Nina Gromova Back in the Saddle at Age 95

Sun, 03/12/2017 - 06:21
Russian Dressage News

The 95-year old former Russian Olympic dressage rider Nina Gromova has returned back to the saddle. To surprise everyone with her vitality she climbed back on a horse at the Pradar riding club in Moscow on 7 March 2017.

Nina Gromova is a well known sports woman and Russian equestrian sport record holder. She is famous for competing the same horse – thoroughbred Dida (by Blasius x Dideldumdei) – in show jumping, eventing, steeple chase and dressage. Both in eventing and jumping Nina Gromova and Dida were national champions, in 4 and 6 km steeple-chase races this pair set national records and one of them still remains unbeaten.

She achieved her most glorious success on Dida in dressage competing at Grand Prix level. She was the travelling reserve for the 1956 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

Gromova retired from competition sport quite early and devoted herself to judging and working at international shows as a member of the first FEI Dressage Committee together with Horst Niemack (GER) and Gustaf Nyblaeus (SWE). Later on she has coached riders in Belarus, Lithuania and has never refused athletes to help with any horse riding problems. A fall and a fracture of her hip in the 1990s ended her riding career entirely. 

This year Nina Gromova celebrated her 95th birthday and she has made a decision to surprise everyone with a gala comeback, proving  that equestrian sport has no age restrictions! Nina mounted the 15-year-old Latvian bred mare Moulin Rouge, took up the reins in the old manner of "three-one", and walked across the arena while describing her feelings sitting on the horse to the audience. She joked about the peculiarities of the modern saddles comparing them to the old flat ones they used in the 1950s.

"This brave and principled athlete has not just set a world record, but also proved that nothing is impossible for a rider who sincerely lives with equestrian sport and horses," said Pradar press agent Anna Karpova. "Such people are not affected by age or any other obstacles and stay in a saddle for all their lives!"

Pradar press release, edited by Eurodressage. Photo © Artem Makeev

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