Leslie Burr-Howard

Leslie Burr-Howard competed at two Olympics in equestrian sport, but they were 12 years apart, and both were in the United States, 1984 and 1996. She competed as Leslie Burr in 1984, winning a gold medal in team jumping and returned in 1996 as Leslie Howard to win silver in that event. Leslie Burr had been a riding prodigy, entering her first show at age six and winning the 1972 ASPCA Maclay Finals, the top US competition for 18-and-under. In 1983 she was named AGA Rider of the Year and her horse, Albany was AGA Horse of the Year.

In 1986 Burr won the FEI World Cup Finals in Göteborg, Sweden and was named American Horse Show’s Equestrian of the Year that year. In 1994 she competed at the World Equestrian Games and tied for first at the USET Show Jumping Championships. After her 1996 Olympic silver medal she won the 1997 Whitney Stone Cup and the world’s richest Grand Prix event, the du Maurier Ltd. International in Calgary, and she won the first Samsung Nations Cup Series. In 1999 Howard added to her trophy case a silver medal in team jumping at the Pan American Games.

Burr-Howard worked based in southern Connecticut with her own company, Burr Associates. She had a state-of-the-art Grand Prix training facility, where she trains horses and coaches young riders. She had previously competed out of the Fairfield County Hunt Club from 1978-98.