With a win in the $7,500 Core Specialty 1.35m Welcome Speed at the Desert International Horse Park’s inaugural Spring Fling, Britt Scheifele’s return to top form has been a journey of reflection and appreciation. After a 12-year hiatus from the sport, Scheifele has returned in full force with a competitive string of horses and a mindset that sets her up for success in the junior/amateur jumper ring.
The California victory came aboard the 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood Phaedra D’or, the mare who has carried Scheifele to wins at venues including Spruce Meadows, Santa Anita, Del Mar Show Park and DIHP. “Being [Dory’s] rider has been nothing short of a privilege,” she says. “She took me around my first 1.45m track and she has helped me achieve every goal I’ve had for myself. She is fast, patient, brave and honest, and truly one of the smartest horses I’ve come across.”
Scheifele’s excitement went deeper than the confidence earned by starting the season with a win.
“I’m very proud of the result, and any time you can start a season strong, especially at a venue like DIHP, it feels like validation. But, if I’m being honest, the feeling was a bit more layered. Confidence in this sport ebbs and flows, and I started this circuit in a much difficult place, personally, so to finish it with a win felt bigger than some of the results I’ve had in the past. Yes, it was a confidence boost-but more that that, it was a moment where things felt aligned again.”
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Scheifele’s (nee Lloyd) family boarding facility was her playground growing up. It offered the opportunity to try her hand at all manner of horse sport, including polo, barrel racing, and show jumping, and her first competition was a three-day event on her western horse.
“For me, it was always about loving my horses more than competing,” she says of her early years in the saddle. “I just loved galloping around our hay fields with my hands in the air.” Still, she came by a competitive spirit naturally – her mom and sisters were the first-ever boarders at Spruce Meadows, and her mother (who rode with Albert Kley) was awarded the Texaco Junior Jumper of the Year award in the late ’70s.
Britt all smiles after her DIHP win. (Kim Gaudry photo)
As a junior rider, Scheifele had her fair share of successes, even competing alongside Ben Asselin and Jacqueline Steffens in the FEI Children’s Championships at Spruce Meadows in 2006. But, after a significant concussion and some ongoing issues with her bone health, she decided to focus on her studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she majored in Media/Film Studies and Advertising.
The break turned into a long hiatus from the sport in 2009. Unable to completely turn her back on horses, however, she dabbled as a barrel racer, exercised polo ponies, and was even named the Calgary Stampede Princess in 2017… but the showjumping bug was hard to shake.
In 2021, after over a decade away from the sport, she found herself near Wellington, Florida, and asked an old friend if she could help flat some of his horses. She remembers that her return to the sport offered new perspectives and new challenges. “At first, everything sort of worked because I didn’t have the pressure or anxiety that I used to – I was just back to being a girl that was doing what she loved. But then I broke my hand and that feeling started to ebb, and later that year I broke my other hand and it took me a bit of time to get back into everything, not only physically but also mentally.”
Scheifele dug deeper into her health recovery with personal training, a specialist for bone health, and a focus on sports psychology. As a junior rider, her ongoing back pain was initially diagnosed as scoliosis, but it wasn’t until her 30s that she was formally diagnosed with osteopenia, a condition characterized by lower-than-normal bone mineral density, which she says has allowed her to take a much more proactive and informed approach to her health.
“I also approach the sport with a different mindset now,” she says. “As a junior, it was easy to get caught up in results or compare myself to others. Coming back, I’ve been more focused on the process, on building strong partnerships with my horses, staying patient in my progression, and showing up prepared each day.
“That shift has made the experience much more fulfilling for me. There is still that constant, grounding love of the horses, and now I have a much greater sense of gratitude and purpose than before. There’s a level of perspective that only comes with stepping away and having experienced life outside of the sport. I don’t tie my identity to it in the same way. I care deeply and I’m committed to improving, but I’m also able to keep things in perspective, which has actually helped my confidence in the ring.”
Scheifele trains with Irish rider James Chawke, and credits him for being instrumental in her development in the ring. “His guidance has helped me build a string that complements my riding and supports my goals. And of course, being Irish, he definitely knows how to be quick in the ring, which I’m always trying to learn! I’m naturally competitive, but I’m also really aware of how much I still have to learn, and having that kind of mentorship has meant a lot.”
Scheifele and Chawke share ownership of Daido van’t Ruyzertof Z, who was purchased to be a medium amateur horse for Scheifele, but has exceeded all expectations, claiming multiple FEI victories with Chawke and recently winning the $32,000 Aleron CSI5* 1.45m Welcome Speed this year at DIHP.
Scheifele will wrap up the winter circuit in California before heading to Thunderbird Show Park and Spruce Meadows for the summer series to pursue some of her goals for the 2026 season.
“I’d love a chance to try a two-star level competition, but I’m always tentative to make goals, or at least admit them out loud, because I try to approach each day with gratitude. You’ve already won if you are sitting on the back of a horse you love.”
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