Jennifer Holling: A Canadian Eventer in Our Midst

One of the neat things about being in the US is all the rad eventers our country draws from other places.  Including Canada.  Today’s interview is with one such Canadian eventer, Jennifer Holling.  She’s an eventer, wife to an eventer (Jon Holling), as well as a selector for the Canadian Eventing Team.  So she has 3-day eventing pretty much tied up!

photo courtesy of Jenn Holling

Here she tells us about an idyllic Canada, the big move to the States, Jon’s proposal under the stars, a tragedy, a gift, and what happened with Darren Chiacchia. Not to mention racing motorcycles.  Adrenaline junky much?! Soak up everything Jenn Holling has to offer: which is a lot!

Q. Where are you from?

I am from Orange Field, Ontario. I am Canadian. Orangeville is hilly with sandy footing. I grew up with ten Intermediate events a mile and a half from my door step and never had to worry about footing. It’s potato country. It’s a beautiful place to be –for about two months of the year.

Q. How did you come to move from Canada to the US?

I moved to Florida in 1996. I dropped out of medical school and moved to Florida because I had a horse and wanted to see if I could ride. The second day in Florida I met a guy named Jon Holling. It was November 22, 1996. I’ll never forget. I couldn’t park my trailer. Jon tells everyone he got the impression very quickly that he shouldn’t step in and help me. And he was totally right! So we met that day and haven’t been apart since. He was a working student for Peter Gray. We were both working for him and were dating six months later. We got married November 18, 2000. Everything kind of happened in November, it’s a good month for us.

Q. How did he ask you to marry him?

Oh, he totally popped the question down on one knee under the stars. He did all right.  He says I said no. I think I told him we were too young to get married; he was about 23 at the time. Then he said I don’t care and I said okay so we were engaged November 21st. It’s the best day of your entire life. We got married in Jon’s hometown Germantown, Wisconsin. My family is very mobile, they’re used to traveling. We took over the whole town and got kicked out the country club so moved everything back to the hotel and kept it going. No one is going to give up too early so it was pretty cool.

Q. How long have you lived in Ocala?

We went back and forth summers and winters between ‘96 and 2000. We purchased the farm in October of 2000. I tell everybody God lives here. It’s the most peaceful place. I’m the most stressed out person ever, I absorb all the stress so the horses can be peaceful. We do have separate barns which was cheaper than a divorce attorney! Other than that we run everything together.

Q. How did the beautiful statue at the entrance to your farm come about?

My mother wanted a horse but my parents are not horsey people. I said it can’t cost any money and I don’t want to feed it. She went away and that’s what she came home with. Around Christmas we put a Santa Claus suit on it. One year we were late and neighbors put notes in our mailbox asking about when he would be coming. It’s a landmark now. It’s a big deal to people and they expect it so we do it every year.

Q. What do you like about Ocala?

We have a beautiful farm, the Thai restaurant, Ayuttaya Thai Cuisine (it’s an amazing restaurant in town and we eat there once or twice a week). I can balance a mean check book but I do not cook. I love the horse community, I love the weather obviously. I love that your family always comes to visit you when you live in Ocala! They’ll come to you which is very convenient since we don’t have a lot of time to travel.

Q. Why did you choose eventing?

Because my horse wasn’t a good enough jumper and not a good enough mover to do dressage. I didn’t start riding until I was sixteen. I competed in soccer until then. When I quit that I tried diving and motorcylce racing and hockey and horses. I liked horses. I had an off-the-track Thoroughbred that wasn’t going to do anything else. My instructor was level 3 who used to event in Ireland so we evented and hunted and did all those things.

My first real event horse, Last Chance, is now 30 and still in my barn and looks amazing. He’s still the one that gets away from everyone; they underestimate him. My other advanced horse was the reason Jon and I decided to have children. He was killed in a car accident. His name was Three Sheets and we called him Boozer. He was a lovely, lovely horse who taught me how to do the horse stuff a little more competitively and even beat Jon a couple times and that’s always fun! I was left with baby horses. You go to church and believe in God so you think, okay, I guess I need to do something else. When I thought about it that’s when Caiden came to mind.

Q. What happened?

One of my student’s horses went lame. So I told her to take him to her A rating. I was at Poplar that weekend. They had an accident and he was killed. It just kind of happened. You pick yourself. I’m at Red Hills now and we haven’t been here since Monty was killed in 2006. Driving in the driveway was really hard. You can go into denial when you’re at home. Then you get back here and you realize you miss your friend. It will be a heavy weekend. But it will never be the first time again. Next time it will be easier. I was almost 9 months pregnant when the accident with Darren [Chiacchia] happened. John and Darren were close friends. We lost Darren’s friendship that day. It was a hard day. Darren has changed and he’s a different person than the lovely man I had the privilege of knowing.

Q. Who are your horses now?

We have a little Argentinian mare named Safdie. She’s a grumpy, witchy, freak of nature and I love her to death. Safdie kind of turns my crank. She’s tough enough to do it and woman enough you can’t tell her she can’t.

Above: Jon Holling on Safdie.  Photo by Emily Daily

My husband tells people he knows how to ride her because he’s been married for a while! He has a couple of super nice ones coming up. They have to prove themselves. There are three 2-star horses who are all nice that just did preliminary. But there’s a long way between preliminary and advanced. They gotta speak for themselves.

Q. How are you involved with the Canadian Eventing team?

I’m an official selector. A professional watcher. I go to all the horse shows and am always happy to give my opinion! They decided to sign me up and it has been very rewarding. The riders are amazing and so good to work with. There has never been a conflict and they’ve always been receptive to allowing me to do that job. And I get to watch my friend do great things. My intention is to stay on as selector for a while.

Q. Are there other Canadians squirreled away in Florida?

Kyle Carter with his American wife, Jen, and their daughter. We’ve known each since we were teenagers. Lesley Law is Canadian. He and his wife reside in Virginia but I think are moving here full time. Mr. Law is British and keeping that citizenship. He won gold for Britain. There are lots who come for the winter: Karl Slezak, Diana Burnett, and Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch. There are about a dozen Canadians in Ocala and the rest are in Aiken.

Thanks for tuning in to hear from Jenn Holling and life in the eventing lane. If you want more info you can check out the Holling Eventing website or their blog which they update regularly.  Thanks Jenn!