The world’s top equestrians are gathering for the 44th annual Spruce Meadows Masters.
For Kara Chad, it’s a home crowd.
“This is my favourite show by far,” Chad said. “I might be a bit biased because home is 20 minutes away.”
The 23-year-old Calgarian is gearing up for her third run at the Masters.
Chad snagged her first title at the tournament last year, winning the ATCO Founders Classic.
She’s the youngest member of Team Canada and has been following her dream as a showjumper for more than a decade.
“My family put me in quite a few different sports,” Chad recalled. “I kind of gravitated towards tennis and riding.
“I don’t know who couldn’t choose a pony over a racquet.”
When Chad was just 20, she earned a spot on Team Canada as a traveling alternate at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“It was surreal,” Chad said.
“You can think about it, you can watch it on TV, but actually being there and being part of the team and seeing everybody and the level of pressure — how it affects different people — it’s incredible.”
“In this sport, you really don’t hit your stride until the age of 30,” Spruce Meadows senior vice-president Ian Allison said. “It’s not like a lot of other sports, so the future is bright.”
Chad’s taste of the world’s biggest stage has spurred her to up her game.
Since Rio, she’s been training with legendary Canadian equestrian and Olympian Eric Lamaze.
“If you monitor her from a year ago to now, she’s a much more aggressive rider,” Allison added. “I remember listening to Eric one day and he was telling her, ‘You’ve got to take some risks out there. You’ve got to take a shot if you want to win.'”
Lamaze isn’t the only esteemed equestrian in the young rider’s corner.
Ian Millar, affectionately nicknamed “Captain Canada,” retired in May of 2019 to focus on coaching, developing horses and mentoring a new generation of equestrians.
“He says he’s retiring from the sport, however, he’s always going to be there for Team Canada,” Chad said. “We know that as a younger generation we’re always able to go to him and seek advice and he’ll always be happy to help us out.”
Jim Ifko, Vanessa Mannix and Jenn Serek are also representing Cowtown at this week’s tournament.
The Spruce Meadows Masters runs from Wednesday to Sunday.