On any given day, it’s not easy to figure out where Marsia Holzer might be found. It could be the barn, or her art studio, or a rock concert, or even in some remote area of Costa Rica collecting dead trees behind a pair of oxen.

Yes, really. You see, Holzer leads a unique life.

And at age 65, that proverbial age of retirement, Holzer, New York, N.Y., isn’t even thinking about slowing down. In fact, she’s just about to release a new coffee-table book of her artwork, and with clients such as Mark Badgely and James Mishka keeping her busy with commissions, Holzer has her plate quite full.

“I just love what I do,” she said smiling. “No, I’ll never retire. I have too many ideas and things I haven’t done yet.”

This summer Holzer added yet another major accomplishment to her list at the Hampton Classic (N.Y.). When she stepped into the ring, torrential rains made it anything but an enjoyable moment. But Holzer, who trains with Lainie Wimberly, didn’t let the dreary weather prevent her from enjoying the day.

She recalled, “I went in and said to Lainie, ‘I’m just going to have fun!’ “

And, aboard Norlando, Holzer not only enjoyed her trips in the non-pro local hunter division, but the amateur rider earned the championship. Holzer also earned the grand local hunter championship, topping more than 100 local horses and riders–including the professionals–for the title.

“I had so much fun!” she said. “I didn’t think I’d even get a ribbon in that company. It was so amazing when I got the championship. Then, they called me in and handed me another [tricolor] ribbon, and I said, ‘I already have one.’ And they said, ‘No, this is for you. You were grand champion.’ It was a huge surprise.”

But for those who know Holzer, it wasn’t unexpected that the dedicated horsewoman would persevere through any conditions to follow her obsession.

For Holzer has many passions, horses being just one. “She’s the most amazing person,” said Wimberly, Holzer’s trainer of just over a year. “She’s like my best friend. You wouldn’t think of her as 65. We just went to an Aerosmith concert and danced all night long. She’s done so many cool things in her life. You just have no idea.”


Get Your Kicks
Holzer (nee Trinder) grew up in England, the daughter of the Lord Mayor of London, on a farm in the country. She was given a pony at age 5, one that was caught off the Welsh moors.

“I rode that pony to school, but I fell off 25 times per day. We didn’t have saddles, you see, but eventually I stayed on,” she said laughing.

As Holzer became a more accomplished rider, she eventually did receive a saddle and took a few lessons and learned to foxhunt. When she was 7, she and her sister, Claire Garnet, then 9, would take off and ride anywhere and everywhere on their shaggy ponies.

When she came of age, Holzer went off to boarding school and left her riding days behind her. After attending St. Martin’s Art School in London, where she earned a degree in art history, sculpture and life drawing, Holzer heard a song on the radio that would forever change the direction of her life.

The year was 1964, and the song was the Rolling Stones’ “Route 66.”

“I had always wanted to go to the United States, but when I heard that song I said, ‘That’s where I want to go. California,’ ” she said.

So despite the pleadings of her mother, who encouraged her to get her teaching degree (which she did from the London School of Economics) to fall back on in the event her artistic career didn’t put food on her table, Holzer arrived in the States in 1965.

“I had 50 pounds and a place to stay, and that was it,” recalled Holzer. “I had a green card, though, because I’d said I had a job. But I didn’t really.”

She met photographer Bert Stern at a party one Saturday night shortly after she’d arrived in New York City. On the spur of the moment, Holzer cornered him and said, “I came all the way from England to work with you. He didn’t know what to say. But it worked. He finally said, ‘OK, come to my studio on Monday.’ And I worked for him for the next several years. I did the styling for his photo shoots. At the time, I had a collection of old clothes I’d brought over from England, and we used them in many of the photo shoots.”

As is typical of Holzer, after about three years in New York City she felt the urge to try something new. And, since she’d initially traveled to the United States with California on her mind, the call of the West still rang in her ears.

This was 1968, the apex of the hippie movement, when peace, love and happiness were the country’s favorite themes. Girls sported long hair, short skirts, and beads and fringe were at the forefront of fashion. When Holzer spied her first fringe jacket, she was mesmerized.

“I decided then and there I was going to go to California and get a fringe leather jacket,” she recalled laughing. “I called Bert from the airport and said, ‘You’d better fire me because I’m at the airport, and I’m about to go to California.’ He said, ‘Why would I fire you?’ And I said, ‘So I can collect unemployment.’ He said, ‘I’m not going to fire you! I’ll see you when you come back.’ “

So Holzer trekked out to the West Coast with her mind set on finding that leather jacket. When it didn’t materialize, Holzer found herself in San Francisco, where she purchased the materials she needed and made one herself. On the airplane back to New York, she made a matching skirt.

“When I got off the plane, I had a fringe leather suit, and everyone wanted one,” she said. “It was chic but also hippie.”

It was the beginning of a major chapter in her life, the Great Universal Costume Company, which she launched in 1969 and operated for 25 years. Unbeknownst to the masses, millions and millions of Broadway and music fans throughout the world have seen and appreciated Holzer’s works of art. She designed the costumes for the Broadway shows “Hair” and “Man On The Moon,” and her musician clients included Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, The Mamas & The Papas, Foreigner, Judy Collins, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter, Paul and Mary and Carly Simon (who was her matron of honor at her wedding to Leonard Holzer in 1975).

One of her proudest accomplishments was designing the jackets that Elvis Presley wore during his infamous shows in Las Vegas. She recalled one trip to Las Vegas where she and two seamstresses flew on Presley’s private jet to Vegas, frantically sewing fabrics and sequins together at 30,000 feet. After they presented him with his new costumes, he was so impressed and pleased that he had them stay for his show.

“He gave us a front row table,” Holzer remembered. “He was so much fun to work with.”

After Holzer married in 1975, she became the stepmother to 5-year-old Rusty Holzer, who later competed in the Olympics in show jumping and married Olympic dressage rider Ashley Holzer. Marsia had three children–Chayt, now 31, who works in the furniture business, Teddy, 23, who attends Johns Hopkins University (Md.) and Christy, 21, who is studying architecture and civil engineering at Princeton (N.J.).

It was through her children that she rediscovered riding again when they took lessons at Topping Riding Academy in Sagaponack, N.Y. There, she began training with Ann Aspinal, She later rode with Joe Fargis and Bobby Ginsberg.

While with Fargis, Marsia competed in the adult jumper division when time permitted. “I had a wonderful horse he found for me,” recalled Holzer. “But he was very slow. Joe said, ‘That horse wants to be a hunter.’ So that’s what we did. I found I really enjoyed the hunters.”


A Duck To Water
As her children grew up, Marsia continued to work with many of the best musicians in the world. But about 10 years ago a family conversation changed the direction of her life-again.

“We went around the table and asked, ‘Do you have a dream?’ Chayt said, ‘Not really.’ My husband said he wanted to become a Buddhist. And I said, ‘I want to weld huge sculptures out of metal.’ I don’t know where that came from!” said Marsia.

So, following her dream, Marsia attended the New York Sculpture Center and discontinued her costume business.

Her sculptures included chandeliers dripping with crystals and life-size steel figures; it was the beginning of what would become Marsia Holzer Studios, the showcase of her work with metals and woods, all natural materials that when combined create modern works of art with an elegant, organic feel.

“I took to it like a duck to water,” she recalled. “After a year of sculpting, I had a sell-out show in New York City at the Earl McGrath Gallery. I had so many orders that I just kept on going.”

In 2002, Marsia traveled to Costa Rica and on a whim purchased a fallen tree that was decomposing in the forest. She had it shipped home in 2003 and experimented with the wood, pairing the beautiful natural grains with bases of iron and bronze that she has cast in a foundry in Scotland. Her tables, which have a modern, clean look, have been described as appearing to float in mid-air.

“I love trees. On some pieces the grain [of the wood] looks like fabric,” she said. “I love taking something natural and organic and making it into something modern.”

She has since traveled back to Costa Rica on countless occasions to collect driftwood from the beaches and more fallen trees from the crocodile-infested lagoons. She hires teams of oxen to transport the trees, all of which are already down, so no trees are harmed to fulfill her need for wood.

In addition, Marsia often kayaks around the waters of her home in the Hamptons, collecting driftwood that she uses for lamp bases.

Lighting is another passion Marsia enjoys, and her vast array of lamp designs include arboreal pieces and the use of unusual elements, such as cast bell boots as chandeliers and stirrup leathers incorporated into sconces, that lend an equestrian feel to many of her pieces.

Her works have been featured in Architectural Digest, among other high-end publications, and are included in private collections of many celebrities, including Paul Newman and Yves Saint Laurent.

In between working in her studio, Marsia still puts a high priority on her horses. She rides on average four times per week and enjoys showing on the Winter Equestrian Festival circuit (Fla.) in the winter and near her home in New York in the summer.

When this year’s Hampton Classic rolled around, her horse had a stone bruise, so she borrowed her daughter’s Norlando as a last-minute replacement. “He was the star of the Hampton Classic,” said Marsia proudly of the 11-year-old warmblood. “My daughter was also reserve champion with him [in the adult amateur, 18-35, division]. He’s an incredible horse–he’s done the children’s and adult jumpers and now the hunters. He’s an everything horse.”

Wimberly said Marsia’s riding has improved tremendously since she moved her horses to Wimberly’s Brigadoon in North Salem, N.Y. “When she came to me, she needed to improve her focus,” said Wimberly. “Our goal was to have her concentrate on her job in the ring, listening and learning. She began showing later in life, and that’s sometimes difficult. Now, she’s really excelling.”

Marsia agreed: “At the Hamp-ton Classic I went into the ring and said to Lainie, ‘I’m going to do every single thing you ask me to and not just a few things. For once, I’m going to follow all of your instructions in one class.’ And it worked!”

For Wimberly, when a student has a breakthrough moment such as the Hampton Classic was for Marsia, the moment is better than any ribbon. And when it happens to a close friend, that’s the icing on the cake.

“She’s a truly delightful person,” said Wimberly. “She loves the horses, and is a wonderful rider. What I like too, at the horse shows she’s a true team player. She’s right there for everyone else too.”

Marsia has come a long way from riding the shaggy Welsh ponies of her youth in England, and she’s surprised a lot of people with the direction her life has taken, but her mother needn’t have worried too much.

“I knew I would never become a teacher,” said Marsia laughing. “I don’t really know what I was thinking when I left for the United States. I was always good at drawing and painting, and at age 12 I earned money doing portraits of people’s animals. So I thought I could always do that if I were desperate.”

Thankfully, Holzer never allowed “starving artist” to become a part of her vocabulary. “Now, I don’t really ever plan on doing anything else,” she added. “I just love my work, and I have big plans for the future. And when I’m too old to lift [metal], I’ll go back to painting. I don’t direct my life… I just see where it leads me.”


Tricia Booker