Becky Holder
Athlete Bio#
Height
Courageous Comet won two CIC***s in 2007, picking up victories at Maui Jim Horse Trials and Richland Park. A second'place finish at the Southern Pines Horse Trials clinched the title of 2007 Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series Champion. In 2008, the pair has continued their winning ways, taking home Advanced honors at the Southern Pines Horse Trials in March where Holder also won a division of Intermediate with Rejuvenate."
Hometown
Mendota Heights
Horse: Courageous Comet (12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding by Comet Shine out of Rosanelli. Owned by Tom Holder)
Courageous Comet won two CIC***s in 2007, picking up victories at Maui Jim Horse Trials and Richland Park. A second-place finish at the Southern Pines Horse Trials clinched the title of 2007 Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series Champion. In 2008, the pair has continued their winning ways, taking home Advanced honors at the Southern Pines Horse Trials in March where Holder also won a division of Intermediate with Rejuvenate.
At the 2008 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** Holder and Comet were near perfect in dressage and cross country, and led the field going into the stadium round. After knocking two rails the pair finished a very respectable second.
Rebecca ‘Becky' Holder has been involved with horses her entire life and spent 11 years as a whipper-in for the Fort Leavanworth Hunt in Kansas.
"I was jumping wheelbarrows at the barn as a kid and someone gave me a pamphlet about the USCTA - what is now the USEA - I was hooked on eventing," said Holder.
While ranked 12th in the nation in 1999, she was discovered by David and Karen O'Connor and went on to spend the next three years training with them at their Virginia farm, as well as with Captain Mark Phillips.
Holder first rose onto the U.S. Team stage during the push to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The pair were sixth at Fair Hill International in 1999 and then they put in a stellar performance at Rolex Kentucky (their first four-star, they were 11th) that spring and found themselves as the traveling reserves for the Olympics.
With Courageous Comet she has achieved even greater acclaim and a good performance at Rolex Kentucky in 2006 scored the pair a trip to England to train for the World Equestrian Games. They didn't make the trip to Aachen but proved their mettle by jumping immaculately around their first Burghley CCI**** together finishing 15th. A graduate B pony clubber, Becky runs a busy teaching business out of Carriage House Farm in Minnesota and enjoys spending time with her husband Tom, going to the theater and gardening.