Maja Cornwell Rides First Young Riders Tests on Olympic Team Horse Breaking Dawn

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2021 CDN Wellington

Not that many young riders can say that they rode their very first Young Riders test on an Olympic team horse. For 18-year old American Maja Cornwell a dream came true last weekend, when she went down the centerline on Breaking Dawn, Ashley Holzer's 2012 London Olympic team ride.

Breaking Dawn

Breaking Dawn is a 20-year old Dutch warmblood gelding by Akribori out of Eveline (by Ronald x Vesins x Brigadier). He is bred by W. van Kessel.

He was purchased as a foal by the Dutch stable Flemming and named "Ultiems Flemming." Under Patrick van der Meer he competed up to small tour level and trained to Grand Prix.

In October 2010 the bay gelding moved to Patrik Kittel's barn in Germany to be sold. In January 2011 he was secured by American P.J. Rizvi as an Olympic hopeful for her trainer Ashley Holzer and later on as her own Grand Prix schoolmaster.

P.J. Rizvi's husband Suhail heads Rizvi Traverse Management, a company which invests in online media such as Twitter as well as in the movie entertainment business. They were producers of the world famous Twilight movies, hence renaming the horse Breaking Dawn and nick-naming him "Edward" after the lead character Edward Cullen, played by Robert Pattinson.

Olympic Team Horse

Holzer and Breaking Dawn at the 2012
London Olympics

In 2012 Breaking Dawn was nominated on the Canadian team and competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London under Ashley Holzer. They finished 24th in the Grand Prix Special.

In 2014 Rizvi began competing the gelding at international Grand Prix level, first at the CDI Palgrave, followed by Cedar Valley and Devon. In 2015 Breaking Dawn did not show in any CDI's

He returned to the arena in the Olympic year of 2016 under Holzer. That year Ashley campaigned a string of Grand Prix horses, including on Rizvi's Tiva Nana (by Metall x Cabochon), Jill Irving's Arthur (by Jazz x. Contango), and her own Dressed in Black (by Dreseman x Silvano - his first and only year at CDI GP level).

Between 2017 and 2019 Rizvi steadily competed Breaking Dawn at a string of American east coast based competitions, as well as in Europe in Achleiten, Fritzens and Deauville. Their last competition together was in Wellington in March 2019, winning the Grand Prix Special with 70.362%.

Not Ready for Retirement

Breaking Dawn turns 20 in the spring of 2021, but the horse seems not yet fully ready for retirement.

"I started riding Edward in August 2020," Cornwell told Eurodressage. "Denielle (Gallagher, a student of Holzer's) approached me with the opportunity after PJ Rizvi and Ashley Holzer decided it was time for him to take a step back from competing in the Grand Prix, but knew that he would be happier still working than in retirement. They had hoped he could go to a young rider of one of the trainers in Ashley’s circle, so they’d know he was being well taken care of. It still feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck for me to even have the opportunity to ride him!"

Young Maja first saw multiple Olympian Ashley Holzer first compete in a freestyle class in Devon in 2014 when she was 12 years old.

"She quickly became one of my biggest inspirations and idols," Maja gushed. "To now be riding Edward is the opportunity of a lifetime to me."

Olympic Pressure

When asked if she feels extra pressure riding an Olympic team horse, or more supported by her horse's experience and reputation, Maja admits that is an extra load to carry.

"I think going into it that was definitely a big source of pressure for me," she confessed. "I didn’t want to let anyone down and I’ve put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get here, but most of the time Edward isn’t Breaking Dawn to me, he’s just Eddie. He’s got a ton of personality; he’s endlessly playful and quirky. He’s personally offended when he’s not the first one in turnout and he stands with his head over his door all day just so he can bump me with his nose when I walk past - although I still think he loves PJ the most when she comes to visit!

She continued, "It’s really easy to forget that to everyone else he’s Breaking Dawn, an Olympic horse, when to me he’s Eddie, my best trainer and my best friend."

Young Rider Debut

Cornwell and Breaking Dawn had their debut together in the national young riders classes at the 2021 Global Dressage Festival in Wellington last weekend.

Maja's show experience was limited to competing at junior riders' level on Anne Stirlen's Dutch warmblood V.I.P. in 2018. Before that she had only done at a few First and Third level tests with Corinne Meadows's Arabian RSA Demetrius and Hilary Hebert's Oldenburg Falstaff.

"My mom always had a horse while I was growing up, so I rode casually when I was younger just like she did in Denmark," Maja explained about the beginnings of her riding career. "I did a bit of pony club, but I got scared after a bad fall while jumping. Eventually I turned to dressage to get back into riding and wound up falling completely in love with the idea of harmony between horse and rider."

On Thursday 28 January she and Breaking Dawn competed in the Team Championship test, but the ride did not go as well as planned with the nerves overtaking focus and mistakes as a result. On Saturday her ride improved already considerably in another team championship test in which she finished fifth with 65.441%

"I froze in the first test due to nerves," she admitted. "I botched the tempis in the second (test), so of course I still have a lot of improvements to make."

Dressage 4 Kids

Cornwell truly discovered her passion for dressage through Dressage4Kids, one of the biggest stimulus programmes in the U.S.A. for aspiring young children to ride dressage. The programme is founded by U.S. Olympian Lendon Gray.

Cornwell joined Dressage4Kids in 2015 when she was 13.

"By age 14 I was working as a working student in Maryland barns in the hopes of making it to Florida for a season and already setting goals to compete in Juniors and Young Riders if I could somehow get the right horse for it," she explained. "I started coming down to Florida seasonally with Lisa Pierson in 2017 and decided to stay in Florida after I graduated high school in 2020. Lisa connected me with Denielle at the end of last season and I’ve been a working student for her ever since. I’m so grateful to Denielle for her endless support of me and my riding and for all of the improvement I’ve seen in my riding since I started training with her."

In December 2019, Maja was invited to ride in the Dressage4Kids TEAM clinic with Olympian Alison Brock at Hampton Green Farm in Wellington FL.

"Dressage4Kids has been such a big part of my development of my riding through the incredible learning opportunities it has presented me," said Maja.

Professional Future

Cornwell has set her mind to a future career in dressage and wants to become a professional rider. Her priorities are not on a college degree, although she is not ruling it out.

"I’d still like to continue taking classes eventually once I feel I can balance work and school," she said. "I decided to focus on training and showing Young Riders, as it’s been my goal for a long time and I want to give it my all. I feel at this point that’s the smarter investment to make in my own career."

Cornwell's own horse is the Hanoverian mare Wolkenzana (by Wolkenlos x Dream of Diamond x Rubinstein), bred in the U.SA. by Cara Kettenbach of Broadfields 121. "I couldn’t have found a better young horse to teach me how to be not just the rider I aspire to be, but the trainer I aspire to be," she said.

Her short term goal is to be selected on the Region 1 Young Rider team with Breaking Dawn.

"I still have so much to learn from him and I want to continue to improve my scores in the ring as I get more show experience," she said. "I may be a bit new to the FEI ring, but I plan to go for gold with all I’ve got. I can’t describe how grateful I am to even have the opportunity to ride such an amazing horse, let alone compete with him. Edward goes in the ring every time with 100% effort and he’s the best trainer I could’ve possibly asked for. No matter what comes of the competitions, Edward has exponentially improved my riding and changed my life."