Dressage-News

OTTAWA, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2019–Tanya Strasser-Shostak is the recipient of the C$10,000 Brosda Olympic Bursary for 2019, as announced Thursday by Equestrian Canada and the Brosda family.

Tanya, 23 years old Saint-Adèle, Quebec, aims to make her major games debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. She works with three Olympians–her mother, Evi Strasser and Ashley Holzer, who rode at Games for Canada, and Great Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin.

She is currently competing at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida and plans to move to open Grand Prix following the Nations Cup there. and, Tanya said, “should things go as planned, aim for a spot on the 2020 Olympic team.”

Tanya has won multiple medals at the North American Youth Championships and was the 2013 Equine Canada Junior Equestrian of the Year. In the Under 25 division in 2016, she was awarded the inaugural Orion Cup for her potential to successfully represent Canada on the world stage. In 2017, she helped Canada 2 earn team bronze at the inaugural CDIO-U25 Nations Cup in Wellington.

Marie-France Maisonneuve, Élisabeth Brosda’s mother,explained her daughter’s passion for horses. “After enjoying different disciplines, she began to focus on dressage in 2011. My daughter’s only goal was to reach the Grand Prix level and represent Canada at the 2024 Olympic Games,” she said. “And then came September 17, 2016… All of a sudden Élisabeth’s life ended after a tragic car collision when she was heading to an equestrian competition.”

The Élisabeth Brosda Memorial Fund was established with Equestrian Canada and the Horsepower Foundation to raise money to give annual awards supporting next generation dressage athletes who “share the dreams and goal Élisabeth embodied to represent the Canadian Dressage Team at the 2020 and/or 2024 Olympic Games.”