage yesterday (29 August).
“I’ve had Bofey Click since he was four and he’s a cross-country machine and normally also really nice in the dressage, but he’s still a bit green at this level,” explains Sanna, who previously rode on championship teams with Lucky Accord. “He was quite excited in the arena, but he’s only 10-years-old and I haven’t done lots of competition with him this year, so maybe he needs a bit more exposure so that I can get him more calm for the future.”
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Sanna says that she hopes to give her horse a confident run this week.
“My horse is inexperienced and weak at championship level, but we will try our best.”
Check back for more updates from the Eventing European Championships in Luhmühlen all week, plus full report in next week’s Horse & Hound magazine (dated 5 September).
