Ashley Holzer & Havanna Post Personal Best to Win Ocala World Cup Freestyle With Leipzig Final in Sight

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Ashley Holzer and Havanna at World Equestrian Center World Cup, victory near to assuring start in Final at Leipzig, Germany in April. © 2021 Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com

OCALA, Florida, Dec. 10, 2021–Ashley Holzer and Havanna posted a personal best to win the Word Equestrian Center World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle under lights Friday night to come close to earning an invitation to the annual global championship Final next April.

Ashley of Wellington, Florida, a three-time Olympian for Canada but who now rides for the United States, scored 79.365% in the giant outdoor Derby arena that drew the biggest crowd so far for the three international dressage competitions that have been staged at this $1 billion family-owned center.

The previous best for Ashley and the 14-year-old Hanoverian mare was 77.225% at Tryon, North Carolina 2 1/2 years ago thought the pair logged a World Cup victory here two months ago that put them atop the North American League that is gets at least two places in the starting lineup of 18 horse and rider combinations.

The latest result gave the pair 40 points with just three more qualifiers–at Wellington’s Global Dressage Festival over winter–and likely enough to earn the partnership one of the two invitations reserved for North America at the Final in Leipzig, Germany in April. Ashley has competed at one World Cup Final, on Pop Art at Las Vegas in 2009 when she still rode for Canada.

Codi Harrison of Loxahatchee, Florida and Katholt’s Bossco, a 14-year-old Danish Warmblood stallion that she has brought up from Young Riders in 2016, also posted a personal best 76.205% in the pair’s second Big Tour musical performance

Katie Duerrhammer of Greenwood Village, Colorado rode Quartett, 13-year-old German Sport Horse gelding, in their first freestyle for third place on 75.195%.

Ashley said that Havanna, owned by Diane Fellows, is “a great indoors horse” which is the focus of the World and the short Grand Prix that is used in World Cup events “is actually to her liking.”

She spoke out strongly in support of the World Equestrian Center that is in negotiations with the U.S. Equestrian Federation after the governing body withheld approval of international dressage and eventing competitions in 2022 in a dispute over unrelated hunter/jumper competitions.

“It’s huge to have a CDI here,” she said. “This is truly an international venue. To be able to bring your horse here and know as a rider your horse can go in these rings and do their job is really an incredible feeling. It gives you a lot of confidence. If they can go in there, they can pretty well go anywhere.

“It’s very important that we have CDIs in this venue. I don’t want to delve into the problems that have been going on. I’m really not on the forefront of that, but I do hope that they can come to some sort of resolution. As riders and as athletes and for owners, it’s really important that we get to expose our horses to venues like this and to not have to put them on an airplane and be away from our family. It’s so vitally important that we are able to do this and be able to keep the rest of our life intact at the same time.”

Codi Harrison said she doesn’t have the World Cup as a goal for Katholt’s Bossco that shed was competing in the Under-25 through March this year.

“I’m just having fun with him,” she said. “We will just go and show and see how it goes. I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to be a big tour horse. I thought he may peak in the U25 and he came back better than ever after we gave him an easy summer. I said, ‘Let’s try the big tour; let’s do the CDI.’ He came out and did better than he ever did in the U25s. I really have no words; I’m just so proud of him.”

Katie Duerrhammer who married less than two months ago in Austria and changed her family name from Johnson was riding Quartett in the first freestyle made for a combination.

“We did one GPFS at the Festival of Champions, and we did this one tonight,” she said. “We’re very, very green at this level, but he’s the kind of horse that makes you feel like you can really, really trust him. If he can do it, he is going to do it for you, no matter what comes around. I think having a horse like that to get mileage on, with that kind of heart and trust, is so wonderful, to get your feet wet in this kind of atmosphere.

“I joked that if Adrienne (Lyle, her coach) and I get a new farm together, I want to name it Lucky Duck Farm because I feel so very lucky. She said, ‘Absolutely not, there is no water fowl in our farm name.’

Katie said she felt “extremely blessed” to have Kylee Lourie to be the owner of all her horses as well as TyL farm in Wellington and Colorado where she and Adrienne are based.

WEC, she said, was “a destination show that is not in Europe but has that really cool feel.”

Results:

CDI-W World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle

Judges: E-Yuri Romanov H-Cesar Torrente C-Maribel Alonso de Quinzanos M-Sarah Geikie B-Peter Storr
1. Ashley Holzer/USA — Havanna 145 – 79.365%
2. Codi Harrison/USA — Katholt’s Bossco — 76.205%
3. Katie Duerrhammer/USA — Quartett — 75.195%
4. Mikala Munter/USA — Salsa Hit — 74.185%
5. Nora Batchelder/USA — Faro SQF — 73.360%
6. Kevin Kohmann/USA — Mr Bumblebee — 72.325%
7. Stacy Parvey-Larsson/USA — Benidetto — 69.265%
8. Amina Bursese/USA — Fiti AL — 68.455%