Ema Klugman and Bronte Beach competing earlier in the season
© GRC
Ema Klugman and her 8 year old Zangersheide mare were outstanding across all three phases at Virginia Horse Trials; after achieving a personal best score in the dressage of 31.4 penalties they were in third position, and rose to the top of the leaderboard after a faultless performance in the showjumping and cross country phases.
This was Ema’s first FEI win. A regular competitor at the FEI level with her CCI4* horse Bendigo, Ema was delighted with the performance of her rising star Bronte Beach this weekend, writing on her Facebook page: “Just under three years ago we found a gangly, unruly mare at Pennie Cornish’s yard in England. I could feel she was something special and sent a video to Packy and Marilyn who told us to absolutely buy her. Six months later I fell off her at her first event and she proceeded to spook her way around her next several shows, so it was an inauspicious start! A couple of years later I am glad she is at a level where she has actually started trying, but to be honest nothing even feels hard for her yet. This weekend was only her 5th intermediate since moving up in July. Winning was our goal and it was so cool to pull it off!”
Born in Italy, Ema spent the first few months of her life in Canberra. Her mother is Australian, and grew up doing Pony Club in Sydney — as such, almost all of Ema’s extended family live in Australia and prior to Covid-19, she returned to Australia each year to visit. Ema’s family moved to the United States when she was very young, however as a member of the High Performance NEXT Squad the athlete has retained a strong connection with fellow Australian eventers and supporters.
Full results from the event can be found here.
READ THE LATEST NEWS ARTICLES HERE
