Naïma Moreira Laliberté | Taking the reins of your destiny

Life has a way of doing things well. As a child, Naïma Moreira Laliberté was drawn to show jumping. Influenced by her parents who were worried about her falling from a great height, she eventually turned to dressage, a discipline she has become passionate about. Today, some 20 years later, she is preparing, with her faithful companion Statesman, to take part in the biggest international competition.

Moreira Laliberté does not come from a family initiated in equestrian sports. At home, people talked more about acrobatics and juggling than horses; her father, Guy Laliberté, founded the Cirque du Soleil.

Without really knowing the “why or how”, little Naïma developed a passion for horses. The walls of her room were covered with posters. Stuffed animals, books… Everything was about horses. “It was an obsession, for real”, she sums up with a laugh.

She was only 5 years old when her parents signed her up for her first riding lessons. She spent her weekends there. “At that age, you have to learn how to stand on a horse, how to balance yourself, how to guide,” she explains. “When you’re young, especially in show jumping, you fall a lot. You hurt yourself, but it’s part of the adventure. You get back up and you keep going.”

As she began to climb the ranks and the horses she rode became bigger and bigger, her father made what Moreira Laliberté calls an “intervention.” “Listen, we’re not very comfortable with what you’ve chosen as a sport,” he told her.

“He thought it was very dangerous,” she says. “He asked me to change disciplines or even sports.”

At the time, one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soleil, Gilles Ste-Croix, also had a passion for horses. He had created Horse Theatrean equestrian show that has toured the world.

“My father took me one weekend to go and meet Gilles, see his stable and everything. I wasn’t entirely enthusiastic at first because it was more the haute école of classical riding. It was a completely different universe. [Je me disais] “It’s flat, there are no jumps, no element of danger,” she remembers, still laughing, as if amused by her memories.

She had no idea that she would meet a young 5-year-old horse named Nao, who would change the rest of her journey in the world of equestrian sports…

“I really fell in love,” she says. “Once [mon père] saw that I had a special connection with this horse, he took the opportunity: he offered it to me for my 10th birthday. It was my first horse.

The training

To this day, Moreira Laliberté knows well that she has had a taste of her parents’ worries because of her status as the first child in the family. “Later, my brother went into car racing and my sister, show jumping,” she recalls.

Still, those concerns may be why she’s competing in the Olympics today. Who knows if the outcome would have been the same if she’d continued to show jump?

With Nao, the girl had a “very deep connection,” even though, at 10 years old, she didn’t really understand what it meant to own a pet.

Nao was trained to participate in equestrian circus shows, which he continued while Moreira Laliberté attended school. In the summer, the young rider spent her time at the show sites, cleaning the horses, “absorbing the atmosphere.”

She was 12 in 2008 when she and her friend watched the Beijing Olympics on TV. “She put dressage on,” she says. “We watched, among others, an athlete named Ashley Holzer. I didn’t know it at the time, but she eventually became my coach.”

The little girl was fascinated. The approach, the mentality, the movements were different from the circus equestrian environment to which she was accustomed. At her request, her father enrolled her – after having done “his research” – in a youth program set up by the Canadian Equestrian Federation. Even though her horse and equipment were not intended for dressage, she learned.

“We managed to do something together [Nao et moi] and eventually I entered my first championship.”

The first of several.

To soak up

Over the years starting in 2012, Naïma Moreira Laliberté has participated several times in the North American Championships, winning medals in both the team and individual competitions.

Since 2018, she has been riding Statesman, a horse that was trained by a Spaniard, Jordi Domingo, who is now part of her team. Together, Naïma and Statesman grew up and participated in major competitions, including the Pan American Games. They also went to the Tokyo Olympics as members of the reserve team.

Four years later, Moreira Laliberté is an integral part of the Canadian dressage team with Laval’s Camille Carier Bergeron and New Brunswick’s Jill Irving. “After Tokyo, after having a little taste of it, it was really a goal,” says the rider.

While “it’s never good to say that a medal is not possible,” said Moreira Laliberté, “realistically, as a team and individually,” Canada should not be “medal aspirants” in Paris.

His main goal is to “soak up everything that’s happening,” to enjoy every moment. Especially since between 20 and 30 people will brave the Paris traffic to cheer him on.

“I don’t know how much I’ll be able to see them during the Games because the pace is quite demanding, but I’ll know they’re there.”