English
Photo: Kim Gaudry
Ali Ramsay is a small-town Canadian making a big impact on the international show jumping circuit.
The 2022 Canadian Showjumping Champion is one of Canada’s most consistent riders on the North American CSI circuit, making an impressive 118 starts in 2024.
As a young rider in Victoria, British Columbia, Ali rode her way to the Nation’s top youth competition for equitation riders – the Canadian Equestrian Team (CET) National Medal Final – and won.
After a brief pause, Ali made a much-anticipated career move to the jumper ring, where she seized an opportunity to train with Canadian show jumping legend Jill Henselwood.
Over the next six years, including four as a pro, Ali Ramsay developed into the international talent she is today.
Holding her place in the FEI’s top 100 world rankings, Ramsay’s dedication is an inspiration to young riders across North America. Ali isn’t just jumping fences – she’s clearing a path for future equestrian athletes.
A Passion Ignited
Ali recalls the first spark: “I was supposed to go to space camp,” she says, imagining her six-year-old self, “but the week before, we were driving past a field of horses and I told my mom I didn’t want to go to space camp. I wanted to go to horse camp.”
Her mother indulged the request, changing plans and putting Ali into her first equestrian environment. From that point forward, as Ali puts it, “It just never stopped.”
When Ali was 8, her family relocated to Victoria, British Columbia, where her equestrian journey began to take shape. “I just kind of got lucky with good trainers,” she says thankfully. “I had two to start and they were both amazing.”
Judy Cumming and Joanne Orchard, “gave me a good starting point,” she says. “I was so small… They put me in the pony hunters − better than just ripping around the jumper ring with no baseline,” she laughs.
That foundation-first thinking proved invaluable in Ali’s early career and motivated her to train under Lindy Townley, a hunter and equitation trainer, for over a year. She became an elegant and consistent performer, competing in the Canadian Equitation Team (CET) regional finals five years in a row.
Having mastered the technical and artistic elements of equitation riding, she was eager to make the leap to jumpers.
“By the end of the fifth year, I wanted to move on from equitation. I wanted to do the stake classes that I knew my horse could win.” Her trainer proposed an ultimatum − ‘If you win the first CET of the year, and qualify for the Regionals, you can show the rest of the year in jumpers.’
They had a deal.
“By the end of the fifth year, I wanted to move on from equitation. I wanted to do the stake classes that I knew my horse could win.”
— Ali RamsayMad Barn High Performance Athlete
Aiming for New Heights
Ali upheld her end of the bargain – she won the first qualifier. Having secured her coach’s blessing, Ramsay diverted her Hanoverian gelding Alonzo’s full attention to the jumper ring, where he was already quite handy at the 1.20 m.
Ramsay and Alonzo showed the rest of the season in the jumpers before returning, as promised, to the CET Medal competition at Regional Finals.
In 2012 Ramsay won both the Regionals and the National Medal Final at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, a prestigious competition that showcases Canada’s top young equitation riders.
This wasn’t just a competition win for a 20-year-old Ramsay – it showcased her potential as an elite show jumper and her candidacy for a future Team Canada.
California Dreams to Ottawa Reality
Shortly after Ramsay’s National Medal victory, she set her sights on California. There, she looked for work as a warm-up rider or stable hand on the bustling winter show circuits of the West Coast. It was here that fate intervened, setting Ali on her superstar trajectory.
Ali didn’t intend to take on a horse of her own again until she had established some security. But at a friend’s urging, she trialed Bordino, a seasoned Belgian Warmblood gelding whose owner was looking to bring down from the Grand Prix to a more modest height class.
Ali rode Bordino on site at the Desert International Horse Park (DIHP), a trial that doubled as her audition with legendary Canadian show jumper Jill Henselwood, the horse’s trainer. It went well.
“Wow, that’s exactly what I want!” Ali recalls her feelings of the prospective partnership. Ali’s brief quest for a settled working life on the sidelines would have to wait.
As Ali’s father put it, the chance to work directly with Henselwood – an Olympian and prominent figure in international show jumping – was a, “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
What began as a rough plan to develop her industry skills in California became a full-time training arrangement at Juniper Farms Ltd. on the outskirts of Ottawa. Ali moved coasts and country, bringing with her Alonzo, Bordino, and her dreams.
What's your top priority with your horse's health?
Training with a Legend
In Ottawa, Ramsay found herself part of an intense, dedicated training environment. Surrounded by fellow future Team Canada riders Elizabeth Gingras, Jaclyn Duff and Julia Madigan − Ali’s riding game was about to head in a new direction. Upward.
“That’s when things started to take a turn,” she recalls.
At the time, Juniper Farm housed 25 horses, and Ali was all-in, riding multiple horses daily and absorbing every aspect of professional show jumping.
Already a national prospect, the 21-year-old Ramsay remained modest. “When I went to Jill’s, I didn’t know what FEI was. I never had a goal of jumping a Grand Prix. My goal was just to move up to the 1.30 m, and I didn’t even know if I could do that.”
Under Henselwood’s guidance, and immersed in the horsemanship that surrounded her in Ottawa, Ramsay embraced all that came to her. Her ambition grew to encompass a broader view of the horse world and her place in it. “It was supposed to be a one-year thing… but pretty quick into it, I realised this is what I wanted to do… not just as a passion or hobby but as a living.”
She adjusted her sightline to the future.
The more Ali absorbed from ‘eating, sleeping, living’ at Juniper, the more her own vision for a life over fences began to take air. “The experience − the environment − just opened a whole world for me.”
“When I went to Jill's, I didn't know what FEI was. I never had a goal of jumping a Grand Prix. My goal was just to move up to the 1.30 m, and I didn't even know if I could do that.”
— Ali RamsayMad Barn High Performance Athlete
Riding to the International Arena
In 2015, Ramsay dropped her amateur status when she accepted a position as assistant trainer under Henselwood, a role she stayed in for four years.
Shortly after turning pro, Ramsay made her Team Canada debut at the 2016 Nation’s Cup in Samorin, Slovenia. She competed on her 2007 Belgian Warmblood mare Hermelien Vd Hooghoeve, affectionately known as Maya.
The partnership would carry Ramsay for years to come as she made her way into the FEI world rankings. In 2016, the pair competed at major 2* to 4* events across North America, including wins at the DIHP, the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Bromont, and at Caledon Equestrian Park north of Toronto, among other venues.
In 2017, Ramsay rode her second Nations’ Cup in Coapexpan, Mexico, a patriotic experience that she relishes. “Competing for Canada is a really cool thing… It’s the coolest thing you can do!”
Ramsay is grateful for the opportunities she has been given to represent her home country, and aspires to do so again. But setting herself up for the national team is something Ramsay balances against other expectations.
“For me, that’s never been what I’m dedicating my horses to. I’d rather ride my horse in the class that makes most sense to them, or for me for that matter. If that’s not a team qualifying class, that’s fine. I don’t chase it. For me, the path to the podium is more about right place, right time.”
Photo: Kim Gaudry
Ali’s ability to read her horse’s day-to-day abilities and needs, and to seize upon their strengths at just the right moment, has made Ramsay and her horses a model of consistency. “Last year was pretty amazing! We went to a lot of really nice shows.”
In 2024, Ramsay rode to a career high: top 70 in the world rankings, an achievement she credits to her team at Ramsay Equestrian who keep her jumping and in, “really good horsepower.”
Quest for Success
Ali’s ‘right place right time’ approach to success sometimes takes her off the beaten path.
In her last of six seasons with Maya, Ramsay kept riding her way to the podium. She is very proud of her mare’s effort. “We were first. We were second… We were third in the million-dollar grand prix. We had the winter of our lives!”
Their overwinter success in California seemed a world away from the spectacle of show jumping that unfolds each winter in Florida at venues like the World Equestrian Centre in Ocala and at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington.
Sensing a moment to take on the east coast, Ramsay told herself, “If I’m top six in the $1M HITS Grand Prix, I’m going to Florida to jump the 5* at WEF.”
With that, she loaded the trailer and went, raising a few eyebrows along the way. “There I was, rolling into Week 12 − the final week. Ha! I’d never been to Florida before, let alone to Wellington. Everybody thought I was crazy,” she laughs.
At WEF, a tenacious Ramsay and Maya were fourth in the 5* qualifier, an impressive result given their unorthodox journey and the highly competitive field that dominates the final weeks of the Florida winter tour.
In the finale, Ramsay recalls the thrilling experience. “It was the biggest track we had ever jumped. But it was one of those rounds where… I felt so in the zone. My horse and I were so in tune. I jumped around… and it felt easy.”
At 1.60 m, that’s saying something.
A last rail down kept the duo’s WEF debut one jump short of their goal, but it’s an experience Ramsay wouldn’t trade for the world. It was also bittersweet. One week later, Hermelien Vd Hooghoeve − Maya − was sold.
The Business of Riding & Training
The sale of Ali’s top show horse was a catalyst for establishing Ramsay Equestrian, a high-level show jumping training and sales business that Ali owns and operates.
“I really like coaching,” she says. “I really like having a team of riders working towards similar goals. I like being part of a team effort, and I’m good at it.”
Ramsay’s team building draws some inspiration from the culture she absorbed as trainer in residence at Juniper Farms.
“Everybody was all in… We all had goals and were just completely dedicated to being the best we could be, each in our own way.” In a world of distractions, it’s a positive mindset that Ali tries to cultivate in her own students.
“I really like coaching. I really like having a team of riders working towards similar goals. I like being part of a team effort, and I'm good at it.”
— Ali RamsayMad Barn High Performance Athlete
Having built up her client base, Ramsay is currently looking to expand and take on new clients, absorbing as much as she can from the FEI circuit on the west coast during winter, while spending her time on the east coast over summer.
“A lot of people found it weird that I drove 45 hours across the continent each winter… when everyone else from Ontario is going to Florida. But I love it so much. I love California and the horse show at the Desert is just so wonderful,” Ramsay reflects.
Nutrition for Performance
Whether she’s on the road or at home, Ramsay works with Mad Barn’s equine nutritionists to help manage her horses’ health and performance needs.
“When Mad Barn first reached out to me, it was the most amazing thing ever because for a while I’ve been talking about working with a nutritionist,” Ali explains.
Since then, Mad Barn’s veterinary nutritionist Dr. Fran Rowe has worked with Ramsay Equestrian to develop comprehensive diet plans for their horses.
“We just made little changes, but now I feel more educated about my horse's diets, which is what I find most important.”
— Ali RamsayMad Barn High Performance Athlete
As Ali describes it, “Mad Barn visited my barn and did a whole diet analysis and made recommendations on what we should be feeding. That was cool for me, to see each horse’s diet broken down.”
“Even when I was in California, [Mad Barn] visited me and took a sample of our hay down here. Fran shared the results of that analysis with me. It turns out, our hay down here is quite high in iron, so she recommended 3:1 Zinc Copper, which I just picked up.”
In addition to the tailored service, Ali appreciates Mad Barn’s whole-horse approach to performance nutrition. She shares how Fran and the Mad Barn team have helped two of her competitive horses, Bonita and Conrado:
“Bonita had colic last year. When we scoped her, we saw that she had ulcers…. We gave her the full GastroGuard® treatment and followed up with Visceral+.”
“Meanwhile, while that was going on, my other horse Conrado, who is a nervous type, gives more indication of ulcers than Bonita ever did, so I thought why don’t we treat that horse as well.”
“So, we gave him GastroGuard® plus Visceral+ too, and he went on to have the most amazing year of his life! He was like top three in every GP that he jumped after that, all winter.”
Canadian Show Jumping Champion
In 2022, Ali won the Canadian Show Jumping Championship at the Royal, Canada’s premier indoor equestrian event.
“It was such a cool experience!” Ali exclaims. “My whole family was there. My parents, my aunt and uncle, my whole barn family… Everyone was so excited!”
Winning the National title in front of her Canadian fan base was an affirming moment for Ramsay. “Especially with that horse, Bonita. I’ve had her since she was six. That horse is everything to me,” Ali shares.
As Ali recalls acquiring Bonita Vh Keizershof Z, a 16 hand 2011 Zanersheide mare. At the time, some thought she would be too small for Grand Prix and, at the time, too green for Ramsay.
But Ali felt a good connection and ignored the horse’s well-meaning doubters. She followed her instincts and her mantra of ‘right place, right time.’ Ali made the decision that was right for her − and as it turns out, right for Bonita.
“She’s been the most exceptional horse ever, the best horse I’ve ever had,” says Ali.
Photo: Kim GaudryAn Elite Balancing Act
Ramsay acknowledges that it can be challenging to pour all that is required into her business while maintaining her world rank and extensive show travel commitments.
“I don’t really know if it’s possible to do both,” she says, hinting at the underlying trade-offs that elite rider-trainers must manage.
But Ali has a vision and the means to grow her business while continuing her development as a rider. Her goal is to keep herself and her horses at the top of the game, and to position Ramsay Equestrian as a leading training and sales business serving riders seasonally on both the east and west coasts.
For this season, Ramsay is fortunate to have “two number 1 horses,” she laughs. Watch for Conrado 12, her 2013 warmblood gelding, to join Bonita on the 5* track this year.
Will we see Ali riding for Team Canada at a Nation’s Cup, Pan American Games or even Olympics soon?
“That’s always a goal on the horizon,” Ramsay acknowledges. “If my horse and I are ready and the time is right, then I’d hope, yes, that the stars would align.”
The 2028 Olympics are still a way off, but the early spark that took hold in Ramsay is still alight with no sign of stopping. Even though space camp never worked out, Ali Ramsay’s own star shines bright, lighting her course up and ahead for years to come.
