A Canadian equestrian dynasty began with a determined red-headed Irish Catholic girl who grew up on Island Park Drive in Ottawa, ON, where her family stabled her ponies in their rear garage. She became the matriarch of the Laframboise family, a name recognized nationally and internationally in the eventing world. Second- and third-generation Laframboises have carried on her legacy.

Mary Anne Coulson’s grandfather imported Irish racing and steeplechase horses and her parents and grandparents field hunted with the Ottawa Valley Hunt. So did she, often riding across the Champlain Bridge to Aylmer, QC. When World War II brought hard times, her ponies were sold. Mary Anne went on to become a nurse and married Guy Laframboise, a young doctor she met on a ski hill.

After she gave birth to five of their eight children, she bought a horse, then a pony, then another. Initially, the family boarded their horses, but as the herd grew, Mary Anne and another hunt family rented a farm in Aylmer. Although she had no competition background, Mary Anne sought knowledge from books and magazines and knowledgeable horsemen. She started a boarding and riding stable, got into breeding and helped to establish the Canadian equestrian coaching system along with people such as Tom Gayford, George Morris, Michael Gutowski, Michael Herbert, Claudia Cojocar, and Geoff Gowan. Mary Anne had met young Ian Millar when he lived next door to where she boarded. After she opened her own stable, she introduced him to his future wife – one of her boarders, nurse Lynn Doran. Randy Roy also became a family friend.

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