Eden rider aiming for great heights

GARDEN ROUTE | HESSEQUA SPORT NEWS - Hanri Roets (13) has a passion for horses, which started at the age of nine, when she interacted with horses at the birthday party of her best friend.

Thereafter she begged her parents to take her to horse riding classes in Pretoria, where they lived at that time. Hanri is the daughter of Schalk and Franci Roets from Reebok. She has a brother named Joshua, aged five, and another, Etienne (SJ), aged four.

Hanri's horse riding initially started off being twice a week and later changed to four times a week.

The year after that, she received coaching for showjumping, which is not easy as you have to memorise and follow jumps in a pattern formation, with time constraints.

After a lot of practice, she has also been learning the skills of dressage and western riding for the last three years.

In 2018 the family relocated to Mossel Bay, where Schalk purchased a business. This meant he had to look for suitable stables and a horse to rent so that Hanri could continue with her passion, which now included eventing, which is a combination of showjumping, dressage and cross country.

Eventing usually takes place at shows and is rather complicated as you have to be successful in all three eventing disciplines. Should you be unsuccessful in one event, you cannot continue and will be disqualified.

Two weeks ago Hanri received her very own horse as a gift. She named her Jasmine. Hanri is training extremely hard to raise her skill level in eventing and having her own horse will definitely help her to realise her dream.

She has attended about 15 events in the past year and received Eden colours for 2019 in showjumping.

Hanri is currently being home schooled by Franci, who is a qualified teacher.

Hanri (left) with her family.