In this July 2024 video addressed to Dan and the team at Yankee Creek Ranch, the owner provides a comprehensive update on the training and recent competition footage of his horse, Conner. He begins by describing a recent show‑jumping competition in Princeton, New Jersey, where Olympic gold‑medalist Peter Wild rode Conner in a 1.20 m warm‑up round, followed by the owner’s own 1.35 m round—higher than five‑star requirements—highlighting Conner’s ease over the height and the focus on improving his posture between fences. The owner then reviews a cross‑country schooling session with coach Eric Davander, Olympic observer Bobby Costello, and his wife (who also coaches dressage), noting Conner’s fitness, increasing confidence, and ability to handle a demanding schooling course. Next, he showcases dressage work, specifically a flying change, explaining the technical difficulty, the use of ground poles for alignment, and his wife’s German Grand‑Prix dressage expertise in refining the movement. Throughout, he comments on Conner’s temperament—initial nervousness, growing composure, and enjoyment of work—while emphasizing his overall fitness and readiness to step in for the Paris Olympics if needed. Finally, he outlines plans for a major five‑star three‑day event later in the year, weighing options between the Burley (UK) and Maryland (USA) events, and expresses confidence that Conner could be a strong contender in either. The video concludes with gratitude for the ranch’s support and a personal affirmation of his love for the horse.
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This is a video for Dan and everyone at Yankee Creek Ranch in Texas. I just thought I'd put together a bit of a video of some of Connor's training and competition videos from the last couple of weeks. Last week we took Connor up to Princeton, New Jersey. It was an official show jumping competition. And what you're seeing here is the meter 20 actually in the saddle is not me, but Peter Wild, who's my jumping coach, who also won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics. Peter's obviously my coach and trainer and he's also a masterful rider. He rode Connor in the meter 20 and we sort of use this as a bit of a schooling round just to get Connor sort of trained up between the fences. Obviously this is a official competition but we are more treating this as a bit of a training day and having Peter ride the horse and school him and basically just put the, the finishing touches on some of his training, especially between the fences. It's a real asset. And Peter's a much more accomplished show jumping rider than me. So it's a huge advantage having Peter sit on the top horses now and then we sort of use the meter 20 here as a bit of a warm up class. And then I stepped on about an hour and a half later and rode him in the meter 35 which is A, was a bloody big round actually. This is taller than what Connor has to ever jump at five star level. And as you'll see in a minute here, he jumped it with ease. The biggest thing we've been working on is sort of getting. Connor's a great jumper but between the jumps he wants to sort of stick his head up in the air and between the fences here we're sort of bending him left, bending him right and trying to get him to sort of soften over his back and sort of use his top line over the fences when we do that. Connor's got an incredible jump and I think at these competitions we're sort of not trying to jump the jumps clear at all costs. We're more sort of going in the ring and showing him, you know, it's quite a spooky course with lots of flowers and weird looking jumps and getting him sort of acclimatized to all the weird and wonderful different things that you'll see in the jumping ring. And it's also just good practice going in and jumping good round after good round. This was last week. We cross country schooled Connor and he was fantastic. My cross country coach Eric Davander was there along with Chef to keep for the Olympic Games, Bobby Costello came to keep an eye on us and so did my wife there on the dressage horse. And Connor was very, very impressive. He still, I mean, we built this schooling course very, very difficult. And you can sort of still feel moments of a little bit inexperience. But every time we, I don't know, every time we take Connor out and give him a proper cross country training day like this, he just impresses me more and more. Obviously we've got him fit and ready to step in for the Olympic Games and he's, he's in, in great shape. If he's not needed at the Olympics. I feel like we should really aim for a big five star at the end of this year. We've got two options. There's one in Burley, which is sort of one of the biggest ones in the world, and that's in, in August, September, I think. September over there in England, which I'm, I'm tempted to do just because the horse is very fit. But then I'm also a little bit worried. It's, it's the biggest and baddest cross country course in the world. And sometimes I try not to take the horses. They're the first five star. The alternative is in October, Maryland, five star. I think he'd be a strong favorite to do very, very well in, in either of the one. You know, I, I think he'd be a really high chance to win Maryland, which obviously by then I feel like his dressage will be spot on. And the cross country here, the more and more I ride him, the more and more we're sort of really clicked in and on the same page. He's can be a little bit spooky and a little bit nervous and looking around at different bits and pieces. But I feel like as he's getting older, he's getting more and more on the job. And as I come to the jumps, he sort of, his ears prick on the fences that we're aiming for. And a lot of these questions that are designed on the schooling course here had sort of similarities to what you'd see at the, at the five star level of the Olympic Games. And then the last is a bit of dressage work here that my dear wife was yelling and screaming and coaching again. Like Peter Wild, she sits on Connor especially if I'm away. She'll ride Connor in the dressage. And what you're about to see is a flying change. And that's been the biggest sort of challenge that we've had with Connor in His dressage work, when we first got him, he was really, really confused at the change of lead in the air. And thanks to my German dressage Grand Prix wife, he's starting to become a master at them. And the goal of the exercise is to sort of shift your leg back and in one sort of clean swoop he changes lead from left to right. These pipes on the ground here were just trying to keep Connor from trying to keep him in a really straight line. He often sort of jumps out to the side to sort of give himself more room. And having those poles there keeps his body in alignment. Anyways, he's not, he's still got a lot of improvement to go. To be honest, he's sort of newish to this level, but I really feel like by the time we either get to the Olympic Games or to one of the five stars at the end of the year, Conor be very, very hard to beat. In the dressage. He's phenomenal. He's got this wow, athletic look, he's got extravagance and now like all the correct training starting to catch up. So it's very, very exciting with the future coming up and these movements he's doing here that they're very, very difficult and he's really getting the hang of them. He's, he's enjoyable to ride, especially in the dressage. There's a lot of the horses in work that are not that comfortable to ride, but Connor loves it. He's very fit though, so he's often feeling very, very good in himself. And anyway, as you can tell, I'm absolutely in love with this horse. He's, he's a needle in the haystack and he makes, makes you feel like an unbelievable rider. So anyway, the plan is that he'll head over to Paris and he's ready to step in at any moment should anything go wrong with Bruno. And beyond that, getting back to America and then we'll look at which five star three day event suits him best. But we're, we're planning to hit the ball out of the park at the end of this year and I feel like he's ready to really, really win a big one. Anyway, guys, thanks for all your support.
