Building on her lifelong passion for horses, Courtenay Fraser has been teaching and training professionally since 2002. Throughout this time, she has also been a very active competitor, earning both her USDF and Dressage Canada Gold Medal Rider Awards.
Early in her riding career, Courtenay became a member of the 2000 NAYRC Canadian Team. In 2007 and 2008, Courtenay declared for and participated in the selection trials for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Teaching has become a second passion for Courtenay. Courtenay greatly enjoys training riders and sharing in the pride they develop as they achieve their goals. Courtenay currently has students of all skill levels in her riding programmes and she is open to teaching anyone with a strong desire to learn and to apply the knowledge gained. She finds that helping her students achieve their riding goals, either for pleasure or in the area of competition, are equally rewarding activities for both her and her students.
Courtenay credits much of her success to the wonderful training and mentoring she has received over the years. She credits Dietrich von Hopffgarten, Roanne Tyson, Jeremy Steinberg, Sue Blinks, and Sandy Burns-Gardner in helping her develop strong foundations in her early years of riding. In addition, clinicians such as Albrecht Heideman, Jan Brink, Debbie McDonald, Cindy Ishoy, Shannon Peters, and Stephen Clarke have assisted Courtenay in further developing her riding style. Courtenay continues with her efforts to become a member of the Canadian Equestrian Team and to ride for Canada at major international events. With these goals in mind, Courtenay devotes much of her time and resources to lessons and clinics for ongoing learning. Courtenay finds that one of the great joys of riding is the constant process of working towards and achieving improvement.
You can find Courtenay co-ordinating her activities through her business, Highbury Dressage, operating out of Footnote Farm in Langley, BC.