PrintIn this series, the Chronicle follows six riders as they seek to fulfill their Olympic dreams in Hong Kong in 2008.
I have five horses in consideration for Olympic selection, and they are, of course, [Theodore O’Connor] and Hugh Knows, Mandiba, Allstar and [Ralph Hill’s former mount] Bad Boy Billy.
I think everybody’s on track. I’m really delighted. They’ve all placed in their competitions. All five of them will be going to The Fork (N.C.) for the U.S. Equestrian Federation training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and then the competition on the weekend, April 11-13. They’re all in either the World Cup-qualifier CIC*** or the regular three-star. I had to split them randomly because I can’t ride all five in the one division.
So they’re all going there and then will have a couple weeks back in Ocala before going to either Kentucky for the CCI**** or the three-star at Jersey Fresh (N.J.).
Building A Deep Bench
I had no idea I’d have five advanced horses like this in an Olympic year. I really do think a lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time and being very lucky with choices we’ve made.
Mandiba was the one we bought hoping that he would follow his breeding lines and be able to take it on at the three- and four-star level.
Hugh Knows was imported from Ireland by Courtney Cooper as a 4-year-old and then sold on to Katherine Breunig of Texas. She worked with [my husband] David and I as a young rider and moved to Virginia for a few years. When she went back to school she started to feel like Hugh was big and strong, and she was struggling with having to be strong enough for him. I asked her to hold on to see if we could get something together, and Jacqueline Mars came forward [to purchase him] just before Fair Hill. She hasn’t had a four-star horse since Prince Panache and Giltedge, so she’s very excited about it.
Allstar was a horse that I had worked with in a clinic out in Colorado. I approached his previous owner, Mikki Kapaun, and asked if she ever had any interest in selling him, and she didn’t at the time. But later I went up there and tried him, and Becky Broussard bought him and brought him here to Ocala last spring.
Then a month later, Ralph Hill got hurt, so Becky, who also owns Billy, asked if she could bring the horse to us since we were all in Ocala. And of course everyone knows Teddy’s story! It really just all happened at the same time.
The Veterans
To be really honest, I’d be honored to ride any of these five horses at the Games. Ideally you’d like to have horses with quite a lot of experience, which would be Teddy and Hugh with me. Billy has more experience than Hugh, but not necessarily with me, since he was Ralph’s horse.
[At Rocking Horse Advanced (Fla.) in late February], Teddy hadn’t run since Rio, so he was on fire, the little monkey. He kept trying to run off with me between the jumps, and I almost got bucked off just going down to cross-country. He bucked so hard that the reins got jerked out of my hands and almost flew over his head, luckily only to be caught on his ear.
At the water, you jumped this rolltop thing and then had a tight turn to a bounce into the lake. He spooked at the water, and it completely caught me off guard and I flew up in front of him, which made it impossible for him to jump. My thighs, my seat, my whole body was up on his neck. There were a lot of people there at the water, and I was laughing out loud like, “Oh my God, I’m going to fall off!”
Peter Green, who’s chief of our selectors, was there, and he yelled, “Where is my camera?” I said, “Peter you try it on a horse with a neck this short!” and everybody laughed, and we turned around and jumped through the whole thing.
I thought Teddy [who had two runouts] had a great cross-country ride at the CIC***-W at Red Hills (Fla.), but it was one of those courses where unlucky things happen, even to horses that went well. He was one of the many horses for which the distance didn’t go well at the wedge of cheese fence early in the course. Then he tripped coming out of the water, which was my fault, and he couldn’t get the narrow done. Those things happen.
I have five horses in consideration for Olympic selection, and they are, of course, [Theodore O’Connor] and Hugh Knows, Mandiba, Allstar and [Ralph Hill’s former mount] Bad Boy Billy.I think everybody’s on track. I’m really delighted. They’ve all placed in their competitions. All five of them will be going to The Fork (N.C.) for the U.S. Equestrian Federation training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and then the competition on the weekend, April 11-13. They’re all in either the World Cup-qualifier CIC*** or the regular three-star. I had to split them randomly because I can’t ride all five in the one division.
So they’re all going there and then will have a couple weeks back in Ocala before going to either Kentucky for the CCI**** or the three-star at Jersey Fresh (N.J.).
Building A Deep Bench
I had no idea I’d have five advanced horses like this in an Olympic year. I really do think a lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time and being very lucky with choices we’ve made.
Mandiba was the one we bought hoping that he would follow his breeding lines and be able to take it on at the three- and four-star level.
Hugh Knows was imported from Ireland by Courtney Cooper as a 4-year-old and then sold on to Katherine Breunig of Texas. She worked with [my husband] David and I as a young rider and moved to Virginia for a few years. When she went back to school she started to feel like Hugh was big and strong, and she was struggling with having to be strong enough for him. I asked her to hold on to see if we could get something together, and Jacqueline Mars came forward [to purchase him] just before Fair Hill. She hasn’t had a four-star horse since Prince Panache and Giltedge, so she’s very excited about it.
Allstar was a horse that I had worked with in a clinic out in Colorado. I approached his previous owner, Mikki Kapaun, and asked if she ever had any interest in selling him, and she didn’t at the time. But later I went up there and tried him, and Becky Broussard bought him and brought him here to Ocala last spring.
Then a month later, Ralph Hill got hurt, so Becky, who also owns Billy, asked if she could bring the horse to us since we were all in Ocala. And of course everyone knows Teddy’s story! It really just all happened at the same time.
The Veterans
To be really honest, I’d be honored to ride any of these five horses at the Games. Ideally you’d like to have horses with quite a lot of experience, which would be Teddy and Hugh with me. Billy has more experience than Hugh, but not necessarily with me, since he was Ralph’s horse.
[At Rocking Horse Advanced (Fla.) in late February], Teddy hadn’t run since Rio, so he was on fire, the little monkey. He kept trying to run off with me between the jumps, and I almost got bucked off just going down to cross-country. He bucked so hard that the reins got jerked out of my hands and almost flew over his head, luckily only to be caught on his ear.
| About Karen O'Connor Hometown: The Plains, Va., and Ocala, Fla. Age: 50 Horses: ALLSTAR, 12-year-old, bay Thoroughbred gelding (Double Leader–Southern Secret) owned by Rebecca Broussard BAD BOY BILLY, 16-year-old, Thoroughbred bay gelding (Fiesta Star–Leem) owned by Rebecca Broussard HUGH KNOWS, 11-year-old, bay Irish Sport Horse gelding (Able Albert–Lupez) owned by Jacqueline Mars MANDIBA, 9-year-old, bay Irish-bred Thoroughbred gelding (Master Imp–High Dolly) owned by Joan Goswell THEODORE O’CONNOR, 13-year-old, chestnut Thoroughbred-Arabian- Shetland Pony gelding (Witty Boy–Chelsea’s Melody) owned by The Theodore O’Connor Syndicate |
At the water, you jumped this rolltop thing and then had a tight turn to a bounce into the lake. He spooked at the water, and it completely caught me off guard and I flew up in front of him, which made it impossible for him to jump. My thighs, my seat, my whole body was up on his neck. There were a lot of people there at the water, and I was laughing out loud like, “Oh my God, I’m going to fall off!”
Peter Green, who’s chief of our selectors, was there, and he yelled, “Where is my camera?” I said, “Peter you try it on a horse with a neck this short!” and everybody laughed, and we turned around and jumped through the whole thing.
I thought Teddy [who had two runouts] had a great cross-country ride at the CIC***-W at Red Hills (Fla.), but it was one of those courses where unlucky things happen, even to horses that went well. He was one of the many horses for which the distance didn’t go well at the wedge of cheese fence early in the course. Then he tripped coming out of the water, which was my fault, and he couldn’t get the narrow done. Those things happen.
