Anna Tallberg Sweeps Big Tour at 2023 CDI Helsinki Horse Show, Emotional Freestyle Victory

Shows

2023 CDI Helsinki

Finnish team rider Anna Tallberg swept the big tour classes in the CDI leg of the 2023 Helsinki Horse Show on 20 - 21 October 2023. In a field of eight competitors from four different nations, Tallberg reigned supreme and won the Grand Prix and Kur to Music.

A Helsinki Double

The 27-year old Tallberg kicked off her Helsinki show aboard the 13-year old Danish warmblood Grevens Zorro (by Zack x Hertug/T) on Friday by winning the Grand Prix with 68.782%.

"It was my first big indoor arena show with this horse, and he is quite scared in places where he doesn’t have a lot of space," Tallberg explained. "I wasn’t sure of how he was going to react, so my own goal was to keep him relaxed during the whole course and I think I succeeded in that. I had one mistake which was a shame and took my score down but overall, I’m happy with today."

A Helsinki Horse Show first-timer, Anna was thrilled to also win the Kur to Music on Saturday with 73.520 %. She twice stayed ahead of 2016 Swedish Olympic team rider Mads Hendeliowitz on his 13-year old Swedish gelding Autograf Q (by Ampere x Jazz).

Working Her Way Up

On Fernet D at the 2017 European
Young Riders Championships

Tallberg's international show career began in 2012 when she was a junior rider with the Danish warmblood gelding Altair (by Akinos x Fernando). She competed him through 2013 and made the move to Young Riders level in 2015 with Fernet D, a Westfalian gelding by Furst Heinrich x Fagott previously shown by Danish Sille Engermann. He took her to two European Young Riders Championships: in 2015 in Vidauban they were 22nd in the individual test, and in 2017 in Roosendaal they finished 34th in the individual test.

In 2018, Anna made her international debut on Grevens Zorro in the senior small tour. In 2021 she moved into the Under 25 division and made it onto the Finnish team for the 2021 European Under 25 Championships in Hagen, where they were 33rd in the Short Grand Prix. Their senior debut followed in 2022 and they represented Finland at the 2022 World Championships in Herning (66th in the Grand Prix with 67.609%-). This year at the European Championships in Riesenbeck they were 53rd in the Grand Prix with 67.220%.

Anna moved to Denmark in 2015 training with Finnish Mikaela Fabricius-Bjerre (née Lindh) at Stald Sølyst. At the end of 2021 she picked up training with Daniel Bachmann Andersen, but at the start of 2023 returned to Stald Sølyst. She now mainly works with Cathrine Dufour.

Emotional Freestyle

At the 2022 World Championships in Herning

Riding the freestyle in Helsinki was quite an emotional affair for Anna as she opted for the easier floorplan of the Kur of her former coach, Mikaela Fabricious-Bjerre, who sadly passed away in February 2023 after a brave battle against cancer.

“Fia trained me for 10 years so she of course has a very big role in my riding career," Anna explained. "She also helped me find Zorro and trained us for the first five years. I owe her very much”.

Tallberg chose a simpler freestyle based on the music of Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for her hot Zorro at the indoor show in Helsinki.

"It is a quite easy program, which is why I chose it," she said. My own Kür is very difficult and if Zorro is tense and nervous, we won’t be able to perform so well. It was nice to win yesterday but I wasn’t quite there with the result. Today was more on our level so that’s very nice," she explained.

She continued, "today I could put a bit more pressure on him which then cost in the prize giving ceremony where he kind of went overboard (Tallberg laughs). But I could keep him together in the test so that was very nice."