Featured Rider - Karen O'Connor

I have had the privilege of riding around the Rolex courses since 1976. In those 30 years, I have ridden horses that took the challenge of the Kentucky Blue Grass on easily, while others found it daunting and unattainable, only to walk home from the backfields of the Kentucky Horse Park. I have always maintained the opinion that you don’t know if your horse, or yourself for that matter, have the right stuff for Rolex until you have finished on Sunday with success.

As I prepare Teddy this winter for the greatest Three-Day Party on the planet, my comment is not simply whether he is good enough to "get’er done". It is rather that none of us really have any reason to think he is not up to the challenge. This little superstar is qualified on paper to take on Rolex. Teddy is owned and bred by P. Wynn Norman, his breeding is ¾ Thoroughbred, 1/8 Shetland, and 1/8 Arabian. But this sport pony, measuring in at 14.1 hh, knows no size limitation to what he can do.

Teddy has progressed over the past 18 months beautifully. This year he begins the season in great health and more relaxed than ever. And guys…the dressage is coming. His flying changes are fairly solid, and he's very supple in his lateral work. The test has also improved a lot recently. By teaching him half steps for increased engagement, he can then transition into a pretty good medium trot. It is great fun for me to feel him start to understand what I am looking for in our work. Hopefully by Rolex, he will have a competitive test for all to see.

He begins the horse trials season next weekend at Rocking Horse I in the Open Intermediate. Then he is on to his first Advanced run of the year at the mid-week Rocking Horse II. March then opens up with the CIC***-World Cup at Red Hills in Tallahassee. Two weeks later, he will contest the Advanced at Poplar Place in Georgia. His final prep will take us to Jim Cogdell’s beautiful property in Norwood, North Carolina. The weekend at The Fork is always a favorite of the O’Connor Event Team. Then, hopefully, we will be on the road to Rolex.

During this season, I will be very careful with Teddy to cover all the bases in his preparation, and I hope that we’ll be ready. However, I won’t start him at Rolex unless I am sure he can finish. I’m not ever in the business of proving to a horse what he can’t do; only to show him through education what he can do. Teddy could be my most profound candidate of this philosophy.

See you next month!