Susan Pape
GRAND prix dressage rider Susan Pape’s national identity was dictated by her parents’ historic meeting. Her mother was German and her father was a British airman. They met during the post-World War II Berlin airlift. Susan grew up in the Netherlands after her father went to work for the Dutch airline KLM but she has lived in Germany for 40 years, is married to Ingo Pape from the Hengststation-Pape stud and she has family in England. That is why, although she competes for Great Britain, she considers herself first and foremost European.
Susan met her husband after something of a fairytale entrance into the horseworld. Akin to many young girls, she had asked her mother for a pony. Wish granted, her mother took her, as an impressionable young horse enthusiast, to the Verden auction in Germany.
