Shannon Lilley always brings us wonderful reports from California, and she’s back today to report on the California training sessions held last week at Woodside. David O’Connor taught the riders listed on the Summer/Fall Training Lists, as well as non-listed riders. Take it away, Shannon!
Jen McFall and High Times. Photo by Shannon Lilley.
Hello Eventing Nation! David O’Connor has been in California enjoying the beautiful weather the past three days but, more importantly, teaching training sessions to both listed and non-listed riders. He taught dressage lessons Thursday, show jump lessons Friday and cross-country lessons Saturday.
The sessions took place at the Horse Park At Woodside, which is an incredible venue that hosts a variety of events — horse shows, dressage shows, events and reining competitions. For instance, this week there is a dressage show finishing on Sunday, and the well known West Coast reining competition Reining by the Bay moves in Sunday. Amongst the bustle, David gets his own arena to teach.
The show jumping exercises were tough to start, but developed the horses tremendously. It was great to see the horses learn as the riders became more proficient at navigating them through each one. Out of all the sessions I watched, the West Coast riders for the most part looked even better than the last sessions we had out here. The listed riders have developed their top horses more, and the young ones they have in the works were almost unrecognizable; they have improved so much.
Andrea Baxter and Fuerst Nino. Photo by Shannon Lilley.
Some of the notable pairs I saw were:
Lauren Billys and both of her horses. Ballingowan Ginger is going to do her first three star at Rebecca Farm, and with the fine tuning from David, they should be fantastic. Her young horse has made huge strides as well.
Kristi Nunnick and R-Star made the exercises look simple. The horse has so much ability, but the two have developed quite a partnership, making child’s play of it all. Her young horse, Astro, has come a long way since he first came out and looks like he could make a name for himself rather than be in Rosie’s shadow.
Kelly Pugh is sitting on two lovely horses who are both up and coming. Her young horse, Condi, is going to be a contender someday. He has all the ingredients to be world class.
Jen McFall just came off an eighth-place finish at Jersey in her first three star with her own High Times. They polished some of their show jumping techniques yesterday and look quite good. Her wonderful husband gave her his horse to help her advance her career, and he is going to be a special one too.
There were many other young riders and adult amateurs who rode with David and relished the opportunity. While some of the exercises were challenging, most showed a lot of grit and powered through, making themselves better riders and their horses better educated.
Unfortunately, I could not see all the groups and could only be there one day, otherwise I would report on more. However, overall the West Coast riders continued to show that we can hang with the big kids, so to speak. With our great courses and the opportunity for high caliber instruction with David in the future, we will continue to progress our way to the top. Go Eventing!
