NCHA News

Jul 30, 2018, 09:51 AM by National Cutting Horse Association

Martina Annovazzi will be the new face of the 2019 AMERICANA.

CThe countdown for 2019 AMERICANA begins – and for the first Time a Lady promotes Europe’s premier Western Event 

Augsburg – Martina Annovazzi is the face of 2019 AMERICANA, and we will see her many times during the next months. We will find the Italian lady who was 2017 World Cup Cutting Open Champion on ads, posters, leaflets and on websites. 6,000 visitors watched her fascinating final run when she scored a 154 aboard the American Quarter Horse stallion Highbrow Time. 



“2017 AMERICANA was the most exciting and most emotional success I ever had,“ Annovazzi says. „It is such a great show! I will never forget the feeling of riding in front of so many visitors! It was almost like a dream, and I could hardly believe it: In Augsburg I scored the first 77 in my life - aboard this fantastic horse which also won the Non-Pro with his owner Damiano Avigni in the saddle. A big thank you to the AMERICANA show team who made all this possible. We will definitely come again in 2019.“

33-year-old Martina Annovazzi started cutting when she was 13 and showed her first horse soon after. She trained with Sheri Mason and later on, with Gianluca Munarini whose assistant she became when she was 19. She went to the United States several times riding with Lindy Burch, Russell Harrison, and others. Three years later she went to Ongaresca in the North of Italy and soon started her own business. At the age of 30, Martina went to Rosy O'Grady's Cutting Horses, a facility she calls one of the best of Europe: 

“This is one of the few European Ranches that do not only train horses but breed as well.“ Here, Martina trains together with Pietro Valeri. Rosy O'Grady's organizes an NCHA Show each year with a clinic following starring one of the top U.S. train-ers like Bubba Matlock, Matt Gaines, Michael Cooper and, just recently, Phil Han-son.

Martina Annovazzi’s achievements include Italian NCHA Derby Open Champion 2010 and 2012, Challenge Futurity Open Champion 2012, Italian NCHA Futurity Reserve Champion 2014 and 2017. Besides winning the AMERICANA, she also claimed the Airone Trophy Open 2017 in Cremona aboard one of her best horses: Iminent Cat. With him, she also placed second in the AMERICANA World Cup.
“I couldn’t be happier with our facility,“ she says. “I’m so proud of our team. The owners Marco Salvatori and his wife Rosanna Bazzani are very special people, and we are lucky to have fine clients as well.“ 
And she continues: „In all those years, I learned one thing: the only way to keep improving is keep learning... every day from everybody. And share everything you know with as many people as you can. This is what I and Pietro do every day.”

Augsburg Faiground enlarges: Hall 2 will not be available in 2019 

At AMERICANA 2019, it may be possible that not every company will get its desired place on the fairground. The new Hall 2 is being built – with 8,000 sqm the biggest hall of the Augsburg fairground. Unfortunately, it will not be finished before AMERICANA. Project Manager Knobl recommends all exhibitors to book as soon as possible. After the excellent exhibitors‘ results in 2017, a run for exhibition space is expected. 

Forms for exhibitors for AMERICANA 2019 (September 4 until will be available on the AMERICANA website in October. All those who already exhibited at AMERICANA will receive the form via email. 

Think of Christmas Presents now! A ticket for one of the AMERICANA evening shows makes a perfect gift for Christ-mas. Ticket Sale starts in November, and you had better hurry then. The Friday and the Saturday evening shows were sold out in 2017. 

For all those who would like to get an impression of the AMERICANA feeling, there is a number of video diaries of the 2017 event upon the AMERICANA homepage: www.americana.de!

For further information:
AFAG Messen und Ausstellungen GmbH
Winfried Forster
phone. +49 (0) 821 - 5 89 82 – 143 / fax +49 (0) 821 - 5 89 82– 243
winfried.forster@afag.de / www.americana.de