It seems as if Hannah Holland Shook was meant to be a dressage rider. Even though she began her riding career in the hunter/jumper world as many youngsters do, there was something different about her affinity for flatwork.

“My dad always called me his ‘pattern child’ because I loved patterns, and he’s a designer,” said Shook. “So I thought it was rather funny that I got into dressage because it’s very much about the pattern. And it’s also a challenge, and I love the   challenge.”

This 16-year-old from Charlotte, N.C., has been making her mark in the dressage world, most recently on the Florida circuit where she and her 13-year-old, Dutch Warmblood gelding, Cape Town, added some blue
ribbons to their collection.

Shook, who works with Diane Ritz, Monroe, N.C., moved to Florida for the winter and attended school there in order to compete and concentrate on the young rider division. “My school back home is being very gracious about letting me do this and very supportive,” Shook said. “We decided to make the move up [to young riders] and see how it goes and have fun with it, and it’s going well,” she said.

It’s going very well, indeed. At the Palm Beach Dressage Derby in early  March, Shook and Cape Town put an end to the winning streak of another young rider pair, Jocelyn Wiese and Lamborghini, by taking the win in the Derby’s Young Rider freestyle. Shook and Cape Town scored 70.50 percent dancing to a salsa beat.

“Marlene Whitaker did my freestyle, and we’ve been working on it for the past month. This is the second time we’ve shown it,” Shook said. “It’s awesome music. It fits him perfectly. We love riding to it.”

A few weeks later in March, Shook and Cape Town earned another blue ribbon when they won the Young Rider freestyle at the Zada WEF Dressage Classic, with a score of 68.15 percent.

The pair’s next big competition is the Festival of Champions Dressage, June 14-17, at the U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, N.J. Shook hopes to qualify for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (Va.) later this summer.

“We’ve finished the qualifiers, and now we must wait and see,” she said. She’s also making plans to compete at Dressage at Devon (Pa.) in the fall.

A Balancing Act
Shook already has an impressive list of successes to her name. With Cape Town, she won the overall individual championship at the 2006 U.S. Junior Riders Dressage Team Championships at the Pebble Beach CDI (Calif.). Also in 2006, she received one of the U.S. Dressage Federation’s Youth Convention Scholar-ships to attend the 2006 Adequan/USDF National Con-vention and Symposium. She’s also a USDF bronze medalist.

What astounds so many is that in addition to her impressive competitive accomplishments, Shook is a top-notch student and is active in several clubs and organizations at school. With her sister, Yancey Zoe Shook, she founded an equestrian club at her school, and yet she still finds time to be active in the dressage world.

She rides her horse nearly every day after school—and sometimes a few others as well. She also rides in a number of dressage clinics each year and attends several USDF University credit programs to augment her education. She volunteers much of what spare time she has left, which earned her the USDF Region 1 Volunteer of the Year award in 2006.

Lazy just isn’t a word in Shook’s vocabulary according to her mother, Mitzi Presnell.

“I’m most proud of how hard she works. She tries so hard and she works so hard,” Presnell said. “It’s like she’s working 24/7 and yet she balances all of that.”

Ritz agreed, noting the young rider “does whatever it takes. She carries a big load and handles it well.”

Presnell said she’s not quite sure where her daughter got such a work ethic, although she admitted that she and Hannah’s father, Terry Shook, worked long hours to be successful in their careers—she’s an attorney and her husband is an architect. Hannah said she simply doesn’t know any other way to live.

“I’ve done this my whole life, so maybe I’ve adjusted to it,” she said. “When you do something every day, you just get used to it.”

Still, she said she feels that between her schoolwork and activities, her riding and her friends, she does have a healthy balance in life. She also credited the tremendous support of her family and friends for making it possible for her to pursue her riding career at such a young age.

Presnell took time off from her legal work to move to Florida for the winter so Hannah could compete. And, since she just turned 16 and doesn’t yet have a driver’s license, her mother helps get her around town.
“My parents support me 100 percent and my sister as well,” Hannah said. “All three are my biggest fans. They are absolutely amazing. My mom has trailered me to every competition and clinic. Dad has been there to videotape my every ride. And my sister is always there with coat and hat in hand to help get me through. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family.”

Fun And Games
Hannah and her sister, Yancey, 17, also a successful junior and young rider, are supportive of one another. Hannah said there’s no jealousy between them when it comes to their riding. And Hannah will eventually follow her sister’s path of college after high school. Her parents are adamant about that.

“Her dad and I insist that she must go to college,” Presnell said. “She really needs that degree in hand to go out in the world.”

Hannah won’t fight that decision. “College is definitely in my future. That’s mandatory,” she said with a smile.

She said her two loves, aside from riding, are psychology and writing, and she expects to study them in college. But the riding will continue, and she’s already thinking that she’ll attend college in Florida so she’ll be close to trainers and competitions.

Like many young riders, Hannah began her riding career in the hunter/jumper world at the age of 5. But the dressage bug bit her early when she discovered “how cool it was when I could make my sister’s Quarter Horse be round.” Jumping was never quite her forte anyway.

“I’ll be honest with you,” she said. “I was scared of jumping. I don’t know why. But I love dressage and I love the sport.”

It was Ritz who matched up Hannah with Cape Town (by Michelangelo) after her previous partner, Barishnikov, could no longer compete. Although now a perfect match, the relationship with Cape Town was rather rocky at the start. The pair has only been together for slightly more than a year. Cape Town is an ex-eventer who competed at the upper levels, and the dressage ring was not his favorite place.

“It was a difficult beginning. He had been training in dressage for two years before I got him, but he had never shown.

So getting him back into the arena was a huge thing for him,” Hannah said. “We definitely had some troubles, but he has so much potential and he’s such a sweet horse and so loving that we worked through the problems.”

Ritz found Cape Town in Florida, and Hannah fell in love the first time she rode him. “I do love this horse. His gaits are phenomenal, his trot work, his overall personality and tempo. He’s such a loving, sweet horse. And he’s so much fun to ride, He teaches me something new every time I climb on him.”

Ritz had no doubt the two would be a successful pair. “He’s not easy, but Hannah can ride anything. She’s tough and if she wants it, she’ll work for it,” Ritz said. “She’s got good feel and good balance. She’s a natural athlete with body control. She has the skills to one day be a professional and with her natural feel she is able to mold herself to each horse.”

It’s clear that there’s mutual respect between Ritz and Hannah. “She’s helped me out so much,” said Hannah of Ritz. “She’s fabulous.”

For her part, Ritz is certain that Hannah will one day be quite a force on the dressage show circuit. “She likes to compete and when she puts on her game face, watch out,” said Ritz.

But, more importantly, Ritz said, Hannah has a strong support network in her family and friends and, perhaps equally as important, she’s willing to work for her dream.

“She is very, very focused in her riding. I’ve seen a lot of kids come and go, but Hannah has stuck with it. She gives up a lot of her social life for her riding. And she’s willing to work for any opportunity.

We do a lot of clinics, and she’s always the one who is right there willing to take that 6 a.m. lesson when a clinician comes to town,” said Ritz.

If Hannah has any weakness, it’s that she tries too hard, as many high achievers do, said Ritz. “Sometimes, she puts too much pressure on herself. So I try to keep it fun for her.”

So is Hannah having fun? The answer is absolutely! “I know I will always have horses in my life. I may only be 16, but I know that I want to have some sort of riding career and that I want to go as far as I can with this,” said Hannah earnestly. “I love this with my whole heart, and you have to love what you do.”

Lynndee Kemmet