Urban Horsekeeping

A World-Class Dressage training facility thrives in New York City.

- Amber Heintzberger

Dressage riders in New York City can have the best of both worlds—city life, and a horse on a farm—riding at Riverdale Stables in the Bronx. While for many people, thinking of the Bronx conjures images of apartment buildings and bodegas, busy city streets, hip-hop music and Yankee Stadium, the leafy Riverdale Stables is located between the Hudson River and Van Cortland Park, the third-largest park in New York City, which encompasses more than a 1,000 acres. The stables are located within the park, which also has a forest, large freshwater lake, nationally renowned cross-country running course, a public swimming pool and two golf courses.

Canadian Olympic dressage rider Ashley Holzer, who earned her U.S. citizenship over the summer of 2016, has been based at Riverdale since 1994, with winters spent in Wellington, Florida. Her successful business has drawn dressage riders from around the U.S. and Canada to train with her and offers a convenient location for city-dwelling horse lovers to indulge their passion for horses without traveling very far.

Holzer used to keep her horses in New Jersey, but unpredictable traffic on the highways and at the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge meant the one-hour drive could easily turn into two or three. From her home on the Upper West Side, Holzer can be at Riverdale in about 15 minutes, giving her more time to spend at home with her children, as well as riding.