FELLOWSHIP, FL (352today.com) – Liz Halliday was selected for the 2020 U.S. Olympic eventing team, but then the unexpected happened.

Halliday was the United States Eventing Association‘s Rider of the Year. But her horse Deniro Z sustained an injury, and she had to withdraw from the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. It was to be her Olympic debut.

Image of Liz Halliday riding a horse.
Liz Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker will be at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as Team USA’s traveling reserve for eventing. Halliday’s farm is located in Fellowship, Florida. Courtesy: USEF & USEA/Atalya Boytner

Now the 45-year-old Halliday will be the traveling reserve for the U.S. team in Paris. She and the 11-year-old Irish sport horse gelding, Cooley Nutcracker, who is known around the barn as Bali, will be ready to compete, should one of the other rider and horse combinations, have to withdraw from the competition.

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“He’s fantastic. He’s a wonderful horse,” said Halliday. “It’s an honor to be part of the team. At any moment we could be stepping in. So, he’s very fit and ready. It’s always an honor to represent my country. That’s always great.”

Halliday and Bali have been together as a team for a little over two years.

“He’s a very special horse, more sensitive than people know, but very brave, and he wants to do everything right,” said Halliday. “It’s about making our partnership really good. He trusts me and we have a wonderful partnership. He fights for me, which is really exciting.”

No stranger to the international stage, Halliday turned in an impressive performance in the 2023 Pan American Games with the 12-year-old Swedish warmblood gelding Miks Master C.

Liz Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker have been named the traveling reserve combination for U.S. Olympic eventing team for the 2024 Paris Games. Here the combination is pictured during the stadium jumping phase of the Defender Kentucky 3-Day Event CCI 5* at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. Courtesy: USEA

“We obviously went there hoping to win gold. But, I had a couple of really good ladies on the team, and everyone jelled well together, and we all did our very best,” said Halliday. “I had never been to Chile before, so that was exciting, and it was my first real senior championship. It was a great honor. I hope to be on many more teams.”


Halliday’s farm in Fellowship is called Horsepower Equestrian. The native-Californian has been coming to Ocala for the better part of the past decade. She says being based in Marion County during the winter has made a marked difference in her program.

“There are so many events nearby, for the younger horses, especially,” said Halliday. “And having the World Equestrian Center and HITS down the road is unparalleled to anywhere else. It’s producing the horses and getting them ready for the season. We can enjoy some great weather and the sun is on their back in the winter, where that’s not really available everywhere in the United States.”