Mary Hanna Retires Olympic Mare Calanta from Sport

Dressage

Australia

Australian six-time Olympian Mara Hanna has announced the retirement from sport of her Grand Prix mare, Calanta.

Calanta is a 16-year old Dutch warmblood mare by Johnson out of Valanta (by Goodtimes). She is bred by the Luimstra family.

KWPN Elite Mare

As a young mare in The Netherlands, Calanta was owned by Ule Haarsma and became Elite mare with the KWPN society after she became Friesland regional mare champion in 2010. She did the IBOP mare performance test and Prok test.

In 2011 she competed in the Pavo Cup semi-finals under Sarah van Fessem and placed 18th in the 4-year old division. Van Fessem rode her through 2012. With Carly Huisinga listed as owner, Calanta then was show on the Dutch show scene with Hennie Roffel in the saddle. She competed her at advanced medium level in 2015.

The mare sold to Rob and Mary Hanna in 2015 through trainer Patrik Kittel.

Frequent Flyer

The pair made its international show debut in Compiegne in May 2017 and competed in Europe for the summer, before returning to Australia in the autumn and win the 2018 Pacific League World Cup Finals in Boneo, in January 2018.

Calanta returned to Europe at the end of February 2018 to begin her European spring show campaign at the CDI-W 's Hertogenbosch but was withdrawn from the 2018 World Cup Finals in Paris due to a fitness issue.

Calanta made her international come back a year later at the 2019 CDI Nieuw en St. Joosland and competed in Compiegne, Leudelange, Deauvile, Crozet, and Flyinge that year. They returned to Australia and set a new Australian Kur record score at the 2020 CDI Bawley Point.

In March 2020 corona came and Australia went into full lockdown. Also Mary's daughter Gitte had been recovering from an accident and Hanna did not show her horse until the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where they finished 40th with 67.981% at Mary's sixth Olympics.

After Tokyo, Mary went home to Australia, while Calanta returned to Europe where she continued her training with Mary's new coach, Henri Ruoste,. Mary and the mare competed at four more CDI's in 2022, all in Europe, including Troisdorf, Redefin and Hagen, before heading to her last competition in her career, the 2022 World Championships in Herning (Mary's fifth WEG). Unfortunately there they had to withdraw before the Grand Prix as a niggling injury had returned

Retirement

Mary has now announced the retirement from sport of her bright bay mare.

"Calanta has been the most wonderful partner to me over these last years," said Mary. "Together we were selected to represent Australia in Herning World Championships, World Cup, and Tokyo Olympics. She still holds the record in Australia for the highest Grand Prix freestyle score with over 80%."

Mary continued, "we have now decided to retire her and put her in foal. A new and wonderful life is ahead of her. She has always loved foals, and after 2 embryo transfers she will now have one of her own. A huge thanks to Maree Tomkinson for helping me organize this, with Daniel Ramseier. Maree sent me this gorgeous video of Cally in horse heaven."