Post by Lesleigh 'Leigh' Eccleston on May 3, 2011 20:49:07 GMT
PLAYBY: Zara Phillips
FULL NAME: Lesleigh Reagan Eccleston
NICKNAMES: Lesleigh, Leigh, Les, Lessy, and a multitude more to figure out for you
AGE: 27 (June 19th, 1983)
GENDER: Female
ETHNICITY: Caucasian, British and Belgian heritage
STUDENT OR STAFF: Staff - Horse Trainer, assistant-if-required, Cross Country Team Coach
HALL: Hallow Flats
PERSONALITY: Leigh is your average no-nonsense, semi-fearless, slightly impulsive and fairly reckless woman. Oh, and she's slightly crazy, according to her friends - as her heart is forever belonging to the sport of Eventing, those traits aren't that bad. Leigh's a good girl, though competitive and more than a bit paranoia regarding her horses. It's a sign of her protective and loyal nature - once she had given her heart to something or someone, she'll stick to it and do whatever is necessary... And possible. Because though she's headstrong and determined, she's also well aware of boundaries. Usually, Leigh tries to push over them, but the general existence and usage of boundaries is known to her.
When you catch her on a calm moment, she's a fairly easy-going, though not necessarily very socializing young woman. Her life revolves pretty much about her hobby, sport and work (all somehow including horses) and chit-chat isn't up her alley. However, with a little effort she's a very nice woman, and the part of her being a good friend comes naturally to her.
A busy and hectic schedule doesn't really bother Leigh. The more pressure, the better she seems to perform. Emotions are to be put off, stashed away. Sometimes they surface, though, and that usually presents a bill to Leigh. Either she's unusually snappy (snapping isn't that weird for her, she's pretty impatient at times) or when it's bad, actually gets physically unwell because of the kept-in emotions.
She's better with horses than humans - her warmth shines through better, maybe, or they're just smart enough to figure her out. Whatever it is, a combination of experience, warmth, recklessness and fearlessness and some strictness make her into a pretty good rider and trainer - eventually, she can handle most horses. They make her feel more herself than actual humans, though she's improving every single day. Social skills are important too, and she's working on them.
Stress might be something she copes well with, frustrations and anger are something else. She's not that patient, often easily frustrated by slow reactions or people that ignore her for some reason. She gets cranky then, though nothing too bad. Anger is a different story -if you get her pissed off, she'll lash out (maybe even literally) and that doesn't always end well.
BACKGROUND:
Lesleigh was born in a slightly unorthodox family - her father owner of a in European terms rather huge lap of ground called Eccleston Estate and with ties to the English royal family, her mother Eloíse Simonis, part of a Belgian noble family. Their marriage wasn't really welcomed by their family, but fair-headed and stubborn Elli, as her mother was soon nicknamed, wasn't easy to stop. Together with her three Belgian warmblood horses she relocated to Eccleston Manor after their marriage, continuing her love and sometimes succesful stints in the Show Jumping sport. In the same time, Trevor Eccleston continued his business and the breeding of dressage horses, though occasionally borrowing Viceroy, Elli's stallion.
It was for both of them completely unexpected when Elli turned out to be pregnant, going to deliver a healthy young baby girl. Once Lesleigh was born though they could do nothing else but adore the girl, with her fathers blue eyes and her mothers blonde hair.
Living in the grand house, with acres and acres of almost untouched wood and picturesque farms (owned by her father, rented by the farmers), the little girl had everything she could dream of, especially with all the horses around the house. Leigh was only two when she (consciously) first sat on a horse, and in the years that followed school came, just like new friends, but somehow horses were the most attractive. The by then retired Viceroy was the horse could ride first - the old stallion was so gentle and friendly towards the young girl, problems were non-existent in this 'combination'. When she was four, they moved to the Netherlands, partly to be closer to Eloíse's roots, and partly because they'd found a nice house there, with a good promotion for Trevor, and space for a few horses. School there was a challenge for tri-lingual Lesleigh - at home they spoke English, Flemmish and a bit of French, and now she suddenly had to restrict herself to Dutch. However, the girl quickly adapted and was rewarded for her efforts at school with a Welsh Mountain pony, Rascal.
Playfully she learned to ride, under the always slightly worried eyes from her parents - she had a few wild tendencies, not only on horseback, but also in school, where she often got in problems because she was a daydreamer who accidentally ignored everyone and everything, much to the frustrations of her teachers. However, her grades were good enough to pass every time, and as such she had enough time for her favorite hobby. Horse riding.
She rather quickly outgrew her little Welsh, Merrylegs, and got 'upgraded' to a Connemara pony called Stonewall. Stoney was a sturdy gelding with a love for crossing outside, jumping every obstacle he could. And who was the young girl to object? So her parents did. Stoney got loaned out, and a more well mannered gelding came into their yard. With this one, she got dressage lessons from her father, show jumping from her mother, and a friend of hers from school went out with her as well. She had the perfect life, and it only continued.
Friends might not be abundant, but she had a good few friends, with whom she had a life outside of school and horses as well, but home and horses always lured her back pretty quick. As she grew older, stronger and more experienced, once again 'Stoney' got back to their house. And this time, she was allowed to cross around with him as well. Many hours were spent that way, and due to lots of bareback practice and just messing about with Stonewall, her seat improved rapidly. However, it wasn't what she loved most, and she still had an eye on one of her fathers horses, bred at Eccleston Estate - or more accurately, Somersault Stud, as he had dubbed his slightly exploded hobby. Somersault's Mighty Tango, shortly Tango, had caught her eye as a young colt, and though he should've been sold, then twelve year old Lesleigh pleaded and begged to keep the foal. And she got her way.
In the next three years, she got a German Riding Pony to practice some more on and start in competitions, as Stonewall didn't quite like pressure and crowds. Two years long, she felt like she was on top of the world. Her name soon got known in the Dutch circles, as she often ended in the top five. Her luck changed when she was only a few weeks into her fifteenth year of life.
In what her parents called a freak accident, both of them, she and her pony, misjudged a jump and pretty much collided with it in mid air. The resulting fall ended in a wrecked jump, a hurt shoulder for her pony, and a broken shin and hip for her. However, to everyone's surprise, two weeks flat in the hospital, four weeks on crutches, and she was back in the saddle, of old trusted Viceroy - old, pulled fresh out of retirement for it. It was the boost in confidence Leigh needed, though, and a few weeks after that, she started with the prestigious project of breaking in the then gelded Tango.
Though difficult, she succeeded in the end, with of course the professional help of the head trainer. For this, she had returned to England, but as soon as Tango was done and ready, she decided to take him back home. After all, she had pretty much lived in the Netherlands for all her life until then. With the talented gelding, she quickly made a name for herself - again. Only this time, it wasn't all positive. Tango was young, green, and fairly difficult. However, despite several falls, some even hard, Lesleigh was determined to make the world see what she already knew about him.
And frankly said; after three more years of hard training her first start in the 'adult' levels paid off big time - third place. However, her triumphs didn't last long; in september her study started. After a lot of difficult decisions and long deliberations, she had picked out a study loosely translated Equine Leisure Managment, which basically taught her all about horses, horse-related events, legal implications, everything she needed to know and didn't yet know.
The four years her study took, split her apart from Tango a few times: she actually had the chance to go abroad. He went along to England, where they briefly took the spotlight by showing up out of nowhere on a fairly big competiton and taking the second place, before returning home. Then, a six-week stint in Aachen followed, looking at preparations for the big competition, and half a year she closely followed preparations for the WEG. Her enjoyment was complete, especially after she got the longed-for diploma.
Strangely enough, little happened after that. She took Tango back to the UK, occupied an empty wing at Eccleston Manor and started her career as Eventer in earnest. And the Eventing world knew. By the time she was 24, so two years after her move to England, she was regular on the podium, often even taking first place. However, the big CCI**** she didn't dare, until somehow Tango seemed to reach a new level at the age of thirteen. They went for Badminton, and quite literally out of the blue they won. Victory was sweet, and her name set.
From the, she had a regular 'set' of three or four horses extra to ride in competitions, an additional three or four to train. She was swamped with work, hardly had time for on-and-off boyfriend, who was a pretty avid horse rider too. Rivalry was too much in the chaotic household, so in the end they both decided they'd better go on as friends, not as lover. It was then she bought Jinx, the boxer pup - at least the dog could withstand the chaos.
Guys were sparse in her life after that, although occasional flings occurred. Usually, she simply didn't have the time. With 25 and an accomplished career, Leigh knew she'd better start looking around and start training Tango's 'heir'- the gelding was getting bored at performing, and he was thirteen - with one or two years she'd have to retire him. It was then that she found 'Blitz'. It wasn't her show name, but Blitz, german for Lightning, fitted the chestnut perfectly. She was enormously fast and agile, strong enough to conquer pretty much every jump Leigh put her in front of, but skittish, easily spooked and hard to handle - the mare preferred to ignore her rider. However, Leigh rose to the challenge and in the end defeated the mare on her own ground.
A strange sort of trust and warmth developed between them - both were cautious, but undeniably growing closer. It took Leigh a year-and-a-half before she started the mare, under her actual level of capabilities, with disastrous result. Dressage went so-so, show jumping four poles off, cross... Well, she never finished it. Tango had given up by then, though, no longer eager to win. He had done it before, and it held no more allure for him.
The third show, after a fall everyone was amazed about they survived, the mare and the woman found their connection and from then on quickly rose to the ranks. Hardly twenty-seven years old, Leigh decided she wanted something slightly else, though. On a whim she bought another horse, seeing his talent and just being generally enchanted by how Sihr El Intisar looked, and applied for a job at Park Equine College, which she got. With her two competition horses and Tango for the students, she went to Park, eager to settle down a bit and pass on some knowledge, whether it was to horses or students.
MISC.:
-- Has one dog that hardly leaves her side; Jinx, a 3yo Boxer female
-- Fluent in Dutch and English, rudimentary knowledge of French (and German)
