Emma Kanerva Back at Grand Prix with MSJ Top Secret

Dressage

Finland

Two years after having ridden her last Grand Prix test at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Finnish team rider Emma Kanerva is back competing at big tour level with a new ride, MSJ Top Secret.

MSJ Top Secret

MSJ Top Secret is 15-year old Hanoverian mare by Totilas out of the breeder's late, foundation mare FBW Dejavu (by Dacaprio x Gluckspilz). She is bred by British Emma Blundell as one of her very first foals at her professional breeding yard, Mount St. John in Felixkirk, U.K.

Top Secret was first trained and competed in the U.K. by Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin, who debuted her in competition in 2015 and placed second with her at the British Young Horse Championships. As of 2016 Lucinda Elliott began competing her and also scored silver at the 2016 British Young Horse Nationals. Elliott showed her through February 2017 after which Australian Jayden Brown took over. WIth him she was fifth at the 2017 British Young Horse Championships.

In 2018 Leah Beckett took. over the ride, in 2019 Sam Duckworth showed her at small tour level before Amy Woodhead took over in 2019 through 2022. She debuted the mare internationally at the 2020 CDI Keysoe to a second place in the PSG. Finally Alexander Harrison-West got the ride until the spring of 2023 and competed her at Grand Prix level at the 2023 CDI Wellington Heckfield.

MSJ Top Secret was brought to the European mainland and shown at Grand Prix level by Spaniard Santiago Damil in the spring of 2024 before temporarily selling to Sofia Ek and moving down to Jessica von Bredow-Werndl's yard where Emma Jamieson got the ride. However, Top Secret returned in Emma's ownership though and Emma Kanerva obtained the ride.

Kanerva's Return to Grand Prix

The experienced professional Grand Prix rider Emma Kanerva had to start from scratch after the 2024 Paris Olympics, when her long-time collaboration with German horse owner Gerd Saborowski came to an end.

Emma filled her barn quickly with youngsters and S-level horses, but MSJ Top Secret took her back into the actual, national Grand Prix ring at the CDN Ankum on 4 March 2026. The pair placed second in the Grand Prix with 70.833%.

"My partnership with MSJ Top Secret is very new and I'm learning every day more about her. I think I'm already bonding with her and now we slowly build up that bond stronger," Kanerva stated. "Thank you Emma or trusting her with me."

Blundell added, "from the early days when we just had one foal a year, MSJ Top Secret is a dream come true, becoming an international level GP homebred."