While some kids would have been afraid to try eventing after watching a VHS tape called Thrills and Spills, it had the opposite effect on Katie Malensek.

“It was great! I became obsessed with cross-country. I wanted to know what this sport was and how you get into it,” says Malensek, 41, an eventer born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, who works as a small animal veterinarian in Port Orange, Florida.

A woman with a large lizard.

Katie and one of her cold-blooded patients at the clinic in Florida. (Katie Malensek Instagram photo)

After competing in their first CCI4* in Florida earlier this year, Malensek and her nine-year-old gelding Landjaeger will join Jessica Phoenix and Wabbit, Kendal Lehari and Audacious, and Hannah Bundy and Lovely Assistant to represent Canada at the FEI Eventing Nations Cup in Arville, Belgium from August 17 to 20.

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