Karen O'Connor
Current Profile--Karen’s Thoughts on the 2008 Season
2008 is full of possibilities, as Karen pilots a talented and varied group of
horses from the 14.2 h pionic pony, Theodore O’Connor, to the statuesque 16.3h Irish Sport Horse Hugh Knows, around advanced
courses this season. “I’m very lucky to have six wonderful horses right now running at the advanced
level,” said Karen, as she talked about her hopes for this season. “Candidates for the Olympic Games that I’ve filed in are Teddy, Hugh Knows, Mandiba and Allstar.” She did not apply with the other two, Upstage and Bad Boy Billy, mostly due to
their age and the difficulty of the long trip to Hong Kong.
Currently, Karen’s most famous partner is Theodore O’Connor or “Teddy.” After their Individual and Team Gold Medals at the 2007 Pan Am Games in Brazil,
Karen’s big goal for this super pony is the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong. She has entered him at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, where they had a
history-making 3rd place finish last year, and will decide after The Fork
CIC***W whether he will run in Kentucky again. “He’s on great form, so...stay tuned...On a very difficult course last weekend at
Red Hills I thought he ran really well, but we missed a step coming out of the
water and could not negotiate the final element of the water, so he was down
the line in the placings. He jumped a really clear show jumping round and was really good. Very fresh and naughty in the dressage....There’s a lot of atmosphere at Red Hills and it’s a difficult venue to ride a horse that gets enthusiastic - it’s difficult place to ride a horse quietly if they have a tendency to blow up.”
Upstage, also known as Woody, has been Karen’s four-star partner for quite a few years. “Woody is 17 this year and is entered at Rolex for his 7th consecutive year. He’s been there 6 six times in a row and has never been out of the top 15. His owner, Vita Thompson, died about a month ago - lost her battle to cancer, so
her husband Dick and her two sons and their families are coming to Rolex to
watch Woody because that’s what Vita wanted to do. We pretty much don’t have a plan for him after that, at 17 years old.”
“Hugh Knows has been running very very well this year, improved a lot in his
dressage, and is also entered at Rolex. He runs at Southern Pines and The Fork, on the road to hopefully Rolex and is
also being targeted for the Olympic Games. His owner, Jacqueline Mars, who has owned horses with me for a long long
time...we manage both her properties in Virginia and her property in
Ocala...she has also owned great horses like Giltedge, Prince Panache and
Shannon. Those have been some really wonderful horses, and Hugh is certainly among that
quality of horse, so we’re really excited about him.”
“Mandiba is a young horse I’ve had since he was broken as a four year old. He’s running this year at Advanced and at the moment his plan is to run
Intermediate at Southern Pines and Advanced at The Fork CIC***W and MCTA. Then he was meant to fly to Paris to compete at the Samuur Three Day Event three
star in France. We’ll have to see if that’s going to happen - the dollar against the euro is so weak that the cost of that
trip has become really expensive. It’s a great idea but when the cost is prohibitive, you have to make another plan.”
“Then we have the two Broussard boys...We have Allstar who has had three starts
this season with two firsts and a second, the second being at Red Hills in the
World Cup. We’re really excited about him - he’s come out of the winter really strong and a different horse than I had last
year. So that’s very exciting. He’s being targeted towards Jersey Fresh. His stablemate, Bad Boy Billy, is an older horse...16 years old, and he’s had most of his career under the riding of Ralph Hill. Last year, when Ralph was injured, all of his horses had to get dispersed to
other places... since Allstar was owned by Becky Broussard and she also owns
Bad Boy Billy, and I was in Ocala at the time as was Billy, she asked me if I
would take him and see what to do with him. He ran at Rocking Horse and finished second. This is my first advanced run with him here at Southern Pines then on to The
Fork. He’s another one that I’m undecided about...He has run around Rolex a couple of times with Ralph, but I
just have to see at his age, and also last year he had wind surgery, what he’s able to do and what we feel comfortable doing, whether it be Rolex or Jersey
Fresh.”
In addition to the six advanced horses that Karen is currently competing, she is
bringing along a nice group of youngsters. “We also have a young horse program, added Karen. “We have Harbour Pilot, who was bred on the farm in Virginia, and he’s now competing training level and being very successful there. Just getting started...He’s only just turning five.”
“I have St Barths. We’ve had him for one year and he’s a 7 year old. Hopefully he’ll be going to the one star in Ocala in a few weeks.”
“And then we have other young horses that haven’t started competing yet. The next group - the four year olds and a couple of five year olds that haven’t started yet - they’ll be competing, when we go back to Virginia, at the local events there.”
“I’m also riding a horse for Maria Brazil called Mam’zelle du Dun. She’s a lovely Selle Francais mare and she runs at the preliminary level. She’s also been doing quite well. She’s still getting her foundation training at the horse trial level.”
Karen summed up her thoughts by adding, “My big hope, and we’ll have to see how the spring season goes, but I’d love to have many of these advanced horses be able to make a trip to Europe,
to do the summer in Europe, possibly to do Burghley or Blenheim in the Fall. I hope that maybe one of these horses will rise to the top and go to Hong Kong,
but you have to play it out...They kind of tell you where they want to go in
the end...
