Canadian Dressage Breeder, Owner & Rider Vicky Lavoie

What does it take to succeed? For Canada’s Vicky Lavoie, the answer is the same both in business and dressage: a bold vision, dogged determination, and a passion for excellence. Her business success speaks for itself, and while she has flown under the radar as an amateur competitor, Lavoie is now making headlines as an owner and breeder of world-class dressage horses.

As the founder and CEO of Nexolia, the Quebec entrepreneur made her mark in the business world by acquiring shuttered or struggling industrial facilities and repurposing or restarting them to make them financially and environmentally sustainable. Acquisitions are a key to Lavoie’s equestrian success as well – particularly the acquisition of a string of top-quality horses from renowned Danish breeder Andreas Helgstrand.

Vicky aboard Saadan Que. (photo courtesy Vicky Lavoie)

Lavoie splits her time between her breeding and training facility in Magog, Quebec, and the dressage mecca of Wellington, Florida, where she trains under US Olympian Adrienne Lyle. So how did this quiet Canadian end up at the epicentre of elite international dressage?

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“I was always horse crazy, ever since early childhood,” Lavoie recounts. “I started taking some hunter lessons in my area when I was 16 and I got my first horse at 17, a three-year-old Egyptian Arabian mare named Helene. I broke her myself; she was so sweet.

“Just before I started college, Helene’s breeder mentioned he knew a lady in New Jersey looking for a working student. She bred Arabians and did dressage. I convinced my father I would only do a six-month stint and go back to college after. It turns out Gail Hoff Carmona was not only an Arabian breeder, but also a Grand Prix rider and a dressage judge.

“She was a great inspiration to me. She has a Ph.D. in immunology and was a top scientist before switching to full-time riding in her 40s. The fact that she had a very successful career on top of being a great rider was always fascinating to me. At the time I was considering a professional equestrian career, but I don’t think I had the courage to manage long hours, client relations and financial struggles.”

At the end of her six-month work term Lavoie did go to college, but it didn’t last long and soon she went back to New Jersey for another six months. There she bonded with a 21-year-old Grand Prix stallion named Serr Maariner.

“I rode him almost every day and spent a lot of my free time with him,” she says. “He taught me the feeling of piaffe and was really responsible for getting me entirely hooked on dressage. When I left to go back to college for real this time, he stopped eating. Gail shipped him to me in Quebec so we could be together forever. He was the kindest soul ever. He passed away at 26.”

As much as she loved horses, Lavoie was forced to put her equestrian dreams on hold when she became a mother. Still, she never lost sight of her goals.

“I got pregnant when I was 24 and struggled quite a bit financially for a long time. I had to quit riding to make a living for my daughter and myself,” she says. “However, I did promise myself that one day when I was successful I would get back into horses. When I turned 40, I bought myself a helmet and riding clothes, put them by the door at my house and looked at them every day, visualizing the day I could wear them. The year after, I was finally in a position to buy a horse.”

Lavoie’s riding goals were once again sidelined when Belina, the Belissimo M mare she bought, suffered a career-ending injury at age four. However, every cloud has a silver lining and that accident not only prompted Lavoie to become a serious dressage breeder, it also cemented her relationship with Andreas Helgstrand. Belina has produced three exciting foals so far by Helgstrand stallions, two by Revolution and one by Jovian.

“We sold the oldest foal to Andreas,” Lavoie says. “The one coming four years old this year, Romantic Revolution, is now in training with Adrienne Lyle. He has a super temperament and shows phenomenal talent for collection. It’s a real joy as a breeder to see a horse being born, then turn out to be so good! The two-year-old Jovian filly is growing up with friends now in Canada but if the saying ‘three days/three weeks/three months’ [old horseman’s tip for evaluating a youngster] is true, she’ll be as good as Romantic.”

It took a few years after Belina’s injury before Lavoie was ready to go horse shopping for herself again, this time turning to Helgstrand for help with her search.

“Andreas and I had been in regular contact for a few years on a number of subjects. I had seen from afar a lot of horror stories in the horse dealing business with owners and sponsors leaving the sport disgruntled, and was really afraid to get taken,” she says. “By the time I bought the first horses from him, I was pretty comfortable that I knew Andreas well enough to know what he stood for and how we could make this relationship successful.

“It’s now been eight years since the first phone call. There have been lots of heated discussions over certain deals, but as long as it remains a win-win relationship, it will continue. He is a great salesman, but no one in the world has an eye like he does to pick out a top horse. I wanted the best.”

Unfortunately, Lavoie’s goal of finding her dream riding partner ended in disappointment yet again.

“The first ones I bought were Glenn and Very Keen. Very Keen was a top Grand Prix horse in Germany and I got him as a schoolmaster. Sadly, he died from laminitis less than a year after coming here. I was devastated; I couldn’t go to the barn without crying for several months.

“Glenn was always too powerful for me, so from day one we tried to find him a rider. He is almost 18 hands and had a tendency to panic and leave when he got scared, but he is amazingly talented and is the sweetest-hearted horse.

“In April 2020, Ulf Moller had been training him over the winter and he suggested there were two good potential matches to ride Glenn: Isabell Werth and Adrienne Lyle. In January 2021, Adrienne was at Helgstrand’s one morning trying horses and as I rode by, I told her Ulf said she should ride Glenn and I asked if would she be willing to take him on. She kindly smiled and that was about it. She called back a week later to say yes.”

Moller’s instincts were correct. The pair made their competition debut at Intermediare II at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in February, with scores over 72%. Lyle is now developing Glenn as a top prospect and successor to her Tokyo Olympics mount, Salvino, in addition to training Lavoie’s four-year-olds Romantic Revolution and Fontana Lightfoot, and her 11-year-old Feodoro.

While Lavoie’s decision to hand Glenn over to an American may have raised some eyebrows in the Canadian dressage community, she’s not ruling out future opportunities to work with Canadian riders.

“We have some extraordinarily talented riders in Canada who are very successful on the world stage, plus a really solid string of young riders coming up. My crazy dream would be to have a horse on the US team and one on the Canadian team at the Olympics in Paris. It’s just a matter of finding the right match for me and the horses.

“It’s a huge financial, time-consuming, and emotional commitment to sponsor someone,” she continues. “There will be ups and downs and disappointments. I wanted the absolute best rider but I also wanted a situation where I was very comfortable with the communication style, the work ethic and the overall game plan. I found that with Adrienne, her training partner Katie Duerhammer, and assistant trainer Quinn Iverson. I’ve also had the privilege of seeing first-hand how they care for horses and it’s absolutely top class. I never worry about how Glenn’s cared for and I know they love him as much as I do.

“That’s the reason I also sent my horse Feodoro to Adrienne. He’s my heart and soul, and I never considered parting with him. She offered to train him to Grand Prix for me but in order to do it properly, she needed to have him in her program full time.”

Vicky with her “heart horse” Feodoro. (photo courtesy Vicky Lavoie)

Riding at the Grand Prix level has always been Lavoie’s goal. And, as with her other objectives, she’s determined to do whatever it takes to achieve it. With two Grand Prix schoolmasters (Fine Spirit and Saadan Que) and her Small Tour mare Fiesta Danza, Lavoie works with Duerhammer to make her own dreams come true.

“My dream has always been to do Grand Prix,” Lavoie says. “I did earn my USDF gold medal last year on Saadan Que, but I couldn’t do the one-tempis or a very good zig-zag. Some of the scores were very low. The first time I had to stop to catch my breath in the middle of the test. The judge was concerned and was very sweet about it. I quickly realized I wasn’t anywhere near the level of fitness needed, so I changed my training routine. By the end of season, I could do the Grand Prix twice in a row.”

How does a busy entrepreneur find the time to run a successful business while training to compete at the highest levels? By going all in.

“I was 268 pounds in 2018 when I started riding Spirit, Fiesta and Feodoro. The weight needed to come off if I had any chance of doing this,” Lavoie explains. “I’m an all-in type of person. I went on a 1,600 calorie a day diet. For the next three years, I woke up at 4:30 am, worked until 5:30 answering emails and planning the day, had breakfast, did Pilates from 6:00 to 7:00 with a private trainer Monday-Wednesday-Friday, was at the barn from 7:30 to noon, then off to work until the evening. I lost a total of 100 pounds in the process, but I really didn’t socialize much or do anything else than train, ride, and work.

“Last spring after the Florida season I relaxed my schedule a bit and started enjoying other things in life again. I see my family a lot more and have reconnected with some old friends. It’s really wonderful to have a life outside of horses and work.”