Age: 37.

Family: Parents, Donald and Stephanee Flentje; siblings, Gina, Chad and Mya Flentje.

Hometown: Verona, Wisconsin.

Spouse: Ben Shortreed. We met during my freshman year in college and married in 2015. We currently don’t have any children but that about to change. This past December we hosted an orphaned girl from Colombia for the holidays. It was a magical and life changing experience which we’re now in the process of adopting her. We hope to be parents by the end of 2020.

Education: Graduated from – University of Wisconsin: Baraboo-Sauk County in 2004 and Madison College in 2011. Earned Associate of Arts and Sciences degree and an Associate degree in Radiology.

Occupation: While I’m not showing horses, I work at two different hospitals in Madison, Wisconsin. I work for UW Hospitals in their Interventional Radiology unit which is typically “urgency” situations such as strokes, aneurysms, and internal bleeding in the head and body. When I’m not at UW Hospital, you can find me at Meriter Hospital working their Emergency and Operating Room’s doing ortho (bone) cases.

How I got involved with horses: I was on a horse before I could walk and for that I thank my parents. My mom is a self-taught equestrian who showed Morgans at the National level and she introduced her passion to me.

Trainers: Vickery Performance Horses (Bruce Vickery & Anthony Montes), Pilot Point, Texas.

Current show partner(s): Immortalised (Stretch), a 2011 bay gelding by The Immortal and out of Choicetta Barreta. We are currently showing in Equitation, Horsemanship, Performance Geldings, Trail and I will be showing Level 2 Showmanship with him soon. We have or will be showing at the all the majors in 2020.

Biggest Prize: 2018 AQHA Reserve World Champion in Equitation. It was Sunni Duke and myself as the final two. I truly enjoy competing with her. It’s imperative that we continue to have strong competition as it pushes all of us to be better.

Interests outside the show pen: We have a Corgi (Allie) and a Black Lab (Cinch). They love going for walks through the woods, going for car rides and swimming in the lake, so we do a lot of that spring through fall. I also really enjoy hanging out with family and friends, from grilling out, boating, a house gathering to Badger, Packer, and Bucks sporting events.

Goals: My short-term goal is to earn a Gold Globe at the AQHA World Show and to be recognized among my peers as an accomplished all round amateur, competing for the Amateur high point of year in more than one event. Outside of individual recognition and achievements, I would like to pay it forward by helping other riders as I’ve had many people mentor and help me with this journey.

Biggest influence in my show career: Seeing my mom work so hard every day and doing what she accomplished knowing she was self-taught by watching videos by John Lyons and others really inspired me. Anyone can do it when they buy an expensive broke horse, send it and their child off to a trainer right away, but becoming someone all on her own meant so much more. We were a blue-collar family and I had three other siblings. I knew I had so much more than a passion for horses and competing, and the only way I was going to be able to follow my dream was to do exactly what my Mom did and I thank her to this day for that.