Diana Burnett was born on July 3rd, 1981. Diana's interest in horses began at a very early age including her first competition in a horse show at the age of two and moving on to local schooling and fair ground shows at the age of six.
In a desire to challenge her abilities, Diana began taking lessons from former Canadian Olympic rider Kelly Plitz of Dreamcrest Equestrian Services and a career in Eventing was born. Diana describes the thrill of eventing:
"Eventing is a wonderful sport that tests the skills and tenacity of both horse and rider. This great challenge is one of the main reasons I have and always will pursue a career in Eventing. Eventing is like no other sport in that it involves a great bond between horse and rider." Diana - Dressage Horses
Starting with homebred gelding Tyson, Diana won the Canadian Open in Feversham Ontario in 2002. Since Tyson, Diana has started and trained a number of aspiring young horses who are presently competing at varying levels from Pre-training to the Advanced level.
As a Young Rider, Diana was the highest placed Ontario Young Rider at the North American Yound Riders Championships in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. In the years of 2000, 2002 and 2003 Diana was selected to the Canadian National Eventing Team Long List of eventing talent.
In 2005 and 2006, Diana was named to the Canadian Eventing Team Talent Squad with Sagacious King. This talent squad is a system of identifying future members of the Canadian Team. In 2008, not only were Diana and Manny named as 2008 Olympic Team alternates, but Diana was also named to the Eventing Team Talent Squad with Donogue Del Boy and Sagacious King.
Diana has trained several high level event horses including her current CCI*** and Olympic alternate mount Manny. Manny is an 8 year old Thoroughbred-cross gelding owned by Nadia and John Lennox of Brooklin, Ontario. In the sport of three day eventing, the horse must be 8 years old to complete at this level. Diana is thrilled that Manny, in his first year of competition at the Three and Four Star level, has achieved this recognition. Manny is homebred, raised and trained by Diana making this partnership and accomplishment extra special. Diana looks forward with great anticipation to Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2009 and the World Equestrian Games in 2010.
