Robin Stempel will carry the Bermuda flag in the 2023 North American Youth Dressage Championships next month.

Having achieved the requisite qualifying scores, Stempel will head to Michigan to take part compete in competition at the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival in Traverse City from August 8 to 13

The North American Youth Dressage Championships is a unique and prestigious competition, which brings together top dressage (and jumping) athletes aged 12 to 25 from North America, Canada, and neighbouring countries.

The event provides an opportunity for youth riders to compete against their peers in a format similar to that found at the Olympic Games and other international senior championships.

Given Stempel’s strenuous academic demands as a bio-chemistry student, she did not compete in the 2022 championships, instead electing to concentrate on further developing her dressage skills under the tutelage of respected coach Tami Batts in North Carolina.

Coupled with the experience gained from the 2021 championship, Stempel will ride Rossano Royal 2, a 15-year-old Hanoverian Bay gelding as she steps up to the Young Rider Division, in which participants compete at the Prix St. George level.

Countries competing in this year’s Young Rider division include the USA with 19 riders, Canada with five, Jamaica with one and Stempel.

Christof Umbach of Luxembourg will be president of the ground fury for the event, with jury members including Cesar Lopardo Grana, of Argentina, Clive Halsall, of Great Britain, and Cara Witham from Canada.