Anna Buffini Takes Step Back from Competition Sport

Dressage

U.S.A.

Anna Buffini, a double World Cup Finalist riding for the U.S.A., has decided to take a step back from competition sport.

In a tell-all interview with The Chronicle of the Horse, she discloses that the financial weight of high performance sport and the pressures of social media have become a burden to carry.

International Career Overview

The 29-year old California based Anna Buffini is a long-time student of Olympian Guenter Seidel. She is one of very few black athletes competing at top level in dressage.

Buffini began her international career on Sundayboy (by Kennedy x Zevenaar), whom she took over from Seidel. They became the 2014 U.S. Young Riders Champions. At the 2014 North American Young Riders Championships they won team gold, but withdraw from the rest of the competition due to an injury. They returned in 2016 at Under 25 Grand Prix level and won the 2016 U.S. Under 25 Championship.

In the early spring of 2015 Anna acquired the KWPN bred Wilton (by Jazz x Contango) in the stables of Patrik Kittel in Germany as successor, but the horse was challenging for her. They debuted in 2015 in the U25 tests and did a string of Under 25 tests in the spring of 2016, but the horse was so tricky and challenging for the young rider they decided to send him into the field to chill for a while, after a meltdown in the national Gold Coast Opener show in January 2017. Wilton was pulled out of retirement and retrained on the lunge like a 2-year old. They returned to the arena in January 2019 and did one more CDI in Wellington in February 2020, but the horse again gave her a hard time in the test. It was their last international together.

Davinia La Douce (by Don Frederico x A Jungle Prince) at Balkenhol's yard, with whom she achieved her greatest successes. Buffini debuted her internationall at the CDI Thermal in November 2020. They represented the U.S.A. at the FEI Nations Cups in Rotterdam and Aachen and at the 2022 and 2023 World Cup Finals. They finished 12th in Leipzig in 2022 and 6th in Omaha in 2023. The mare was retired from sport in May 2024.

In the autumn of 2021 the Buffini family made the rumoured seven-figure purchase of the high profile Grand Prix mare Fiontini (by Fassbinder x Romanov), who was a triple young horse world champion, and competed by very experienced professional riders Severo Jurado Lopez, Andreas Helgstrand and Patrik Kittel at Grand Prix level. She was meant to be her 2022 World Championships hopeful, but unfortunately an injury very early in their new partnership sidelined the mare for an almost two-year period. She made their show debut in February 2024 (!) for a double win. Buffini went all in for a spot on the U.S. team at the 2024 Paris Olympics and was short listed for team selection, but ended up not making the cut.

After the 2024 CDIO Aachen the pair took an 8-month break from showing to return in March 2025 at the CDI Del Mar. They rode one more CDI, in April 2025, in Del Mar where the mare was eliminated from the Grand Prix after the mare had the tongue over the bit. It was the Buffini's last international.

"A Strain"

In the Chronicle article titled ‘It’s Just Become Too Much Of A Strain’ Buffini revealed some of the reasons she's stepping back from competition sport.

With Fiontini at the team observation trial in Hagen

“Financially, it’s been killer,” she said in a podcast. To the Chronicle she added, "basically, my dad has to overwork himself to provide the horses, and then we both work together to cover the cost of their living. What’s so hard about the horse world for everyone is there’s still board, shavings, hay, grooms, property maintenance, training from my coach, shows, travel for the horse and rider and coach, insurance. It’s just become too much of a strain on our family and I am at peace with being able to take this financial burden off of all of our shoulders."

Buffini believes Fiontini mouth issues were the reason for not making the U.S. Olympic. She said the mare has been "mouthy since she was young."

She explained to the Chronicle, “It doesn’t mean you’re too harsh, it just means your horse has a bad mouth. But it’s the reason I didn’t make the Olympics. I just feel like she’s not really what the horse world is looking for right now. And so I’m just not in a rush to go out there and get penalized—and now, especially, scrutinized—because she’s mouthy.”

Buffini said the online criticism was "devastating". Anna, who has prominently put herself out there on social media (Tiktok, Facebook and Instagram) with professionally produced reels, fitness videos, and behind the scene clips, shared very little footage of Fiontini in the four years she owned the mare.

Anna does not expect Fiontini to be in the running for the 2028 Olympics at age 18.

“It took [my dad] like 30 years to be able to get a horse like Fio, and I’m so grateful for that,” Buffini added. “But that was our shot. You know, that was our big shot. And it didn’t work out.”

Anna's father Brian Buffini runs America's largest business coaching company with a membership of 22,000. It annually educates over 60,000 through training initiatives. He is recognized for his rags-to-riches story, having immigrated to San Diego from Ireland and built a successful coaching empire. Anna's mom Beverly was an Olympic volleyball player and works as a strategic coach and growth advisor in the family company.

The Future

Anna has now downsized her barn to three horses which includes 8-year-old Hanoverian gelding Flynn Rider (by Fürstenballx Dream of Glory).

Anna Buffini Takes Step Back from Competition Sport

International Career Overview

"A Strain"

The Future

Read Anna's further plans for the future on The Chronicle of the Horse