With a passion for dressage, this young rider has made a name for herself in the FEI Pony division.

Not many 5-year-old girls aspire to be top dressage riders. Even fewer would stick with their original dreams for the next 10 years. But that’s exactly what Isabelle Leibler has done, riding her own ponies up from training level to the FEI Pony division.

Today, Leibler, 15, is a frequent competitor at the East Coast CDI competitions where she competes with Going West and Depardieu, and she’s hoping to compete at the 2010 European Pony Dressage Championship in Hagen, Germany.

Raised around horses—her mother Renee showed hunters—Isabelle started riding around the time she could walk. But she wasn’t introduced to dressage until a trip to the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) in 2000. The Leibler family was living in Connecticut at the time, and they made the trip south for Renee to show several of her hunters on the winter circuit. During the day, Isabelle would wander over to the dressage ring and spend hours there observing the tests.

“The whole time we were in Wellington, she kept disappearing to the dressage ring. My husband and I would be looking for her, saying, ‘Where’s Isabelle?’ ” Renee said. “She would come back and say, ‘I was over there watching the horses dance.’ She never stopped talking about it the whole time we were there.”

When the Leibler family returned home, with Isabelle still clamoring for dressage lessons, Renee began trying to find a trainer for her.

“We did some research,” Renee said. “Lendon Gray’s barn was about 15 minutes away. I said, ‘Lendon, my daughter wants to ride dressage.’ She looked at me and said, ‘How old is she?’ So I told her 5, and she said, ‘Does she know what dressage is?’ ”

A Prodigy

Lendon’s initial surprise over Isabelle’s decision soon waned, replaced by amazement at her motivation and intellectual prowess.

“The first pony she had with me was the classic little Welsh pony, around 12.2 hands, and would run her into the corner. Isabelle was just so determined,” Gray remembered.

Isabelle started taking lessons on the naughty hunter pony, but when she was 7 she got her first dressage pony from Ashley Holzer. The 7-year-old gelding, Get The Picture or “Dreamy,” turned out to be a perfect ride for a still
fairly new dressage rider.

“Her parents got her Dreamy, and he was just as perfect a pony as he could be,” Gray said. “He was just well trained, and he helped her. He was always exactly at her level. As she got better, he became fancier. He was truly a remarkable pony.”

Dreamy and Isabelle moved up the levels together, all the way from training level to second level, and then to the FEI Pony tests. Lendon also had Isabelle do some jumping and trail riding to keep her from getting burnt out on dressage alone, but she said that even at a very young age, Isabelle was most interested in dressage—wanting to know all the intricacies of the sport.

“From the time she was about 7, I basically taught her as an adult,” Gray said. “She’s a very bright young lady and very determined. I was able to explain things pretty much like she was an adult. She has a talent but also a tremendous focus, and she really thinks about her riding.”

Isabelle added, “I was into it. I think it was partly because I didn’t get too focused on it. I still did some jumping in my spare time. I didn’t overwhelm myself at first. It was a really great experience. Lendon taught me the very basics of riding. She taught me horsemanship, sportsmanship—she was a really important mentor to me.”

Going To Germany

In 2007, Isabelle started riding with Lars Petersen, based in Loxahatchee, Fla. The family wintered there for a few seasons before eventually moving to Wellington, Fla.

“I really appreciate his horsemanship,” Isabelle said of Petersen. “That’s the main thing I first saw with him. He really understands the horse—when to push and when to back off. He’s a great teacher, and he mostly is just great with understanding what the horse needs.”

As Dreamy got older and less sound, the Leiblers turned to Germany for Isabelle’s next ride. They found the then 6-year-old Going West, a German Riding Pony (Going East—Night Lady) five years ago and imported him.

He wasn’t the easiest ride at first, but Isabelle has learned how to handle his quirks and how to excel with them—the two regularly score in the high 60s in their team and individual Pony tests and in the low 70s in their freestyles.

“He’s the ultimate chestnut pony,” Isabelle said of Going West. “He’s difficult. He’s not easy, but he’s very talented. It makes training fun with him. It doesn’t come in a couple of minutes. He tests you, and he’ll come out and say, ‘Oh, I don’t feel like doing this today.’ If you start fighting with him he shuts down and ignores you, so you have to be tactful.”

The Leiblers imported a second German Riding Pony for Isabelle a few years later. That pony, Depardieu (Don Joshi—Chantal), turned out to be a different ride than Going West but has also been a winning partner for Isabelle.

“Depardieu is very sweet. He’s a little more reserved,” Isabelle said. “He’s a spooky horse. He spooks at everything. He’s the kind of horse that needs a rider there to protect him, whereas Going West is very independent. He looks to his rider for security.”

Thanks to her high scores with Going West and Depardieu, Isabelle was invited to compete in the 2010 European Pony Dressage Championship. She’s looking forward to competing in Europe but also to moving up to the Young Rider tests with her 11-year-old Danish Warmblood mare Dream-Light (Mid West—Aiva).

“She’s not a pony!” Isabelle joked about Dream-Light. “She’s a lot more forgiving, a lot smarter and a lot more understanding of the riding. It’s been an easy transition, but I’m glad I’ve had these ponies. They’ve taught me to ride everything.”

“She’s gone through stages with the ponies, but she’s just stuck with it and stuck with it,” Renee added. “Lars has helped her train them to the level. She’s learning how to be a trainer, which is a wonderful thing, but it can be frustrating, of course.”

Isabelle hasn’t decided what her future beyond Young Riders will hold. She’s home-schooled now and devotes most of her free time to riding, but she’s also passionate about volleyball, politics and economics.

“Being a dressage professional has always been in my mind,” she said. “I don’t have a particular plan at the moment. I want to figure out how to do a little bit of everything I’m interested in.”