Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu & All In, Canada’s Top Duo, Tentatively Plan European Shows to Prepare for Deferred Tokyo Olympics
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April 20, 2020
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Brittany Fraser-Beaulieu has tentative plans to compete All In in Europe in early fall to renew the campaign by Canada’s top combination for a start at the Tokyo Olympics that were delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Brittany and the 15-year-old Dutch-bred gelding posted personal best scores at this winter’s Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida in both the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special. The Grand Prix will qualify combinations for the Special that will decide team placings when the Olympics are staged in 2021, a year after the original schedule.
Brittany, 31 years old, and All In missed the 2019 Pan American Games in which Canada earned team gold and a start at the Olympics as the rider gave birth to her first child in July. The pair was Canada’s top scoring at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and were on the team at small tour that took silver at the 2015 Pan Ams in Toronto.
In Canada’s Olympic selection period that began Jan. 1 but brought to an end by the suspension of horse shows and postponement of the Olympics after six of the seven CDIs at Florida’s global circuit, Brittany and All In were atop the nation’s standings in both the Grand Prix and the Special.
The duo was also top ranked Canadian on the Global circuit prize money list for this year and last.
She returned to Canada to work out of the Montreal stable of Naima Moreira Laliberte, the 23-year-old who rode Statesman on the Pan Am gold medal team last July. Naima and the 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding ranked second on Canada’s Olympic rankings based on their Wellington results.
All In has had some down time since leaving Florida at the end of March, Brittany said, with lots of hacking and stretching.
However, she will soon begin training again with her longtime coach Ashley Holzer, the four-time Olympian for Canada but who now rides for the United States and is based in Wellington. As with much coaching around the world, though, it will be online.
In addition to both Brittany and Naima training with Ashley, Jill Irving and Lindsay Kellock who also rode on the Pan Am gold medal team do, too.
She described being at the Naima’s stable as “great” as they are able to help each other.
Depending on the pandemic and the international schedule, Brittany said, “I would love to do a few shows in Europe in the early fall, if this is a possibility.
“I will be returning to Florida to train with Ashley to get ready for the 2021 season to best prepare myself and All In for the Olympics.”
The International Equestrian Federation (FEI) that governs global horse sports reports about 43% of dressage shows around the world have been canceled so far this year but there are indications that competitions will resume in July. An FEI task force is reviewing the calendar of events that saw cancellation postponement of top events in Europe in addition the Olympics in Tokyo and the World Cup in Las Vegas.
