Ashley Holzer’s “Giant” Christmas Gift…& Only 6 Years Old
8 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Ashley Holzer’s “Giant” Christmas Gift…& Only 6 Years Old
WELLINGTON, Florida, Jan. 5, 2017–Ashley Holzer received a “giant” Christmas gift from her husband. an 18-hand (183 cm) six-year-old that was bought, sight unseen, from longtime family friend Sjef Janssen.
Nureyev, the name of the gelding by Johnson from a Kennedy mare, arrived at Ashley’s Wellington farm the first week of 2017 on a flight arranged by Tim Dutta and right before the start of the three-month long Adequan Global Dressage Festival.
Ashley, 53 years old and a four-time Olympian including 1988 team bronze for Canada, received a video from Sjef with the note: “Your one and only chance to buy this super five-year-old.”
“He’s never said to me before to buy a horse,” she said, “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.”
After arrival and a couple of rides on Nureyev, Ashley described the horse as an “unbelievable mover.”
