About Hannah Pierucci Schmidt

I've been lucky enough to grow up in a horse family! I grew up in Altavista, Virginia on my grandparent's horse farm where my mother, Pati Pierucci, was the head trainer and my father, Peter Pierucci, was the farm manager. I started riding before I could walk and haven't stopped since! 

I rode all through elementary and middle school and started to compete more seriously in high school. I started working for a local Andalusian breeder, where I rode and competed several of their breeding stallions and helped start their young horses. During the summer I also assisted Dr. Tim Ober at his rehabilitation facility working with horses coming back from their injuries. 

While in college I competed, my own horse worked over the summer at my mother's training facility as well as local barns riding. During this time in 2013 I got accepted into the Dressage Foundation's International Dream Program. I had the opportunity to go to Europe with this scholarship and visit barns of Kyra Kyrklund, Laura Tomlinson, Anabel Balkenhol, Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin.

After graduating college with a degree in Biology from Virginia Tech I moved to Houston, Texas to work alongside my mother in her training barn.  During this time I had multiple horses in training in competing and completed my Gold medal. In 2016, I went down to Wellington for season to work as Kathy Connelly's assistant. While in Wellington I participated in the USDF Young Rider Graduate Program. The following year I went back to Wellington after being selected for Robert Dovers Future Stars Program. 

After finishing nursing school in 2019 I starting training working out of Grayson Farm, which is owned by in-laws. Since then, I have moved from working full time as a nurse and part time as a trainer to full time as a trainer and part time as a nurse. I have a lovely group of adult amateur clients and several training horses located at Grayson and I also travel locally every week to barn in the area.