Catching up with Karen O’Connor in Recuperation

Karen O’Connor was kind enough to spend some time recently talking to Eventing Nation.  The Karen I spoke to is the same tough, witty, optimistic and positive Karen that our sport knows and loves, but she told me that already the time spent in recovery has been a period of reflection and huge adjustment  for her, and, as always, she’s been able to find a silver lining, “It’s been an incredible experience for me, it really has, a lot of good comes out of this for me – you can learn whatever you want to learn from it, or you can miss the whole thing; recovery for me has been a learning experience on many, many levels.”  As she prepares for a slightly different Thanksgiving Holiday than she’s used to I’m glad to report that she did manage to get out and get her nails done (“red, of course!”) and that she’s definitely counting her blessings this year.

Friends and Family

Overwhelmingly Karen stressed how much strength she draws from the support of her friends and family around her.  In the near future she and David are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in Virginia with a mixed, international crowd; they have probably thirty of their friends and family coming for Thanksgiving, and this year Karen’s mother who lives with them in Virginia will obviously assume the role of Holiday Chef D’Equipe, a role Karen usually relishes, “For me the whole focus of Thanksgiving has changed; there’s a lot to be thankful for and all of the people that have been invited have been coming year after year after year, but this time of course instead of David and I putting it on for them, they’ll be doing it for us! I’m looking forward to it, we have people coming from all over – the whole Ramsey family is coming up from Louisiana, they come every year either for Christmas or for Thanksgiving, one of my best friends who was an international eventer some 25 years ago, Lesley Gregory, is coming down from Toronto with her family, Sue Clark who runs the entire farm for Mrs. Mars will be in attendance as always, we even have Gill Hester a great friend of the family flying over from England.  We  have David’s entire family including my mother in law Sally, and Brian and his entire family, and my brother Steve, his wife Veronica and many of my relatives will be making the trek from New England so it’s going to be great fun, I’m looking forward to seeing everybody, and I have a lot to be thankful for.”

The Recovery

Karen has also surrounded herself  with friends, and those at the very top of their field within her team to help her with her recovery.  Dr Mark Hart, a surgeon on the West Coast and long time Eventing supporter can absolutely understand her unique needs,

“It’s a long, slow process and as Mark says, you’re not going to speed up bone healing, you can only slow it down. It’s a new challenge for me; not the one I expected but it’s a challenge that I’m taking very seriously. I’m being very, very careful so that I don’t botch it up,  that I don’t do too much too fast and the doctors are all really serious about that.  Mark keeps reminding me of that. Mark is also the medication manager in consultation with the team of doctors that are taking care of my injury and he has the final say on my medication. There’s a personal side to that I’m sure of it, because he was not only  Amy (Tryon’s) doctor but also obviously a very close friend to her as the owner of Poggio.”

“My day is round the clock staying on the medication program that the doctors have put me on; I have quite a lot of energy and stamina in the morning but it doesn’t last – I have a short window. I’m walking for half an hour a day right now; the doctors’ thinking is ‘do not let your body start to believe that your whole body is injured, you’ve only injured your spine and it’s important that the other parts of your body realize that the spine needs help and the rest of your body needs to stay strong and supportive. So they want me doing quite a lot of walking and movement that is controlled with the brace. I do a lot of isometrics. I always thought my legs were pretty strong before even though they’re little, but I’m going to have thighs bigger than Michael Jung’s!  Quad strength is critical for keeping your back still and keeping body control.

“I can’t speak for all hospitals but Johns Hopkins has been incredible with the follow up. Dr Mark Hart has been wonderful-amazing, and Andrew Bishop who was the head orthopedic surgeon for the Atlanta Falcons for a long time is my orthopedic surgeon, he and his wife retired to Middleburg and he came to our house to take out the staples in my back so I’m getting an awful lot of VIP treatment!  I’m really a very, very lucky person, I’ve got a wonderful network of people around me.   If somebody wants to reinvent themselves they can do it, they just have to decide to do it. That was sort of the M.O. of my year, I wanted to reinvent my show-jumping and the results speak for themselves; you get really fired up about what’s possible, so I take that same spirit into this injury and recovery and learn a tremendous amount about myself. I have a whole new appreciation for what horses go through when they’re injured and they can’t speak.”

The staples have been removed, but the two rods and sixteen or so screws will remain in Karen’s back for at least another 18 months or so until they’ve done their job. At that point if the screws ever cause a problem they may be removed, but the rods are probably permanent.  Marilyn Little’s mother Lynn suffered a similar injury but lower, and now lives with rods and screws in her back and told me they’ve never affected her, in fact she said, “I feel a little bionic! I ride and I’m as good as I ever was.” Lynn and Marilyn were with Karen the night of the accident, “There’s nothing worse than a hospital at night with nobody there so I’m glad that with Max, Marilyn and Joanne we were able to get Karen through that first week or so,” but Lynn remembers being concerned that Karen would not be having surgery, “It didn’t look like something you walk away from. I called Marilyn’s godmother Maggy Buterbaugh who told me no there was no way she should be released, and luckily through a good friend of ours, Jerry Stonemetz we managed to get Karen an appointment at John Hopkins for the following Monday, so that when she was at home and her legs began tingling, and things began to go south, she already had an appointment set up. Maggy meanwhile, had also spoken to the people at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York who are miracle workers, and they actually said that in her case John Hopkins was the best place to go.”

Letting Go

As so often happens in a crisis, the horse community has put it’s best foot forward to help Karen out,  “I’m incredibly grateful to the network of people who have gotten to the top level of their expertise in this injury – for example Marilyn (Little’s) godmother put me in touch with the spinal surgeons that she knew through childhood and those are huge assets in a situation like this. I  have also consulted Ashley Classen and Joe Bailey who run a pain management clinic and institution in Dallas Fort Worth, and I do clinics with them so they’re very much in the loop, and their daughter Ashley Bailey Classen has competed at the upper levels and I competed her horse last year called Sportsfield Zebedee, so they’re helping, everybody’s helping. I had a clinic scheduled in Holly Hill in Louisiana for this coming weekend and so instead of being able to do that the organizer, who’s a good friend of mine, Tracey Hewlett flew up and stayed for ten days. She went to nursing school and she took care of me for the first critical ten or twelve days that I came back from the hospital after the surgery. She’s probably one of the nicest people on the planet, and it’s a whole lot better than hiring a nurse.”

All these factors have made the transition from elite, independent athlete to patient much easier, and although Karen’s extremely glad she can now shower on her own she explained that having to ask for help was difficult,

“I think it’s been the biggest challenge for me because I’m actually very shy about a lot of that stuff – when was the last time you saw me in a pair of shorts? It’s a very strange feeling for me, especially when you’ve been that person who has tried throughout your professional career to show what kind of strength you have to have to be good at anything.  To be able to turn that kind of control over to people that you know…. People are amazing, and I don’t mean just these particular people but people are amazing.”

Amazing Horses

Mr Medicott

“It looks as if he’ll be horse of the year and I am so so sooo proud of him, that’s a really big deal for me ,and it’s a really big deal for  Sara, Kelly and Jerome Broussard who are  incredible people. I haven’t done what I said I was going to do which is sell all the shares, and they’ve been as supportive as one can be when I’ve made a promise that I haven’t been able to keep, meaning that I’ve got to get the shares on this horse sold so that he can continue his career. For him to become horse of the year is a tribute to what’s possible out there, I’m really excited for him, and for the syndicate members.”

After Karen and Mr Medicott’s outstanding performances at both Rolex this Spring, and the Olympic Games this summer there were definite murmurings about Badminton 2013, which she acknowledged but also told me that there are so many other factors to consider,

“Day by day! Getting the horses back online and getting back in the saddle in the number one priority but I can’t hurry it.  I haven’t had that conversation with Sara and Jerome and I’m sure that they have huge questions as I do, and that horse will go to the next four star when he is in a position with me to compete at the very best he’s ever competed at. There is a lot of work to do. Having said that, my God he’s looking so well, he’s such a happy horse, he’s so fit and strong and sound and happy. I’d love to take him to Badminton but he’s only fourteen this coming year, and Badminton will still be there for him at fifteen.  I don’t expect it to happen this time, I think that’s pushing it, there’s Luhmuhlen and we’ll see…  It’s important to have those very candid conversations with the owners of the horses and find out what they want and help realize their dreams on these horses.”

 There’s at least one owner who’s making it very easy, “I got a card from Joan Goswell all photo-shopped with Mandiba holding a very colorful bouquet of roses and tulips in his mouth,and then you open up the card and it says, ‘I’m here when you’re ready!’ It’s hard to talk about because I get all emotional…” and this is the first time since the accident, (and I have spoken to Karen on a fairly regular basis since then including the day after it happened from her hospital bed,) that I hear her voice break and sense tears.  ” Joan was just here for lunch and I gave her a gift;  I hadn’t given her anything special in a long time and I told David I wanted to give her the Olympic ring I was given four years ago, that all US athletes are given, but this one has Mandiba’s name on it. It was a huge deal for me, a very big deal but in a very rare moment when I gave it to Joan it rendered her speechless so I think she appreciated it!”

Mandiba at Plantation 2012

Karen finds staying in one position for any length of time longer than a few hours uncomfortable although she sleeps at night with a collection of assorted shaped pillows to prop up her spine,  so another faithful owner, Mrs Jacqueline Mars will fly her down to Florida in the beginning of December, “It’s that kind of generosity where I don’t even know how to begin to thank everybody.  Max (Corcoran)  has been great, she doesn’t work for us anymore but she’s been going and checking on the horses down in Florida. Marilyn Little is rocking the show-jumping world out in California, I don’t how she does it to go straight from the eventing world to the winner’s circle in the show-jumping but she does, and that’s another person that I enjoy learning a lot from and she’s contributed so much to my healing, and to be able to help me out when I can’t do a lot.  I just have so many people to thank, I’ll always be incredibly grateful to Marilyn and her family for making sure I ended up at John Hopkins with the best surgeons in the country, and especially the owners who have been incredibly patient.”

 

Looking Ahead

Once in Florida she has plans to start a new phase of her life, “I’ll be spending the winter  downsizing to specializing on a few students who are developing riders, to help them find their way from the young rider level to the senior ranks. There won’t be more than four, there are three at the moment, they’ll be my shadows and over the next couple of years I’ll help them find their way into the senior ranks. Instead of doing quantity I’m taking it down to three or four, and putting the time in on the foundations in all three phases. They’ll learn better how to cope with every aspect of what it takes to be a top rider in the future.”

Karen has also been wondering about the future of US Eventing and what those aspects of being a top rider in the future entail,

“I’ve had a lot of time to think during my recovery and I’ve pondered where is this sport going to be in five or ten years’ time? What kind of horse are we breeding for, where it’s going to be? What kind of skills will these riders need, not just how to win now, because we’re behind now, but we also have to start thinking very seriously about where are the British and the Germans and the Australians  and the New Zealanders – where are they going to be in ten years? We can’t just play catch up on where they are now because they’re going to continue to improve, so where is the sport going to be and what kind of horse is it going to take, and what kind of regimen is that going to take to make an effect on a lot of riders, not just one rider? Teaching a country how to be successful, not just teaching a rider how to jump down a drop fence, that’s just far too simplistic.  There has to be a protocol and an order and a way which people conduct themselves as human beings that gets other people wanting to be a part of their lives, and there’s a lot of people out there that would like to become a part of something.”

“Always in my life now I’m yielding to David’s new job, that’s first and foremost. I’m there to listen and then have some input if it’s asked for, but in the meantime I can do my little something on a smaller scale on the side that’s in no conflict with what’s he’s doing. The support that David has given me throughout the whole thing has been so important to me: he’s had to continue his travels, but he’s concerned, and very attentive, and very much wanting to make sure that I make the full recovery, as much as I do, he’s tremendously supportive. For example, he really needs a break but instead of flying back here to take a day, or even half a day off after the Arabian Convention (David attends each year as President of the USEF) he flew straight back to Florida so he could ride Mr Medicott, Quintus and the other horses in work for me so that we could get a barometer on where they are.  David and Marilyn are both going to help with the riding – shoot, I’m pretty lucky!”

 

 

Karen has everything crossed that she’ll be feeling well enough to make it out the USEA Convention in December and I can’t imagine anything more fantastic, we’ll be crossing everything here at Eventing Nation Control too, and she has big plans for the sport’s Annual General Meeting,

“I want people to understand that this is a wonderful, wonderful sport and there’s a spot for everybody in this sport, but for me my ultimate successful report card is my horse doing well and my horse happy in it’s life and happy in it’s work.”

  Many, many thanks to Karen for her time and of course wishing her a safe recovery and best wishes to the entire team – Go O’Connor Eventing!

 

 

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