About

About Leah

Leah Drew, age 18, started with her current partner Jazz Beat (Jazzy), an 18-hand 2010 Hanoverian gelding by Jazz out of a Sandro Hit mare in July 2021. Around the same time, the pair began working with Hope Cooper at Bear Spot Farm. They have competed through FEI Juniors with scores of 74+, and were the #1 ranked FEI Juniors pair in the US in 2022.

Recently, Leah and Jazz recently won a bronze medal at the junior national championship at the USA Dressage Festival of Champions 2023. They were invited to the 2022 Carl Hester Symposium but on by the New England Dressage Association. Leah is the youngest person to ever be a demo rider at this event, in front of an audience of 900+ people. In addition, they performed as demo riders at Equine Affaire in Springfield, Massachusetts, and were invited, as 1 of 20 top youth riders, for both the 2023 and 2024 USA Dressage Robert Dover Horsemastership Clinic (Rode Jazz in 2023, rode Damons Davian in 2024)

In the summer of 2022, Leah qualified for the North American Youth Championships and the USA Dressage Festival of Champions as the number one qualifier. She anchored the Region 8 junior team to a 4th place finish at NAYC and placed in the top 10 on both days at Festival.

Leah is currently training with Hope Cooper at Bear Spot Farm in Concord, Massachusetts. Together, they have already made huge strides together, with Hope coaching Leah to a double win in her first CDI, the highest scores in the country in all 3 Junior tests, a bronze medal at both the 2023 North American Youth Championships and Junior National Championship, and helping Leah transition to the FEI Young Riders.

In November 2022, Leah, with the help of Hope, Jane Karol, Christoph Koschel, and Hof Kasselman imported the 12-year-old Westphalian gelding Damons Davian (Dezi) as a young riders schoolmaster. After debuting at the Prix St. George in 2023, Leah and Dezi went on to qualify as an FEI Junior for the North American Youth Championship, leading their team to a bronze and finishing individually 3rd, and a 5th place finish at the 2023 USA Dressage Festival of Champions. In 2024, they will make the jump to the FEI Young Riders.

Leah’s first mount was Raspotnik Silas, (Silas) whom she began riding in 2014. Silas was a 2004 Dales pony with whom Leah went from introductory to the second level.

Leah was fortunate to go to Florida during the winters of 2020 and 2021 to train with Lendon Gray as a part of Dressage4Kids’ Winter Intensive Training Program. Leah has participated in many of D4K’s programs. She has been a member of the TEAM program since 2016 and participated in Lendon’s Youth Dressage Festival in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. She qualified for LYDF for 2020, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Early Years

Leah first sat on a horse at 11 months old, and it has been non-stop since then. She began lessons at age 5, and went to her first show in 2013, at age 7, with an Icelandic pony named Thor. She competed in her first dressage show with Thor at the introductory level in 2014. She started in Pony Club, earning her D-1 and D-2 in the traditional track with Thor, then switched to dressage and achieved her D-3, C-1, and C-2 with Silas, as well as up to C-2 in Horse Management.

From ages 5 to 15, Leah trained under FEI dressage trainer Marie Louise Barrett at Berryfield Farm in Lincoln Massachusetts. With Marie Louise, Leah took her first steps in the dressage world and went from the introductory level to her first season as an FEI junior rider.