10 Obscure Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About US Equestrian’s New Director of Sport, David O’Connor

Beginning in early October, US Equestrian will create a new Chief of Sport position in the extremely capable hands of decorated US eventing rider David O’Connor.

How decorated? Well, O’Connor won individual gold and team bronze medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and team silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He then embarked on a distinguished career at USEF, where he served as President from 2004 to 2012 and later as a member of the FEI Board.

In other words, O’Connor is more than qualified for the job.

And while he tends to wear a suit and tie instead of body armor when he’s off-road these days, there’s nothing offensive about this eventing legend. Here are 10 slightly obscure and endlessly entertaining facts you may not know about David O’Connor, US Equestrian’s new sporting director.

1. O’Connor’s British-born mother, Sally, was a writer, equestrian and dressage judge. As a child, she took O’Connor and his brother Brian on a 3,000 mile ride across the United States of America – a journey that took 14 weeks. And they did it just for fun.
2. O’Connor’s first major career breakthrough came at age 17 when he was discovered by famed eventing trainer Jack Le Goff, who helped him attend the developing rider training sessions at USET in Massachusetts. The rest, as they say, is history.
3. O’Connor’s Stonehall Farm in The Plains, Virginia is located on a real mountain (roughly a 1,200 foot mountain). He uses the property’s 600-foot incline on either side to train his horses to canter uphill—always key to the terrain.
4. The O’Connors’ “double-decker” bench barn in Virginia dates from 1820. It contains two stories with four horses above and four below.
5. O’Connor is a serious record holder. In 1996, he and his wife Karen O’Connor became the first couple to compete on the same Olympic team and with the same medal (they won team silver) at the Atlanta Games. David also set records at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he won the individual gold medal with Custom Made thanks to his record-breaking dressage score.
6. David and Karen O’Connor lived and trained in England for five years in close proximity to 15 other event riders and friends, all at the top of their sport. What was your biggest learning from your time there? How British racehorses are trained to canter, a principle they have incorporated into their own model of farming and conditioning for eventing.
7. O’Connor’s Olympic, Pan American, and World Equestrian Games medalist Giltedge (known as “Tex” in the barn) hated having his head, ears, and forelock touched. After the awards ceremony at the 2002 World Equestrian Games – where Tex and O’Connor won gold – the gelding wiped off his entire forelock, braid and all, in one fell swoop.
8. The O’Connors’ Olympic medalists Giltedge, Custom Made, Panache and Biko all retreated comfortably together to the sprawling green fields of Stonehall Farm.
9. In his free, non-equine times, O’Connor enjoys reading (he maintains a huge library) and playing golf.
10. Together, David and Karen O’Connor have coached more than 100 riders over the course of their careers. A motto that David likes to share with his students? “If an opportunity presents itself, grab it with both hands!”

Presumably he wants to do the same as the sports director of US Equestrian.

Featured image: ©FEI