Deer Ridge Equestrian Partners with Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu

Dressage

Canada

Deer Ridge Equestrian has partnered with Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu for the future training of its dressage horses.

After the career switch of Megan Lane to become an airline pilot, Canadian-Dutch duo Lorna Minz and Froukje Staal of Deer Ridge equestrian in Loretto, Ontario went in search of a new North-American based head trainer. In 2024 they collaborated with former U.S. team rider Tina Konyot for a period of time.

"Our views didn’t align," Deer Ridge told Eurodressage.

In December 2024 they approaced Canadian Olympian Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu. "The choice was easy as she is one of our top Canadian riders," said Staal and Minz.

Brittany is in charge of all their NA based horses, but will particularly focus on the 10-year old Oldenburg gelding Viva Vivaldi (by Vivaldi x Weltmeyer) and the 11-year old Furst Foundation (by Foundation x De Niro) for competition. "She will declare those two for the Canadian team," Staal added.

Brittany Fraser and Jill Irving at the 2024 Olympics

Fraser is delighted to have expanded her string of horses with Deer Ridge's stock. "I am thrilled to have this opportunity. I’m excited to work with their horses and look forward to our future together," Brittany told Eurodressage.

After the retirement of her top horse All In, Brittany has mainly been competing Jill Irving's small tour horse Leeghwater and rising Grand Prix horse Jaccardo. The latter she competed Friday 24 January 2025 in the FEI Test of Choice class at Global. She scored 70.441% in the Intermediaire A

"He was a bit spicy due to the cold weather, but he shows a lot of potential for the future," said Brittany about Jaccardo.