Tuesday March 25, 2003

A New Leo In Her Life - Anne Gribbons and Leoliet

A Little Romance

Recently, when Shannon decided that she needed to be in Europe this year to concentrate on Korona, her Grand Prix horse, she realized that Leoliet’s career might not fit into her plan, so she gave up her ride on him. Owner Judy Bernier, a client of Anne’s, is also the owner of several other horses in Anne’s barn, including Metallic, who was Robert Dover’s mount at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Anne had ridden Leoliet when he was six years old and was offered the ride on him then, but did not accept.

“I had promised myself that my years of riding breeding stallions were over,” said Anne. “Therefore, at that point I thanked her very much and I said, ‘No – find him a rider that is stronger and younger and would like that challenge’. We stood 15 breeding stallions over the years (at Knoll Farm) and I rode at least 10 to 12 of them in competition, and I promised I’d never do that again!”

But as fate would have it, Leoliet came back to Anne’s barn and while she was trying to figure out who should take over his competition career, she rode him. “Somehow we started to like each other. And so far, we really have a little romance going. You never know how long the honeymoon is going to be. But one thing that I know from riding stallions – you have to suck up to them,” said Anne, and added with a laugh, “So there’s plenty of sucking up going on!"