Her experience makes her a natural for working with Lusitanos on Peter van Borst’s South Carolina and Florida farms. He loves working with Reiber but says, “You wouldn’t want to be married to her. She’s too boring, mainly because she’s got one hell of a work ethic.”

Cherrie ReiberCherri Reiber owes her livelihood to the performance of horses and her own ability to coax the best from those she trains and rides. In the 1980s she began riding for Glenn Randall Sr., who both housebroke and otherwise trained Roy Rogers’ horse, Trigger, and also trained horses on the movie “Ben Hur.” Reiber became part of Randall’s virtual horse family, also working for his son Corky, another beloved Hollywood horse trainer, who made his name on the timeless 1979 film, ‘The Black Stallion.”

Reiber, who lived on the Randall Ranch in Newhall, Calif., for 12 years until moving to Toronto, Canada, to open Medieval Times, worked as assistant trainer for Corky on the 1991 release “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken.” The Disney picture is a variation on the old boy-runs-away-to-join-the-circus story, except this time the boy is a girl. After she joins a traveling show in the 1930s, spunky teen Sonora Webster learns the ropes and eventually lands a plum role in the program: riding a horse off a 40-foot-high diving board into a tank of water.

In some ways, the fictional movie character could have been Reiber, who for years traveled the world training horses for Medieval Times, a chain of equestrian dinner theaters. Her specialty is classical horsemanship, dressage. Just as a gymnast combines athleticism with grace to create a remarkable performance, a dressage rider teaches his horse to develop his own innate gifts and movements. When done well, the horse seems to dance on his own accord.

Her experience makes her a natural for working with Lusitanos on Peter van Borst’s South Carolina and Florida farms. He loves working with Reiber but says, “You wouldn’t want to be married to her. She’s too boring, mainly because she’s got one hell of a work ethic.”

And one hell of a background too. Originally from Ogallala, Neb., a Pony Express and transcontinental railroad stop, Reiber started riding Western, including barrel racing, and then stunt riding at rodeos and in the movies before becoming a successful Grand Prix-level competitor whose talents have been featured in Dressage Today.

She has trained with high-profile riders: Glenn Randall, Corky Randall, Pinky Randall, Neil and Cindy Ishoy, John MacPherson, Klaus Balkenhol, Dr. Reiner Klimke, Lendon Grey, Bo Jena, Rafael Soto, Eicke von Veltheim, Ziegfried Pielicke, Christilot Hanson-Boylen and Holger Schmitzer.