United States Eventing Association

Athens Olympic Eventing Individual Gold Medalist Leslie Law, who has been named the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Eventing Developing Rider Coach, believes there is plenty of knowledge and talent in the US and explains why he is looking forward to his new role. Leslie also offers our Training Tip of the Week.

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Chris Stafford: This is the United States Eventing Association's official podcast. Hello and welcome to the program. I'm Chris Stafford. My guest this week is Leslie Law, who has recently been appointed as the US Equestrian Federation's Eventing Developing Rider Coach. He joins me now from his training base and his new home in Ocala, Florida. Leslie, welcome to the program.

Leslie Law: Thank you.

Chris Stafford: As I said, your new home, we should tell everybody that you are now back in a new home on your property, but you'd been displaced for a few months, hadn't you?

Leslie Law: Yeah, it was back in June. The little house that was on the property was rather old and starting to fall down around us a little bit, so we took the big decision to knock it down and build a new one. Since June, we've been living just down the road. Many, many thanks to Tim and Cheryl Holekamp actually, who allowed us to stay in their place, which is really only a stone's throw away from us. They've been very, very kind and given us somewhere to have a roof over our head while the new one's been built. They managed to get it done. We hastily moved in on Christmas Eve.

Chris Stafford: Home has been in Ocala now for how many years? When did you move here from Europe, Leslie?

Leslie Law: It was virtually, it's just 9 years. Nine years. Exactly 9 years ago, to be honest.

Chris Stafford: Remind everybody the reason for that move, because they might wonder, having achieved what you did in Europe, why you chose to move over here.

Leslie Law: There was a number of reasons. I obviously met Lesley, my wife now. She's Canadian, so she was this side the water. I was also ... I've always been interested in the teaching sides of things, and I always felt there was greater potential for that over here. At some point in your career, who knows when, the riding comes to an end. After riding, teaching is my passion. I always thought there was, like I said, better opportunities for that over this side. It was a big decision, but it was one I decided to make. I don't think ... I think throughout riding, you're always having to make big decisions, so it wasn't that difficult because I've sort of done that all my life, made those kind of big decisions really. It was just another one to make.

Chris Stafford: You've established obviously a good training center there at home. How many horses do you have and how many acres do you have there in Ocala?

Leslie Law: We have stalls for 19 horses and it's on about 11 acres. Most of the time throughout the winter, we are full then with people obviously coming down to Ocala for the winter seasons. The rest of the year, I would probably say we run around 15 horses most of the time. It's a good number. It's very manageable. It's not so many that it gets away from you. You can keep an eye on everything and hopefully let nothing slip, quite honestly, with that number.

Chris Stafford: You obviously were delivering the keynote speech at this year's annual convention, Leslie. Many of our members and listeners were not in attendance. Let's just recap what you were talking about because you referenced there the decision to move over here from Europe to the States and base yourself here. What were the key points about that, and I know that it related to that move and it was all about having the knowledge and learning the skills and advancing your career to become the top trainer that you are now.

Leslie Law: Really the main topic of it is I started off by saying one of the main questions I get asked or one of the questions I get asked the most basically is, "Do you have any advice to becoming a top rider?" There's an awful lot of things that really I suppose go into being a top rider, whether it's having access to horses and lots of other things, but I think the one thing I thought was what everybody, no matter who they are, can gain is knowledge, whether it's reading books, whether it's by watching in the collecting ring, whether it's watching videos or access, asking people questions basically, being a working student or whatever.

That was the topic and so then I went on really to say, where I gained a lot of my knowledge as I've gone throughout my career. When I looked at it, a lot of it have been gained through American people, quite honestly, having spent 2 years when I was younger with Ian Phillips doing jumper, and then crossing paths with a number of different American people over the years, I gained so much knowledge to that.

It's for everybody to realize actually before you actually condemn your own country or go running overseas to try and find it, it's actually right here on your doorstep probably. You just got to look at it. There are so many people here, like the O'Connors, Bruce Davidson and all those people who have won gold medals and have been champions in this sport and have so much knowledge to give everybody within this country. It's right here on your doorstep, if you go looking for it.

Chris Stafford: Yes, clearly you've benefited from a wealth of experience and knowledge from a lot of those people now and established yourself as one of the top trainers here and a clinician that travels extensively. You spend a lot of your time doing that, don't you, Leslie?

Leslie Law: Yeah, I travel an awful lot during the clinics. It's probably more so in the summer perhaps than the winter, quite honestly. I love doing them. It's great to give back. It's very fulfilling, really.

Chris Stafford: Let's talk now about this new role as the USEF's Eventing Developing Rider Coach. First of all, what does that mean, for those that are not familiar with that title?

Leslie Law: It's taking, it's the Under-25s and Under-18s who've had results, they've been noticed through competition results. Some of them have been talent-spotted as well, not just results alone. They've been selected by a panel, basically, by a committee. My role is to take that on and work with them as far as training and looking at competitions, where they're going, what they might be doing, really just helping to take them through to the senior ranks eventually.

Chris Stafford: How much involvement will you have with them throughout a year, let's say, going into the new year, when does that program start? How often will you see them?

Leslie Law: We kick off in January. We're doing 5 days out in California. Then we come back and we do 2 4 day stints here in Ocala back to back weeks. That's the starting place, quite honestly. Obviously, when they're at competitions, and I'm at the competition, I'll be watching there, and any other time they're free to get on the phone or email and ask for advice and so forth. We're looking at probably getting back together in summer and then again before the full 3 day events that they might be going to.

Chris Stafford: Will you be working with them in all 3 phases, Leslie?

Leslie Law: Yeah, yeah. That's the plan right now, yes.

Chris Stafford: You will give them clinics or training sessions then around the country as and when you see them? Or do you have to go to a particular venue to get them together in a clinic environment?

Leslie Law: Yeah, the first one in California, it will be a 5 day clinic basically. There will be some lectures as well. The same will happen at Longwood basically. It will be a 4 day clinic for the Under-18s, and then a 4 day clinic the following week for the Under-25s. The first sessions in January will be a clinic situation basically. Then I think it will be a ... Once we've done that, and they've got to meet me, and I've got to meet them, it'll obviously be a lot clearer as to how we're going to develop things from there, quite honestly.

Chris Stafford: You mentioned the lectures as well. We all know that there are so many parts to puzzle here, to put them all together to create the horsemanship that you need as the basis for good riding, Leslie. Talk about those lectures and the kind of content that you will be delivering.

Leslie Law: I'll very much continue on from what David ... David started the program last year. I've had one meeting with David so far. It's extremely important that this continuity from what David starts and what I do. I think it's obviously important that David and I speak. Like I said, we've had one meeting already. We'll obviously, I think, definitely have some more hopefully before we go out to California as well. Those lectures, they're going to go down the same path really as what David started last year. There'll be some on theory, on the riding, then we'll be looking a little bit probably at stable management, things like shoeing and that sort of stable management side of it as well, quite honestly. It's carrying on from where David started, really.

Chris Stafford: Obviously putting your own ideas into the mix as well. What is it that motivates you so much about bringing on young people, like spotting young talent and producing it to take it to its fullest potential?

Leslie Law: What really ... The fact that it interests me is, I always think, I started pretty much from, well I did, from nothing, quite honestly. I was always ever so grateful for the people that were prepared to put the time into me and give me the time to get me where they did. Not necessarily just in the horses, people like Revel Guest, who I worked for, who's a tremendous business lady and gave me so many opportunities and so many experience. There's hundreds of people, way too many people to mention. I'm extremely appreciative of what those people did for me because without all that, without that help, there's no way I would've got to where I did. What I want to do now is try and help the next generation. Even if we can get 1 or 2 to where I got to, it would be fantastic.

Chris Stafford: All the way to that Olympic gold medal. Absolutely, Leslie. I want to wish you the best of luck with that. Whilst you're here, we are going to get a training tip of the week from you. What do you have in mind, Leslie?

Leslie Law: I think the winter months is always a good time to get a little bit back to basics and back to practicing things. One of the things we do at home, I do myself and the students do, we put out 4 poles. It's nothing new. As I've said in some of the other interviews with this is with riding, it's not about reinventing the wheel, quite honestly. It's getting back to good basics. A great exercise this time of year is to get 4 poles out, put them on a 20, 30 meter circle type of thing and learn to canter those poles, be able to meet them in stride, not be stepping all over them, but to meet the poles in their stride, be able to shorten the stride to the poles, be able to lengthen the stride to the poles, and really train your eye to that. It's a great exercise because it does help to train your eye. At the same time, it's not expensive on the horse's legs, which is the all-important things. It's getting the miles and getting the experience in without being expensive on the horse, quite honestly. That's a good exercise that you can accomplish all those things.

Chris Stafford: How large a circle would that be? Would you decrease it over time?

Leslie Law: Yeah, it depends on the level of the horse. The greener the horses are, the bigger the circle, to be fair because obviously they're not as established in their canter. The more advanced the horses are, you can put the poles on a smaller circle. I think 20 meters is small enough, quite honestly. Like I said, you can practice working on the number of strides between each way. There's so many things you can do with it. Again, with everything, look at what you're riding. Look at the experience of your horse and adjust it accordingly as well.

Chris Stafford: Important to do that exercise on both reigns, I'd imagine.

Leslie Law: Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. Keep it equal.

Chris Stafford: All right. A great tip there as the season meets us around the corner very quickly here. Lots of winter training involved before then, Leslie. I want to thank you very much indeed for coming on the program. Good luck with your new role as the Developing Rider Coach. Thanks again. Nice to speak to you.

Leslie Law: Thank you for calling.

Chris Stafford: A reminder that you can download this podcast from the iTunes podcast store to your smartphone podcast apps. Until the next time, thank you for listening and enjoy your eventing.