Evi Strasser: A Canadian Dressage Icon.

Evi Strasser has been at the top of Canadian dressage for decades. I had a chance to ask her some questions before she rode for Canada at the CDIO Nations Cup at the Global Dressage Festival. 1.You are on the Canadian Team in the Nations Cup CDIO this weekend.   Tell me how you feel about it?

I have many times represented Canada at Major Games: Olympics, Pan Am Games , World Championships and 4 World Cup Finals and have won Medals for Canada. It is always an honour to be named to the Canadian Team to  ride on the Nation’s Cup Team , needless to say I’m ecstatic!

2.You will be riding Deja vu Tyme. Tell me about him.

Deja Vu Tyme came to us as a  unrideable 8 Year old but in no time he turned the corner and learned all in 3 Years to become a extremely talented Grand Prix Horse.

3.All of your horses have the Tyme  in their names. Can you tell me something about the history of why you do that?

The name Good Tyme Stables came from my daughter Tanya’s Dad. He was in the Film Business and since it is all is about time in the film industry he thought Time was a good name. He ordered all the name plates, blankets and saddle pads. We live in Quebec and most of the people there are French speaking and the person who did the order thought Time was written with a Y and the whole order order came back with the wrong spelling; Tyme instead of Time.  We all decided that was a great branding of the name Good Tyme Stables. It is unique.  So we kept it and that’s how it came to be.

4.How many horses have you brought to Wellington this winter? Are some of them younger horses that you are bringing along? Have you been competing with all of them?

For the Florida Season we have 20 Horses with all my horses and my Clients horses. Yes, I brought all my upcoming horses for training but I was concentrating this Year on the Grand Prix Horses.

5.You once loaned a horse to Charlotte Dujardin to ride in the show in Central Park, New York. Can you tell me how that came about?

Carl Hester is a good friend of mine and we have competed in many Shows and Games together so when Charlotte Dujardin could not take her Olympic horse Valegro, Carl asked if she could ride one of my Grand Prix horses since they knew they could ride the way they were trained and as the horse had to replace the World’s Best Horse Valegro. I decided to give them my most spectacular horse Renaissance Tyme. It was not an easy decision since I would have  loved to ride him myself for this event. But  it was such Honour that the Double Olympic Gold Medalist would ride my amazing Renaissance Tyme. They were sure that he would be the Perfect Horse for Charlotte. And he was! They both looked spectacular and performed the Free Style which gained Charlotte and Valegro the Olympic Gold medal.  It was just breathtakingly beautiful. But to top it all off, the Pope was in New York and we got a picture with the Pope in the background and Charlotte riding Renaissance Tyme at Central Park. Who can say they have a picture with the Olympic gold medalist on their horse and behind them the Pope in Central Park? It was just such an amazing time.

6.You usually buy younger horses and train them up the levels. Several of your horses have gone on to great success with other riders? Can you tell me about some of them?

All the horses I buy for myself are around 3 Years old. I love bringing them along and  training them to the top level. Once in a while I have to let go of my best horse since I’m financing all my horses and shows by myself. For sure it is not easy to let them go but if they  go to World Class riders and go on to Olympics , WEG and World Cups then it is very rewarding. To name a few: Hiscox Artemis,( aka Photo Tyme) was ridden by Richard Davison in the London 2012 Olympics and also twice at World Cup Finals, Kyra Kirkland rode Andiamo Tyme to 8th place in the European Championships, Show Tyme was ridden by Kristy Oatley, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Patrik Kittel, of Sweden rode Santana, to a European Championship Top 15. Quantum Tyme was the reserve for the 2008 Olympics and was in the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. Well there were many more and for sure I would have loved to keep them all .

I am now going to share with you some photos that Evi kindly sent to me for inclusion in this post. Thank you Evi for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions and thank you also for these lovely photos.

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