Leslie Law Plans to Live and Compete in the USA

The November 17 issue of Horse & Hound reports that Leslie Law, the reigning Individual Olympic Gold Medalist, will be moving his operation to the United States. The only horse he will be bringing with him is Shear L'Eau, his Athens mount, who not only won the Individual Gold Medal, but was a member of the Silver Medal Team at the 2004 Games. Leslie will be aiming Shear L'Eau for the Rolex-Kentucky CCI**** next April.

Leslie has been an integral part of the British Team since the Sydney Olympic Games where he and his other Shearwater Insurance mount Shear H2O were members of the Silver Medal Team. Law has also represented his home country at the European Championships in Punchestown (IRE), in 2003, where the Team won the Gold Medal and Leslie was the only rider to finish wihin the optimum time. (Law is pictured at the right on Coup de Coeur jumping a duck at The Head of the Lake at the 2005 Rolex-Kentucky CCI****.)

Leslie plans to continue to ride for Great Britain should he be selected for the WEG - now to be called The FEI Games - at Aachen, Germany, late next summer. Yogi Breisner, the team manager for GBR, has stated that Leslie will remain a member of Britain's elite squad. "He will be treated exactly the same as all the other British riders. His role as a member of the Performance squad will be the same as in the past," Breisner said.

Horse & Hound reports that Coup de Coeur, Keith Scott's horse whom Leslie rode to second place at the Rolex-Kentucky CCI****, in 2005, ". . . is rumored to be going to his team-mate William Fox-Pitt."

Law has been based at Naunton, Worcestershire, in England. He will be based with Canada's Lesley Grant, she of the infamous crash and burn at the Fair Hill International CCI***, last October. (Lesley Grant and Timber Spirit are pictured at the left falling at The Loons, at Fair Hill in October. Both Lesley and Timber Spirit walked away without serious injury.)