A former resident is aiming to wear Canada's colours at the upcoming Summer Olympics in dressage.
Crystal Kroetch and her horse Lymrix have declared for the 2012 London Olympics after medalling silver at the Pan American Games in October 2011.
Dressage is the sport of guiding a horse through different tests to show off the horse's training, sometimes described as dancing on horseback.
Kroetch, who was raised in Innisfail, grew up around horses as her father was a cutting horse trainer. Now she owns Carousel Stables near Calgary. In October she travelled to Guadalajara, Mexico along with the rest of the Canadian team where they rode away with a team silver medal, qualifying Canada to send a team to the Olympics.
The Pan American Games was "a career high" for the 54-year-old Kroetch, where her individual scores had her placed seventh. Now she is setting her sights on getting to the Games.
"We have to go through a period of a qualification," she said. Even though Kroetch was part of the team that helped Canada qualify to send a team to London, she still needs to compete for one of the three spots. She said 42 rider and horse pairs have declared for the Olympics.
In order to secure her spot, Kroetch will have to get "pretty darned high" scores at the different qualifying competitions with Lymrix.
"My horse is really green," Kroetch said. Lymrix is an 11-year-old bay American Hanoverian.
Kroetch is in Florida training for a few months and then will make a decision if she is going to stay longer.
"They will choose the team probably end of May," Kroetch said. Then would come a European tour and the process of shipping the horses over to London by boat.
While so many Olympic athletes are young, dressage competitors are often older, having been working on their technique for years.
"Every horse teaches you," Kroetch said. "The training is ongoing."
Though Kroetch grew up around horses, she did not discover dressage until her 20s when her older sister returned from living in Denmark.
"She got me hooked on dressage," Kroetch said.
Kroetch keeps a positive attitude about the possibility of not qualifying.
"If you're not in the business 'cause you love the journey, you're in the wrong business," she said of competitive dressage.
