Ashley Holzer and Pop Art Win Grand Prix Freestyle at CDI 4* Lingen

Ottawa, ON – Three-time Canadian Olympian Ashley Holzer won the Grand Prix Freestyle at CDI 4* Lingen, in Lingen, GER, held June 4 – 6, 2010.

On the second stop of the Dressage Canada European Tour, Holzer and her 2008 Olympic partner Pop Art (Amsterdam x Cabochon), earned a score of 76.300%. The 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding is owned by Rusty Holzer and Moreen Nicoll. The duo beat England’s Laura Bechtolsheimer and Andretti H, winners of Grand Prix for Freestyle test.

Canadian rider Shannon Dueck of Loxachatchee, FL, scored 69.650% for eighth in the Grand Prix Freestyle riding Ayscha, her nine-year-old Oldenburg mare by Welt Hit II. Cheryl Meisner of Blandford, NS finished just behind Dueck in ninth place with 69.400% aboard Paganini, John Risley’s 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood stallion (Havidoff x Statuar).

In the Grand Prix for Freestyle, Holzer and Pop Art earned 70.213% for fourth place; Dueck and Ayscha were seventh with 67.021%, earning their fourth World Equestrian Games qualifying score for the Canadian Dressage Team; and Meisner and Paganini rounded out the Canadian entries with 66.340% for ninth place.

Canadian Olympian Belinda Trussell of Newmarket, ON and Anton (Antaeus x Melit), a 10-year-old German-bred gelding owned by Robyn Eames, scored 68.894% to finish in 10th out of 22 entries in the Grand Prix for Special test. The duo then improved upon their score in the Grand Prix Special, earning 70.417% for eighth place.

Holzer also competed in the Prix St. Georges/Intermediaire I with Jewel’s Sonnenstern (Sandro Hit x Sion), an eight-year-old Oldenburg stallion owned by Jewel Court Stud VS. They placed third with 68.947% in the Prix St. Georges test and fourth in the Intermediaire I test, scoring 68.105%.

The international judging panel for the CDI 4* included Katrina Weust (FEI O—GER), Dr. Dietrich Plewa (FEI O—GER), Peter Engle (FEI I—GER), Ghislain Fouarge (FEI O—NED), Isobel Wessels (FEI I—GBR), Leif Tornblad (FEI O—DEN), and Dr. Vincenzo Truppa (FEI I—ITA).

The European Tour has been made possible through the Own the Podium program, a national sport technical initiative designed to help Canada’s summer and winter athletes achieve podium success at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Two tour stops remain: CDIO Rotterdam, NED, June 16 – 20; and CDIO Aachen, GER, July 13 – 18, 2010.

Canadian World Equestrian Games declared riders remaining in North America may attend Dressage at Blainville CDI 3*, June 18 – 20, 2010, in Blainville, QC; or Edmonton Gold Rush CDI3*, July 15 – 19, 2010, in Edmonton, AB, in order to earn WEG qualifying scores.