Biography
Lesley began riding dressage as a young child and soon began to accelerate through the levels. She bought Picasso as a 4 year old at the age of 15 and trained him herself ultimately winning individual and team gold medals at the North American Young Rider Championships. The following year she qualified with him for the US Intermediaire 1 championships and had a successful showing at Gladstone, as well. They soon reached Lesley’s goal of riding Grand Prix and she soon earned her USDF Gold Medal. Following her achievements with Picasso, she has brought several young horses along, qualifying them for the National Young Horse Championships, and continuing to train them to FEI. She is a long-time student of former technical advisor for the US dressage team, Anne Gribbons, and has gleaned a wealth of knowledge from her teachings and training. In addition, she has had the opportunity to clinic with other notable trainers including Klaus Balkenhol, Conrad Schumacher, and Jan Brink.
Butters
More recently, Lesley bought "Butters" as an unstarted 3 year old. Although a bit of a difficult youngster, Lesley was able to bring him out Prix St. Georges as a still 7 year old and earned a 71.8% in his first FEI class. Butters has now been sold to a junior rider who is looking forward to competing him in the FEI Junior Tests.
Let's Dance
This past show season, Lesley had great success with "Dance," a 5 year old gelding owned by Anne Gribbons.
With scores in the low to mid 70s at second level, he averaged a score of 8.4 in the FEI 5 year old test leaving them with the highest average score in the country and qualifying them for the Young Horse Dressage National Champtionships.
With scores in the low to mid 70s at second level, he averaged a score of 8.4 in the FEI 5 year old test leaving them with the highest average score in the country and qualifying them for the Young Horse Dressage National Champtionships.
