Savvy Dressage

Savannah started Savvy Dressage in 2020 after her recent move to the Klamath Basin. She grew up just outside of the Portland area and was lucky enough to take weekly riding lessons as a young girl. The longer she rode, the more she fell in love, until she was working after school multiple days a week in exchange for lessons. Starting out western as a young girl, she soon transitioned to English with the basics being dressage. As she got older, she moved onto lease horses riding both dressage and hunter/jumpers. Throughout middle school she would work after school grooming and cleaning stalls, helping with turn-in or feed time, just to be around the horses. During high school she leased a variety of horses those of which included a 17.2hh Dutch Chestnut gelding who gave her her first taste of piaffe and passage. He moved on, and after a selection of other lease horses, she fell in love with a 4 year old Dutch mare. With that mare, Savannah competed in her first ever Dressage shows and fell even more in love. Headed off to college in 2010, Savannah found a lovely Dressage barn in Southern Oregon where she would work as working student while going to college full time. Moving up from a working student to assistant trainer and barn manager, she spent the majority of her college career working through school. In 2014, she graduated from Southern Oregon University  in Ashland, Oregon with a degree in Business Marketing. Her goal was to own and run her own Dressage training business out of college. As she moved on from that barn, she purchased her very own first horse, a 16hh Oldenburg mare. Savannah's goal was to make her a nice low level dressage horse, one that she could start competing on at recognized competitions. Years later the mare was retired as a broodmare and Savannah became the assistant trainer at a Dressage barn in Southern Oregon. 

While working at the Dressage barn, she also worked as the manger of the local Tack Store and volunteered as VP of the local ODS Dressage Chapter, State of Jefferson. During her time at this facility, she was able to compete a number of client horses at various levels. The most noticeable being a Haflinger mare that she took from second level through Intermediate and a Dutch gelding from training level through third level. She was fortune enough to pay her competition fees by doing odd horse jobs - body clipping, mane pulling, riding client horses, braiding, housesitting - whatever it took to be able to afford to ride and compete. In 2018, she was able to spend a winter training in Germany at Hof Börnsen with Sven Dapper and Judy Allmeling. It was a invaluable and intensive time and training and learning with some of the best in the world. 2018 and 2019 were stellar competition years with multiple wins and championships. Throughout these years, she earned her USDF Bronze and USDF Silver Medals on self trained horses. She was able to ride a huge variety of horses of all breeds and levels of training, including confirmed Grand Prix horses. She's worked with a variety of trainers through Oregon including Kathy Casey, Lara Schleining, Megan Haldane, Kathy Everman, Michelle Woollard, and cliniced with Heidi Gian. Jutta Schott, and Debbie Evans. Most recently she has moved to Klamath Falls to pursue her dream of owning her own dressage training business. 

Competition Accomplishments: 

• USDF Bronze & Silver Medals
• USDF Bronze Freestyle Bar
• Competed through Intermediate 1
• Multiple High Point Open Division Awards
• Multiple High Point Breed Awards
• Multiple ODS Championships 
• Wildcard Invitation to USDF Finals 2019
• Multiple Open Division Championships
• USDF Region 6 Championships 2019:
• 7th - 1st Level Open Championships
• 2nd - Reserve Championship 1st Level Freestyle
• 4th - 2nd Level Open Championships
• 9th - 2nd Level Freestyle
• USDF Region 6 Championships 2018:
• 6th - 2nd Level Open Championships

Competition Goals:

• USDF Gold Medal
• USDF Silver & Gold Freestyle Bars
• Compete at Finals in Kentucky