Canadian Olympic dressage rider Ashley Holzer, who became a United States citizen in February, 2016, will now be competing for that country following the FEI’s one-year “cooling off” period.
Holzer, 53, who began riding at age 13 at Sunnybrook Stables in Toronto, ON, competed for Canada in four Olympics ‒ 1988, where she was on the bronze medal team, and 2004, 2008 and 2012. In Pan American Games competition she won team gold in Havana, CUB, in 1991 and team silver in Santo Domingo, DOM, in 2003. She rode in the first World Equestrian Games in Stockholm in 1990, and also Jerez, ESP (2002) and Aachen, GER (2006). She attended the 1989 World Cup Finals in Gothenburg, SWE, and in Las Vegas in 2009. Her top horses included Imperioso, Gambol, Pop Art (‘Poppy’) and Breaking Dawn.
Holzer has lived in New York for the several decades with her American husband, Rusty, who runs Riverdale Equestrian Centre. Their two children, Emma and Harrison, are also American citizens. The couple also keep a winter residence in Wellington, FL.