FLAIR® Featured Equestrian

 

Laine Ashker

International Event Rider

Born on February 10, 1984 in the foothills of California, Laine Ashker's passion for horses began at day one. In fact, her mother, Valerie, rode at the Area VI Preliminary Champiorships at seven months pregnant, even going so far as to sewing a larger waistline for her breeches, much to her father, Michael Ashker's dismay.

Laine started off her riding career in her local pony club, Sierra Gold, but soon grew increasingly interested in eventing, thanks to the support and efforts of her parents.

At age thirteen, Laine and her mother relocated to Virginia, where they establishd their new home and business, Crow's Ear Farm. There, Laine and Valeria purchased horses from the California race track, shipped them to the east coast, and retrained them to be event horses, which in turn would be sold or kept for Laine to compete.

Laine attended and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Affairs specializing in the Middle East and Global Culture and Commerce. Along with her degree, Laine learned to speak her native language Arabic, in addition to perfecting her conversational skills in Spanish at UVA.

While in school, Laine competed at the top level in her sport, including riding at the USA's only four-star event (Rolex) twice, the Junior Olympics three times (earned a medal each time), as well as competing abroad at Blenheim CCI*** in 2004 in England. Laine was also chosen as one of two Americans to compete at the Olympic Test Event in Hong Kong in 2007.

At the age of twenty four, Laine has had the honor of riding in four four-stars on three different and equally amazing horses: Eight Saint James Place, Frogo Baggins, and Mazetto.

Visit Laine Ashker's Web site.