PrintShe may only be 24 years old, but Ashlee Bond has already had the kind of year most show jumpers dream about.
Bond piloted Cadett 7 to six clear rounds in Nations Cup competition in 2009, anchoring the U.S. team to wins at the Rome (Italy) and St. Gallen (Switzerland) CSIOs. She rounded out her European tour by finishing seventh in the $487,687 Rolex Grand Prix of Aachen (Germany)—the highest U.S. placing—and by winning the $84,640 WARSTEINER-Prize Grand Prix (Germany). Back in the States she topped four CSI-Ws and competed in her first Rolex FEI World Cup Show Jumping Final.
“When she goes into the ring, it doesn’t matter if it’s Europe or Calgary or California; she’s always a competitor,” said U.S. Chef d’Equipe George Morris. “She’s never intimidated by the course or the other competitors, and she always goes for broke.”
Growing up in a family as involved with horses as with Hollywood—father Steve acted on General Hospital in the 1980s and mother Cindy is the COO of a film production company—left Ashlee ready and waiting for the spotlight.
“When I compete at an international level I actually feel more at home, because I’ve wanted to be here so badly,” she said. “That first time I put on that red coat was such an honor. You really feel like you’re part of something bigger. I love having that extra pressure; I thrive on it.”
Much of that confidence came from her spectacular partnership with Cadett 7 (Cor De La Bryere—Ginella). Ashlee and Steve spotted him during a Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum clinic when he was partnered with a junior rider. They told the owner, Aurora Griffin, about their interest but didn’t hold their breath for a phone call.
“But fate was just like, ‘Here you go,’ ” said Ashlee. “The potential was always there for him, and it just took someone to really believe in him to get him where he is.
“The first couple of times [I won] I thought maybe it was a fluke, but now I know that I’m not just getting lucky,” she said. “I feel like I’ve proved that I belong here.”
To many, it seemed like Ashlee came out of nowhere in 2008 when she first impressed Morris so much during the Spruce Meadows Masters (Alta.) that he decided, then and there, to send her to Argentina to ride on the Buenos Aires Nations Cup team.
But the gutsy young rider turned heads long before she donned a red coat. Getting her start with Jenny and Kost Karazissis, she rode small pony Beaujolais to championships at three Indoor horse shows in 1996, as well as to the Chronicle’s Show Hunter Horse of the Year honors.
“When she was probably 7 years old I happened to be walking by the pony ring, and I stopped to watch her round,” recalled Richard Spooner, who’s trained Ashlee on and off since she was 14. “She turned the corner to a single oxer, and it was like watching Katie Monahan gallop across the ring. She had a perfect sense of distance, stride and pace. It was obvious then she had a special talent.”
Ashlee ignored the equitation route of her peers and tackled her first grand prix at 16, anchoring the Zone 10 Young Rider squad at the 2001 North American Young Riders Championships (Ill.).
“I’ve always been drawn to the jumpers,” she said. “I love that it’s just you and the horse, and there’s no one telling you that you’re not going to win because your position isn’t right or you’re not skinny enough. It’s just you and the jumps, and it’s all about just not knocking them down.”
