In March she was among a small group of riders selected to participate in Charlotte Dujardin’s first symposium in North America, at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. Two months later, in early May, Leslie Reid rode with Anky Van Grunsven at a symposium hosted at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, BC.

Reid found several similarities between the current and former Olympic champions. “The common denominator was how forward they want you to go,’ says Reid. ‘You always think you are going forward, but what they wanted was more than I would have imagined.”

Reid, a lifelong student and teacher, does not make a practice of questioning a trainer when she is in the role of student. But at one point during a ride with Van Grunsven, she broke her personal rule. “As I was flying around in my collected trot, I asked Anky,” is this really the speed for collected trot?” Van Grunsven answered with a question of her own: “Have you been to Europe lately?” Dujardin not only coached the riders to go very forward, she also rode that way when she frequently mounted up during the symposium. “Charlotte was doing the same thing,” says Reid. “They want you to really, really gallop.”

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