Canada’s Leslie Reid Is On Her Mark At World Cup Final

As Canada's representative at the World Cup Finals, Leslie Reid is gearing up for the biggest equestrian event to take place in North America this century.

 In the biggest equestrian event to take place in North America this century, dressage and show jumping super stars from around the globe have converged on Las Vegas for the Budweiser World Cup Final. The 2005 Final is a historic first, combining show jumping and dressage at the same venue over the same time period. Canada will be represented in the dressage final by Olympian Leslie Reid on the eleven-year-old Dutch Warmblood Mark, who is owned by Deryol Andrews and St. Andrews Fishing Lodge. Reid and Mark have had a remarkable career together, having won team silver and individual gold at the 2003 Pan American Games, and competed on the Canadian team at the Athens Olympics.

The World Cup of Dressage is the most important annual competition in the international dressage calendar. It is specifically designed to highlight dressage’s most spectator-friendly form of competition, the freestyle to music. Riders from every continent spend months vying with one another for the opportunity to represent their country as an individual. Through a complicated qualification system, stronger countries in the sport, such as Germany, the USA and the Netherlands, are represented by more than one entry. The World Cup Final consists of two stages: a Grand Prix dressage test, which will determine who will progress to the Freestyle Final, which constitutes the second stage. Those who do not finish the Grand Prix in the top half will compete in a consolation Freestyle competition the day before the final.

Seventeen horses from ten nations will be presented to the ground jury for the official veterinary inspection on April 19. This year’s field includes the reigning World Cup and Olympic champion Anky van Grunsven of the Netherlands on her Olympic mount Salinero, as well as Hubertus Schmidt, who helped Germany win team gold in Athens. Another German to make the trip to Las Vegas is Isabell Werth, a past Olympic and World Cup champion. The United States has a total of four entries, one being the 2003 World Cup winner, Debbie McDonald and Brentina.

Leslie Reid, who is from Langley, British Columbia, has spent the last six weeks competing in California in preparation for the World Cup. She and Mark won the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle at both CDI (FEI sanctioned) competitions they attended. At the first, which was also the US Freestyle Championship and final World Cup qualifier for the USA, Reid and Mark scored 75.85% in their freestyle, which would have put them second behind McDonald and Brentina, had they been competing against the Americans in the US final. “The shows this spring went very well for us,” says Reid. “It was just the kind of preparation we needed to go into the World Cup.” The arena in Las Vegas has caused concern for some riders, because it is small, leaving little space between the horse and the spectators. Reid says that Mark is generally a calm and cool horse in the ring. “He is a happy competitor. I think that he will handle the atmosphere here.”


World Cup Final 2005 Dressage Schedule

Wednesday April 20
1:30 pm – Dressage Open Training

Thursday April 21
12:45 pm – Opening Ceremony
1:00 pm – Grand Prix Test

Friday April 22
1:00 pm – B Freestyle Final (consolation)

Saturday April 23
7:15 pm – World Cup Final Freestyle

World Cup Final Competitors
Leslie Reid Canada
Ceasar Parra Columbia
Andreas Helgstrand Denmark
Lone Joergensen Denmark
Isabell Werth Germany
Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff Germany
Hubertus Schmidt Germany
Carl Hester Great Britain
Anky van Grunsven Netherlands
Edward Gal Netherlands
Sven Rothenberger Netherlands
Elena Sidneva Russia
Jan Brink Sweden
Marie-Line Wettstein  Switzerland
Robert Dover USA
Debbie McDonald USA
Leslie Morse USA
Guenter Seidel USA