Canadian Olympian Ashley Holzer has added a new horse to her string, bought untested, straight from a video. Her husband Rusty Holzer acquired the 6-year old KWPN gelding Giant as Holzer's 2016 Christmas present.
Giant is a 2011 born KWPN gelding by Johnson out of Wiwanda (by Kennedy x Farrington). The 183 cm standing black gelding was originally named Giant, but has been re-baptised Nureyev.
The 6-year old arrived at Holzer's winter base in Wellington, Florida, last week. The 53-year old Holzer saw the horse on a video and told her long-time trainer Sjef Janssen she wanted to have it.
Ashley explained the story to Dressage-News. She said that she received a video from Sjef with the note: “Your one and only chance to buy this super five-year-old.” The Canadian Olympic team rider told journalist Ken Braddick: “He’s never said to me before to buy a horse, although I ask him all the time which horse should I buy. It’s the first time he said: ‘Buy it.’ So I called him and said, ‘OK, let’s do it!’. "You’re kidding,’ Sjef said. I said, ‘No, my husband said to vet it. It will be my Christmas present.’ So Sjef vetted it and put it on the ‘plane before we even paid for it.”
Giant has been part of the collection for the 2015 Excellent Dressage Sales, which took place at Bartels Academy in The Netherlands in April 2015. He received a bid of 20,000 euro at the auction at the time.
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