• In a game where experience counts for more than whatever else.
• Strive for decorations very much into their 40s, the world equestrian.
• Learn and adapt for impending Canadian rider Naima Moreira Laliberte.

Naima Moreira Laliberte, the prevailing Pan American Games champion in group dressage, completed 59th on her pony Statesman.

In the singular Grand Prix last week in Denmark’s Herning, a noteworthy outcome given she was challenging her lady universes.

“The opportunity to be on the international stage, in a big stadium in one of the world’s best competitions is amazing. This is a step in the right direction for me,” Laliberte told.

“There are so many things that could have been better and it’s so hard to go mistake-free. It’s a difficult sport and that’s what makes it so interesting. But overall, I’m very happy. Just being there is an achievement.”

As the little girl of Guy Laliberte, who helped to establish the famous Canada-based contemporary carnival act Cirque du Soleil, performing were a universal piece of her experience growing up yet dressage was a late expansion notwithstanding her initial love for ponies.

Worn out on seeing Laliberte tumbling off her pony while show bouncing, her stressed dad acquainted her with an equestrian companion show, which in the long run permitted her to change to the apparently more secure discipline of dressage.

“I remember him taking me there and in my head I wasn’t convinced. ‘I was like, where is the adrenaline?'” said Laliberte. “But luckily for him, I fell in love with a Lusitano horse and he became my best friend growing up.”

The fussbudget in Laliberte ultimately started to appreciate dressage and keeping in mind that the journey for consistent improvement can periodically get monotonous, she considers it to be an extraordinary approach to testing herself.

“This is the worst sport for a perfectionist,” added Laliberte. “You’re competing in front of five or seven judges, but the way I see it, dressage is a competition with myself trying to get the movements and combinations right.”

With the extreme media focus on the family because of her well known father, ponies resembled a place of refuge for the youthful Laliberte, who frequently rested in the slows down on ends of the week.

“It wasn’t easy with people surrounding us all the time,” she recalled. “Growing up can be chaotic and horses were my own little universe.”

She has been helped en route by Ashley Holzer, a bronze medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics who was one of Laliberte’s initial motivations and later came on board as her coach in 2019.

Laliberte went to last year’s Tokyo Games as a hold rider for the Canadian group and not entirely settled to take care of business for Paris 2024.

“Before Ashley I wasn’t an international Grand Prix rider. She really guided me. There is still much to absorb and learn. I’m still scratching the surface,” said Laliberte.

“My eyes are on the next Olympics. That would be a dream come true.”

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