08/14/2024
Get to know the founders of the legendary
Doug and Louise Leatherdale, the founders and owners of Leatherdale Farms, are highly regarded in the dressage and sport horse breeding communities for their generosity, unwavering passion for the sport and the spectacular horses they have bred and owned. Though Doug passed away on Dec. 6, 2015, Louise is continuing their legacy, providing quality stallions for breeding and supporting their competition horses.
Doug Leatherdale served as president of the American Hanoverian Society from 2001 to 2010, drawing on his business expertise to guide the Society during his tenure. In 2011, he was honored with the Golden Badge of the Hannoveraner Verband and remains the only non-German recipient of that prize. He was named the 2006 Dressage Canada Owner of the Year.
The Leatherdale’s have had an immense influence on the Hanoverian sport horse world. They began breeding and showing Hanoverian jumpers from their home in Medina, Minnesota, in the late 1980s. After taking a breeders’ course in Verden, Germany, in 1993, they shifted their focus to dressage and began purchasing mares from farms in Virginia and Ontario, as well as importing mares and foals from Germany. Their first stallion, His Highness, was the top selling stallion and champion of the 2002 Hanoverian licensing.
