By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Kacy Brown
Kacy Brown Photography
Ocala, Florida’s Equestrian Photographer
Leslie Law’s life forever changed in 2004. As a member of the British eventing team, Leslie won the individual gold medal and team silver at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics aboard Shear L’Eau. That fall, he met Canadian eventer Lesley Grant when he traveled to Toronto, where he participated in a symposium on how to coach Advanced-level riders.
“I was a demo rider for that symposium. We then met six months later, both of us competing at the 2005 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, and the rest is history,” Lesley said, adding that having the same first names, although spelled differently, felt like a touch of fate. “It was like when you meet someone and it turns out you grew up on the same street or went to the same schools. It feels like the universe is telling you something. But it does get people confused, like the banks and our doctors. Even the USHJA morphed us into one human with one membership once.”
“When I knew Lesley was the one for me, obviously there was a choice of where we were going to live, as she was complaining about her phone bill,” Leslie chuckled. “I also wanted to develop my coaching skills so I would have a future after my riding career. America is known for having great systems of coaching and opportunity, so that was a great draw for me.”
A “snowbird” in Florida to escape the Canadian winters, Lesley was in love with the idea of making Ocala their homebase. In 2006, the duo officially made the United States their home, spending their summers in Virginia and winters in Ocala.
“We came to the United States together with exactly the following: I had a truck and two-horse trailer with one very good horse and a very good dog. Leslie came here with Stan, his gold-medal horse, and just enough money to get us started with renting a yard,” Lesley said. “We got our first home here rent-free in exchange for riding the owner’s two horses a few times a week.”
Thankful that Leslie moved to start fresh with her, Lesley spent what money she had on a splurge purchase. “I bought Leslie a Rolex, because growing up, that’s what all my parents’ friends had if they were successful. I wanted him to look and feel successful; probably stupid youth, but that’s what I did,” she said.
Fast forward nearly two decades: Leslie and Lesley are married, have a 15- year-old son, Liam, own a farm in Ocala where they run their Law Eventing business—and Leslie still has his Rolex.
Starting Out
A perfect pair today, Leslie and Lesley had quite opposite childhoods and introductions to horses. Growing up in a council house in England, Leslie was always connected to the countryside and agriculture thanks to his parents.
“My parents weren’t horsey per se, but they were always involved with farming and animals. When my brother, Graham, and I were quite young, our dad went to the auction and bought us an unbroke pony. He was a present and Dad told us that he was ours to do up and if we sold him, we could keep the money,” Leslie said.
That’s exactly what the boys did, with a little help from their father. “Dad would take him into the farmers’ fields for us to get on him when we were breaking him. It was quite a family event, and we eventually got him going great, sold him, made money and did it again,” he said. “That’s how my brother and I got our start.”
Across the pond in Canada, Lesley’s family lived outside of Toronto, where she was exposed more to city life than country life. “Early on, I was in love with all animals and once I saw a family friend ride a horse, I was starstruck by them. My parents got me into weekly riding lessons at a stable outside of the city thinking it would last about as long as my piano career,” Lesley laughed. “Little did they know.”
With predominantly jumper and dressage stables located near the city, Lesley dreamed of show jumpers Big Ben and Monopoly. “But I got the sense that kids like me with their OTTBs went into eventing—not show jumping or dressage. So, that’s where I headed and I began working with an old Polish cavalryman who loved his eventing,” Lesley said.
Being in England, where horses are a massive part of the culture, Leslie was exposed to all aspects of horse sport. “I hunted, point-to-pointed, did some jumping and actually came to America for the first time as a working student for Ian Silitch in his jumping program,” Leslie said. “But eventing was always my focus.”
Once they entered the world of eventing, neither Leslie nor Lesley looked back, each rising to the top of the sport in their respective home country. Leslie represented Team Great Britain at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, two European Championships and the FEI Eventing World Championships, gathering seven medals in his wake. Lesley competed twice at the Rolex Kentucky CCI5*, numerous four-star longs and has been short- and long-listed to many Canadian teams.
After his pony development as a kid, Leslie knew he wanted to earn a living working with horses. “As I knew I had to make my own living, I knew I didn’t love school and all I really did well was riding. I knew I would be a professional straight away from my teenage years, as there really wasn’t another option,” he said.
Lesley also knew from the start that she wanted to spend her whole life with horses; however, she didn’t want to break her parents’ hearts, so she pursued higher education earning numerous degrees including a master’s. “As a teenager, I didn’t know how hard it would be. I had this vision of becoming what I call a ‘movie star rider,’ never thinking where all the money was coming from or even how much money it would take. I didn’t foresee my ‘working rider’ life,” she said. “If I had to do it again, I still would have taken the same path.”
Dynamic Duo
Since opening Law Eventing in 2005, Leslie and Lesley have built a reputation for making dreams come true for young riders, amateurs, owners, buyers and sellers. The duo believes no matter what you’re doing, you should do it well. It doesn’t matter what your budget is or level you strive to compete at—do it well.
“Work hard, work focused and although we are all limited within the sport by our means at the time, we can all aspire to be the best within those means. We can do it with politeness and attention to detail. We shouldn’t just be a student of riding, we should also be a student of the animal and the art of horsemanship,” Lesley said.
A key to success for Leslie and Lesley has been never living above their means, regardless of how tempting that can be. “We always bought things we could afford and made sure we could pay for them. We bought young horses, produced them, sold them and did everything with a view of never getting in debt and owning everything ourselves,” she said.
Whenever possible, the duo tries to do everything themselves. “You can save a lot of money when you learn to do most of the business for yourself, and I’m lucky my wife is very good at writing, corresponding, accounting, creating proposals, etc. I’m pretty good at and actually enjoy a lot of the farm work, such as keeping the fields in good shape and doing the rings and I must say, I keep a great English hedge on my dressage ring,” Leslie said.
Leslie and Lesley consider themselves lucky when it comes to being partners in life and in business. “We are strong as individuals, but we are even stronger together,” Lesley said.
Although they work together at Law Eventing, each developing riders and horses, Leslie and Lesley each have their own sweet spots of the business. “Aside from riding and producing the young horses, Lesley is the business manager, scheduler, big sister, owner liaison, accountant, secretary and teacher for all of our clients up until they are ready for Advanced, at which point she still does quite a bit of the dressage and show jumping,” Leslie said.
Lesley describes her husband as the consummate horseman. “He truly can turn his hand at anything horse related, even pulling tails and clipping as good as any top groom and probably better than most grooms. His depth of horse and riding knowledge could fill an encyclopedia as he has knowledge through experience and has padded it with expertise from legends he’s worked with from around the world,” she said. “He is in charge of our students once they enter the realm of Advanced, the ones getting close to lists, and often a mentor and coach to other professionals.”
Until very recently, Law Eventing was a full-scale training operation. They often had 25 to 28 horses in the winter and 18 to 20 horses in the summer, all either on full training with students or with Leslie and Lesley to ride and train. In addition to managing the horses and clients, both Leslie and Lesley often traveled to give clinics, all while Leslie was the Eventing Development coach for USEF.
Latest Ventures
After a lifetime of eventing and having many high moments there, Lesley decided she would go back to those childhood memories of drooling over Monopoly and Big Ben and try her hand at show jumping. “With the birth of the World Equestrian Center in my backyard and the stress of trying to compete four horses at the upper levels, plus coach a healthy cast of clients and being a parent—well, it was hard to do everything. Something had to give, and it wasn’t our clients,” she said. “Now I can jump during the week and I’m free to cater to our eventing clients on the weekends.”
Lesley has purchased two young horses and recently transitioned one of her event horses into a jumper. “I’ve really enjoyed having a new personal quest that is different, engaging in a new mental and physical challenge, meeting some really fantastic professionals in the jumper world. I’ve always loved the challenge of digging deep into learning something new, so I’m loving this jumper world,” she said. “I only wish I had the backing to give it a proper go and see what I could do.”
While Lesley is running the home front and pursuing jumpers, Leslie assumed his own new role in February when he became the chef d’equipe and high performance manager for the Defender U.S. Eventing Team. Lesley lovingly refers to her husband’s new role as the “Eventing American Bald Eagle.”
Leslie has gone from competing seven horses to having one horse and diving into what he hopes will be a golden future for top-level American eventing. “The lack of horses has been slightly unsettling for me; however, I think I will always have hopefully two young ones that I think are top class that I can produce, and maybe down the line an American can go win a medal for me with them,” he said. “That would make me very happy!”
Looking back at his own time at the top of the sport, Leslie still finds it hard to put into words what it was like to win Olympic gold. “It was incredible to live through it at the time, but even more so now looking back and realizing what I had, what my team had for that run of years when we were on top. It’s unbelievable, really,” Leslie said. “We had a champagne run, in a golden age of British eventing, worldwide, and I can never be thankful enough for having that in my life.”
While Leslie still adores his home country, he’s fully invested in helping Team USA climb to the top of the podium under his watch. “I’m very much a Brit, always will be. Lesley will tell you I got out of bed to stand there for King Charles’ coronation. But I also love my new country, the country of my son, the country of my family and business. I would love nothing more than to bring that champagne run of success to American eventing,” he said. “If I could do that, I would consider myself entirely fulfilled, professionally.”
Leslie has always looked forward to his coaching era, so having the opportunity to lead the American eventing efforts is a true honor and privilege. “I’m taking this role very seriously and hope to garner very good results. We had a good start in Aachen and Arville, so I’m looking forward to the path to L.A. 2028,” he said.
Law Family
Three days before Lesley was scheduled to go to the 2008 Hong Kong Olympics, her team horse was injured. As a result, Lesley decided it was time for her and Leslie to start a family.
“I sat at a bar pretty tearful and maybe a touch drunk, looked at Leslie and declared, ‘Well, that’s my best horse off the road, we might as well get pregnant!’ Although it may sound a bit funny, it’s true and how Liam came to be,” she said. “He was the very best thing that neither Leslie nor I thought we ever needed but have found out that we could never live without.”
Never wanting to be the mom who handed her child off to a nanny while she went about life as usual, Lesley knew if she had a kid, she wanted to do it right and be present for as many moments as possible. “That’s not to say I didn’t have a girl who would watch him while I rode, but aside from that, Leslie and I have been hands-on parents,” Lesley said.
Liam came to every show and every horse shopping trip with his parents. “I’m sure there are 1,000 ways to raise a child well, but my philosophy was that if we were going to have a kid, we were going to do it all ourselves,” Lesley said. “Now that he’s older, it’s a bit different; we leave him home for shows so he doesn’t miss school or his activities he wants to do.”
Liam learned to ride, but his true passion is soccer. “He’s played competitively since he was small and is very invested in it now. It’s great because his dad is a huge ‘football’ fan and it’s what they can share together. The games give me and Leslie a social outlet outside of horses,” Lesley said.
Although the couple works 24/7, they make a point of taking time to recharge their batteries as a family. “We work nonstop six to eight weeks at a time and then the three of us run away for about three or four days. If we get four days, we usually go to Siesta Key—that’s our spot where we go to unwind and get our groove back,” Lesley said. “If we have two or three days, we go to Orlando hit up the designer outlets, lounge around the pool and avoid the tourist attractions and theme parks.”
After some R&R, Leslie and Lesley are ready to hit the ground running to achieve their future goals. “If I ever get to the 1.40m jumpers competitively with some nice horses, that would be like a dream come true, straight out of Disney. I will try my best, but hopefully you will see me continuing to produce some very good young event riders, managing a very good business, keeping my husband swimming in the right direction and being in the right place at the right time, and producing one heck of a young American citizen in our son,” Lesley said. “That’s my hope, but I would like that 1.40m cherry on top.”
Leslie also hopes to develop talent for the future in his role with USEF and at Law Eventing. “I would like to keep producing some lovely young horses that will go forward and produce for America, while leading some very good American athletes towards medals in our future,” he said.
For more information visit www.leslielaweventing.com
Photos by Kacy Brown, kacybrownphotography.com
