A Conversation with David O'Connor

A Conversation with David O'Connor

I was very fortunate to share a shuttle ride with David on the way back from the Show Jumping Course Design clinic and had about an hour to talk about a variety of interesting topics. After the trip I asked him if it would be alright if I shared some of our conversation with the Adult Riders of Area VI. He thought it was a great idea. So here we go:

Cross Country Schooling.

He feels that you only need three acres to have a cross country schooling area that is great for the horses and easy for the trainer to teach. As many of you know, when we get out in the big fields, it is very hard to hear your trainer as they are yelling directions out. And you are lucky if you can get a few fences in a row.

His facility in Virginia has a 3 acre area that they have as their cross country schooling area. He has about a 40' mound that gives him terrain questions to work on. (Highly recommends a mound). He also has a few combinations on bending lines that allows you to school the third element first as a single fence then add the other elements. He also emphasized that he always schools the third element first.

He has a simple bank complex and he said just use a puddle for water schooling.

The best thing is have simple fences with lots of options. Make it so if you have a problem at a fence, you can go to a smaller question and have the horse and rider be successful. This can be a problem with some of the larger facilities. If you have trouble at the Prelim ditch, you may have to travel a long ways to get to a Novice or Training ditch to fix the problem. He also feels that most questions can be introduced using show jumps and be safer and very adjustable.

He also feels strongly that people are getting all too comfortable “schooling” the entire course before a horse trial. He feels that this is really bad. I agreed that it seems to becoming a trend here in California and he agreed. He says that we should be schooling the questions and then going to the competitions and letting that be the test.

He said that the training should be done at home and not at the shows! He feels that too many trainers are not coaching, but actually giving lessons at the horse trials. He says he sits in his car a lot of the time so the riders have to become independent. He insists that his students even as young as 10-12 walk their courses first by themselves and then he will walk it with them and they can ask him questions!

He stated that the USEA ICP (Instructor Certification Program) was started because he and a few other trainers were listening to what trainers were saying in the warm up arenas and knew that the USEA needed to do something. He is a huge advocate of the ICP and we both agreed that riders need to encourage their trainers to go through the program, and that it would be good for the riders to audit the ICP seminars.

Being the Olympic Team Coach

I congratulated him on his new position and that I was excited that he was selected as coach. I asked him how he liked his new position.

He said that he spends a lot of time traveling and it's a bit tough, but he's really enjoying it. I saw him at Galway watching riders and he said that he tries to just stand back and watch, see what's happening, scout for new talent and get a feel of what's going on. He feels that there is a bit of a changing of the guard, so to speak, with riders of his generation moving towards retirement and a new crop of riders coming up. We both agreed that there is a great resource of talented younger riders coming up the ranks and the future of US riders is looking very bright.

I asked him if it was difficult to manage riders from such a large and diverse country. One would think that there would be some very tough issues in bringing a team together from such diverse backgrounds, but he says that he has a system and that the system seems to work and you just have to stick to the system.

I asked him how long his position was for and he replied “4 years, unless I can get re-hired.”

I laughed thinking, why wouldn't he be rehired, and told him I didn't think anyone could accomplish much in four years.

He agreed and he said, “I still have to get rehired!”

So I then asked him how long would he like to serve, and how long does he think it would take to achieve what he would like to achieve. He said that he would really like to be able to serve 12 years. He think that in that time he could accomplish a lot and that after twelve years there should be a change. He said that we have to be careful of burnout.

His Life at Home

He said that although he isn't home much they have a ranch in Virginia that is “on the side of a hill” with the only flat areas are “in the horse's stalls or in the flat arena”.

They now spend the winters in Florida where he says they have 750 acres and never really have to leave the property. They now school horses year round except for the three weeks over the holidays.

Camps

We talked about riding camps and I told him about how wonderfully successful our Adult Camps have been here in California. He is a big advocate for the camps, even for adults. He thinks they are great environments for riders to be immersed in their training and learn a tremendous amount in a short period of time. He has had training camps at his facility in the past but is unable to participate as an instructor with his new commitments.

Drugs and Drugging

We got into a rather lively discussion about the problem with drugging horses. He feels that although the USEF and USEA is trying hard to keep up with all the new drugs people are using it is going to get worse before it gets better. We talked about some of the drugs and some horror stories that have happened with horses having horrible side effects and we were all very disturbed by the practice. He made a point to remind us all that even giving your horse chocolate can lead to a positive test. Good to know.

Show Jumping

Throughout the day, several comments were made that the US needs to bring it's game up in the show jumping ring. It was pointed out that at the last few international competitions, very few, if any, riders went clean in stadium. There is a push to have more regulations as to what cups are used and pole weights for practice and competitions. 1” deep cups for poles are recommended and flat cups for planks are required. It was also suggested that the heavier hunter rails be avoided in most cases and they tend to be difficult to knock down and horses become lazy. Our horses need to learn to be more careful if we want to become stronger in the international arena.

Summary

I was very thrilled to have the opportunity to have a very in depth conversation with one of the most respected horsemen of our generation. He was very open and friendly and willing to share. He gave me so many wonderful tips and tricks and made me feel as if I too was an important part of this great sport.

It was also very moving to hear his speech at the luncheon and see this amazingly accomplished man become very emotional when speaking about how much it meant to him to become the US Coach. He is truly honored to have the position and we are lucky to have him!

If you get a chance, check out his speech on the USEA network. It is a great speech.