Our Featured Junior Rider of the Month is Johanna Limmer
We are pleased to have Johanna Limmer as our featured junior rider for the month of June! Johanna is from Germany and came to Halifax in January on a student exchange program. It was early last year that she inquired about riding at Lancers. We put her on the waitlist and it just so happened that we had another junior rider at her level going away on exchange in January so we were able to welcome Johanna into our programming as soon as she arrived in Canada.
Johanna started riding three years ago and had a strong Dressage foundation. Her passion is riding and she focuses her time and energy on doing so (with perhaps a run thrown in on days she isn’t riding). At Lancers, she joined ride 2 and had a great time in the group riding twice a week. Not only is Johanna incredibly kind-hearted and pleasant to be around but we remarked on how quickly she integrated into Lancers. She is very helpful and even chose to volunteer much of her time to help with our March Break camp. Despite only being at Lancers six months, it was great to see how well she fit in. In fact, when we asked her what she enjoyed most about Lancers, she noted “I LOVE how friendly everybody is and that the community sticks together”. Having an exchange student at Lancers was a great experience for our riders too and it was wonderful to see everyone immediately get along.
Johanna was here to learn from us, but we also enjoyed learning as much as we could from her. It was a wonderful opportunity for the other riders in her ride to be able to compare and contrast how some of the same concepts had been taught to her in Germany.
Even though Johanna had not jumped a whole lot before arriving at Lancers, she took her lessons in stride and made great progress. Her favourite horse was definitely Giquau, even though, she said, “he can be a little floppy sometimes”. She added, “I learned to ‘guide’ my horse better to the jump on him and I loved how calm and relaxed he was with the grooming and little kids running around him”. When asked what her favourite memory of Lancers is, she replied, “when I jumped 3.3ft in a private lesson with Angie and Giquau for the first time!”
Johanna is now returning to Germany (in a few days) and hopes to start competing at horse shows soon. Her six-months as a Lancer has been too short for us but we were so happy that she was able to join us. At the end of the interview, Johanna kindly concluded by saying, “I had such an amazing time here and I really want to say thank you!!!” Equally, we want to thank you for being a great Lancer and bringing a positive attitude with you each time you entered the barn.
Johanna, we hope that you return home with some new riding skills and fond memories of Lancers and Halifax! Remember that you shall proudly have a place in our Lancer alumni network. We wish you all the very best and we don’t forget to send us photos and updates from your shows back home!