About Brianna

Brianna Zwilling grew up in Minnesota, working at a local horse stable in exchange for lessons and board for her first horse - a feisty, stubborn Arabian. She explored various disciplines and finally settled on dressage. Brianna was drawn to dressage because of the harmony that is achieved between horse & rider and the immense depth of learning needed to excel. She quickly discovered that excelling in dressage takes a commitment to lessons with a good instructor and then putting in hours and hours of practice to learn those skills.

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Even though Brianna’s Arabian was conformationally challenged, he took her to her first dressage shows. With lots of practice, they competed together at First Level. Before long, Brianna jumped into dressage with both feet and bought a more suitable horse for the sport, an off the track Thoroughbred. The two learned and grew up together, showing from Training to Third Level and successfully competing in many regional championships.  When Brianna realized the higher-level movements were too difficult for him, she sold him to another dressage rider with whom he continued to compete and teach the skills he had learned. Looking to the future, Brianna purchased a green, 4 year old, 18+ hand Oldenburg named DiMaggio who would fundamentally shape the rider and trainer she is today.

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In 2009, Brianna and DiMaggio represented Region 4 in the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, earning 6th place in the team competition. During that year, they also won two regional championship titles, Young Rider Prix St. Georges and Fourth Level Freestyle with a score of 77+%. In his later life, DiMaggio easily transitioned into a schoolmaster, teaching some of Brianna’s students the basics of the upper level movements and even helping one of her riders earn a Bronze medal in 2015. 

As DiMaggio gracefully stepped into retirement, serendipity introduced a new partner into Brianna's life. While not really looking to buy for herself, she sat on a 4 year old and the rest is history. After one ride, Brianna knew she had to have this horse and scraped together everything she had to buy Griffindor ("Opie"), a sensitive and big moving Oldenburg. As they progressed, they created a partnership to envy, totally in tune with each other as evidenced in every interaction. Opie's defining characteristic is his work ethic, always giving his all, competing successfully through Intermediare I, winning many Regional and National Championship titles along the way, and training all the movements of the Grand Prix. Going into 2026, Brianna made the decision to protect his quality of life and transition him into a schoolmaster role. He thrives in this setting and has his sights set on teaching Brianna's students to appreciate the power and elegance of the upper-level movements.

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While Brianna enjoys training horses at all levels, she is especially interested in working with young horses to patiently build the foundational skills necessary for long-term success. In late 2022, on a trip for one of her clients, she sat on another serendipitous young horse. At 4, Benji EDI possessed a presence, power, and personality that she couldn't resist. The pair are focused on building an unshakeable relationship and have plans to start traveling and competing next season!