Throughout their career together, Ashley Holzer and Pop Art have been Canada’s shining stars in the international dressage arena. From finishing 12th at the 2008 Olympics and eighth at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, to earning Canada’s best result in almost two decades at the 2009 World Cup Dressage Final when they finished fifth, the hard facts of Pop Art’s career are truly impressive. But they tell only part of the story; the rest is about a very small, very cute personality known as Poppy, the horse of every little girl’s dreams.
Pop Art first came into Ashley’s life nine years ago, when she was horse shopping in Holland with her long-time coach, Dutch team trainer Sjef Janssen. Ashley remembers that the first horse brought out for her to try was a very beautiful black horse that proved less pleasing to sit on than to look at. A second equally beautiful horse was brought out, and Ashley got on. When she touched the inside rein while trotting on a 20-metre circle, the horse stood straight up on his hind legs, catching Ashley’s face and giving her a knock that left her dazed. Before she could do anything, she and the horse were both on the ground. Anky van Grunsven, who had been taking video of the horse tryouts, was horrified. She and Janssen were anxious to leave the sales yard immediately and never return.
On their way through the barn to the exit, Ashley caught sight of a little chestnut in the crossties. She asked if that was the third horse they were going to bring out. “He was tiny and he had a scrawny neck, but he was so cute. I asked, “does this one rear, too?” Assured that the little chestnut would not rear, Ashley tried the very small sixyear- old. “I loved him, because he reminded me of a smaller version of another horse I had named Elliott. I even called him Mini Me at first.”
When Poppy arrived at the Holzers’ stables in New York City, Ashley asked her husband, Rusty, what he thought of her purchase. “He looks kind of like a plain brown wrapper to me,” was his reply. The first time Rusty saw Poppy compete, however, he was impressed enough to revise his assessment. “That’s a fancy brown wrapper now,” he said. It’s been a joke between Ashley and Rusty ever since.
Poppy’s charisma has turned into a kind of phenomenon. He has always been the little horse among the big guns at events like the Olympics. “I think his popularity with people is firstly to do with how cute he is, but there is also an endearing quality to him,” says Ashley. “He’s like the little engine that could, up there against all these big horses. He tries really hard and he always looks happy when he’s doing his job.”
Poppy’s number one fan is the woman who first started him under saddle, Gotien Sipsma. When Ashley first visited Gotien at her home in the north of Holland, she discovered that Gotien had created a kind of shrine to Poppy – an entire wall dedicated to him with pictures and stories of his achievements. Later, at a competition in Rotterdam, Poppy’s breeders, who had been introduced to Ashley by Gotien, presented her with a framed photo of Poppy as a foal, trotting at his mother’s side. “He looks just like he did as a foal, except with a tail,” says Ashley.
If Poppy were a human movie star, he’d be the one who managed to keep a normal life in spite of the fame. He lives like any other horse, spending his days in a large paddock and going for hacks. “He’s a very contented horse and a good traveller,” says Ashley, who believes Poppy’s greatest gift to her riding career is his honest, generous character. “He doesn’t have a mean cell in his body – and he has never reared, ever.”
Now 15, Poppy has become known as a piaffe and passage machine and has given Ashley an appreciation of what it means to have a really good horse. “When you have such a great horse you need to ride him in a very thoughtful and responsible manner. People used to ask me what I could do with such a small horse. Poppy has taught me that when I see something in a horse, I should just take my time, respect him and let him flower.”
