(Equestrian Canada)

By rdnewsNOW Staff

Vaulting

Central Alberta equestrian athlete headed to World Championships

Jun 30, 2022 | 12:21 PM

An equestrian athlete from west central Alberta will be taking part in a World Championship event overseas this summer.

18-year-old Averill Saunders from Sundre, AB, has been named to Equestrian Canada’s vaulting team for the ECCO Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Championships in Herning, Denmark from August 6 – 14, 2022.

Saunders will be joined by Shaina Hammond of Delta, B.C. and Talmage Conrad of Lethbridge, AB at the quadrennial equestrian event.

Saunders has been vaulting since she was nine and representing Canada on the international stage for the past seven years, most recently at the 2021 Junior World Vaulting Championships where she became Canada’s first female individual to ever make the top 15.

Dual citizen Shaina Hammond is 21 years-old and splits her time between Parksville, BC and Utah, USA. She has been vaulting for 10 years and competing internationally for six. She is a three-time US National champion and began representing Canada in 2018.

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Talmage Conrad, meanwhile, started vaulting at the age of 12. Now 20 years old, he’s been competing on the international stage since 2016. He represented Canada at the Junior World Championships in the Netherlands in 2019 where he achieved a top 10 finish. Conrad now trains with the West Coast Vaulters on Vancouver Island.

“We are thrilled to have three vaulting athletes heading to Herning this summer,” said Director, High Performance, James Hood. “The sport has been growing in pockets in Canada and continues to evolve with the changing health and safety standards in the different provinces. It is exciting to see a contingent of younger athletes stepping up to represent Canada.”

“All have been competing internationally for some time and have the maturity and skills to make a statement at the Worlds this year,” added Hood.

Equestrian Canada says vaulting was recognized by the FEI in 1983 and has been a central part of the FEI World Equestrian Games since its inception in 1990 in Stockholm, Sweden, and will be on display at the championships in Herning. The Canadian vaulting team has competed in three championships – 1998 in Rome, Italy, 2014 in Normandy, France and most recently 2018 in Tryon, USA.

Support for the triad will be provided by Chef d’Équipe Kathleen Saunders and team leader James Hood.

“Averill, Talmage and Shaina will be settling in Europe before anyone else to acclimatize to their local horses and build connections that will help their performances in August,” said Hood. “We are all looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish and have confidence their passion and competitive spirit as a team will make Canada proud.”

For more information on the FEI World Championships – Herning, click here.