Austrian Grand Prix Rider Amanda Hartung Passed Away at Age 44

Dressage

Austria

Austrian international Grand Prix rider Amanda Hartung has tragically passed away after a diving accident in the Maldives. She was 44 years old.

The Austrian Equestrian Federation (OEPS) announced the tragic news this afternoon.

The Love of Horses

Amanda Hartung was a horse crazy person since childhood. When she was nine, her parents bought her her first horse, a thoroughbred named Lindy's. She wanted to do show jumping with him but he hated obstacles, so they turned to dressage.

She began competing but her first successes in the show ring came as of 2000 after she had switched trainers.

It was the beginning of her career in equestrian sport but she always combined her riding with being a good scholar. She studied business administration until 2007, and then enrolled at the Tyrol University of Education to become a teacher in mathematics and biology.

Her international show career began in 2011 with Wolkenritter (by Wolkentanz x Hitchcock). The now 23-year old Hanoverian as the first horse that took her into the international Grand Prix ring. She showed him at CDI's from 2011 till 2015 in 65 tests. The chestnut sold as a schoolmaster to Verena Erdmann.

Professional Rider

In 2013 Hartung decided on a career with horses and left the academic world. She focused full-time on her own competitive career, became a trainer and got actively involved in horse show management in her region as vice president of the Igls equestrian club.

"I've turned my hobby into a career and every day is a happy experience," she said in an interview with the University of Innsbruck.

Hartung was multiple Tyrolean regional champion.

Her career making horse was Dresscode Black, a now 18-year old Hanoverian gelding by Don Frederico x Sunset Boulevard xx which she bought in 2014 despite him having one eye (from a field accident), poor X-rays, shivering, and he was a cribber. She had a click on the Grand Prix ready horse and bought him as his price fitted her budget due to the issues. She nick-named him "pirate" and he took over the baton from Wolkenritter. They premiered internationally at the 2016 CDI Fritzens at small tour level. In 2017 he moved up to Grand Prix and she showed him through September 2024, citing that he was like red wine, getting better with age. In 2018 they were B-squad listed but in 2019 a break from showing followed because of colic surgery. They won four international tests, in Ranshofen (2018), twice in Ornago (2021) and in San Giovanni in Marignano (2022).

In 2017 the now 16-year old Hanoverian Furst Flipper (by Furst Nymphenburg x Wolkentanz) became her third international Grand Prix horse. She premiered him in the small tour in Lipica in May 2017 and won all three classes, before moving up to Grand Prix level in 2019. His last CDI was in July 2022 in Fritzens. In 2021 Hartung was long listed for Olympic team selection with both Dresscode Black and Furst Flipper.

On Furst Flipper at the 2022 CDI Fritzens
(Photo © Max Schreiner)

Amanda's youngest Grand Prix horse is the now 12-year old Hanoverian Colourful Life (by) which she debuted in the 6-year old young horse classes at the 2019 CDI Ornago. Her student Lena Abfalterer rode him at the 2021 CDI Ornago in the Children division after which a three-year break from CDI showing followed. Colourful Life returned to the CDI ring in June 2024 at Grand Prix level at the CDI St. Margarethen. She also rode him in Samorin and Ornago.

In 2021, she and her two horses Dresscode Black and Fürst Flipper even made it into the Olympic perspective squad for the postponed games in Tokyo.

Diving Accident

Hartung was on holiday in the Maldives, where her life came to an untimely end after a diving accident.

Hartung left this world far too soon and will be greatly missed.