Leatherdale Farms Celebrates Second Consecutive Dressage Breeder Award
Leatherdale Farms has long been recognized for its superior-quality Hanoverian breeding program, both in the United States and in Germany. The Leatherdale team includes high performance riders and horses that compete in many different countries, but three riders choose to train and show in Wellington during the winter season in order to gain experience competing in a top-notch environment.
For the second year in a row, Louise Leatherdale and Leatherdale Farms received the prestigious Adequan/USDF Dressage Breeder of the Year award after earning top scores at the 2017 Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington and at other competitions in the United States. In addition to the breeder award, many of Leatherdale’s young horses also received recognition in the USDF Horse of the Year awards, as well as in the American Hanoverian Society year-end awards.
With an impressive score of 192, which was nearly 100 points higher than the next breeder, the Leatherdale Farms breeding program was rewarded with the extraordinary averages of several sport horses, many of which are by its own stallions.
“The Leatherdale Farms horses are very talented and the top breeding is evident in the creation of very intelligent and athletic horses,” Leatherdale Farms young horse rider/trainer Mike Suchanek said.
Suchanek also credits the teams’ success to the pride Leatherdale and her late husband, Doug, had for their operation, as well as their dedication and passion for the horses.
“Doug and Louise really took their time and did their research to hand-pick the lineages, as they wanted to create a line of horses that were talented but also had great minds,” Suchanek explained. “Louise is a very special woman — she carries on the passion that Doug had for this sport and for the horses. She wants the very best for her horses, and she cares just as much about the people she hires as she does her amazing animals.”
Leatherdale Farms’ 17-year-old gelding Devon L’s experience shone through as he claimed first place in the Grand Prix Open All-Breed award for the American Hanoverian Society after his stand-out season in Wellington. Devon L has won the award several times during his successful career, and in 2017, he earned points with the help of both Diane Creech and her 17-year-old daughter, Vanessa Creech-Terauds, who also began competing in the Under 25 Grand Prix division with him last spring.
“Devon L loves to perform, and he has taken me so many places. I will always be grateful to him and to Louise, who has supported us all these years,” Creech said. “It makes it even more wonderful as he now is carrying on his legacy with my daughter in the U25 division. They both are making compromises, bonding and becoming more and more of a team.”
Creech-Terauds has also achieved great success with Fleur de Lis L, an 8-year-old Hanoverian mare by First Dance, one of Leatherdale Farms’ top stallions standing at stud in Kentucky. Though 2017 was only their second year competing together as a pair, they have topped many CDI classes, as well as won the American Hanoverian Society’s Prix St. Georges Junior/Young Rider award.
“Riding and growing with Fleur has been an amazing experience and learning opportunity,” Creech-Terauds said. “At shows, she has such a super mindset and really focuses on working with you throughout all of the movements in the test. She has an amazing, natural ability to collect, which is super in the pirouettes. Fleur is so willing, and you know that she will always try her heart out for you.”
A few of Leatherdale’s talented young horses, including Duchess L, Hannigan L and Hero L, also earned national awards and are continuing to move up the levels.
“They are happy horses, and I try to instill in them a sense of confidence every time I ride, so they can trust me, and I can trust them. I think that keeps them happy and successful,” Suchanek said, expressing optimism for the coming years. “When the horses are mentally and physically ready to develop, they are eager to learn, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to keep training them up the levels and have them keep progressing.”
Recently in Wellington, Olympian Sue Blinks and Creech have earned high marks from judges on Leatherdale’s upper-level horses. Blinks rode Habanero L in his Grand Prix debut, while Creech won the opening Prix St. Georges CDI with Robbie W and headed down centerline aboard Diana C in the CDI3* Grand Prix.
Though European breeders have a strong reputation for developing the world’s best sport horses, Creech-Terauds believes that the horses bred by Leatherdale Farms have great potential to achieve successful international careers.
“A successful breeding program is not only about matching the best mare and the best stallion. Louise truly understands the necessity of giving young horses the time and confidence to develop,” Creech-Terauds explained. “Their American-bred young horses are not only correctly developed physically, but also mentally, so they can be world-class athletes.”
When you have such a carefully selected breeding program combined with careful training, people take notice, Creech-Terauds said.
“North American breeders and riders are beginning to recognize that these great horses were bred and raised in the United States, and their success speaks for itself,” she said.
Visit www.leatherdalefarms.com to learn more.
