8/2/2019 Cian O'Connor Article
1/1
THE IRISH FIELD, Saturday, December 31, 2011
A38
ian OConnor
ays farewell forhe moment as henters a newhapter in his life
HEN you readthis article it willbe New YearsEve my wed-ding day.
Im so
xcited and just hope it turns
ut to be as amazing as wevelanned and surpasses alluths
expectations.
2011 has been a wonderfulear. My business has devel-ped several
new contacts inarious continents and as aesult it saw many of
myorses getting sold into newarkets during the season.lready I
think I have devel-
ped a brand new team of top-lass horses which I hope wille
readyto winin thesummerf 2012.
Its always exciting acquir-ng new mounts and takingime to
develop them anduild a winning partnership.his is why I sent six of
myest horses to Florida lasteek where I will campaign
hem at the Winter Eques-rian Festival, which gets un-erway in
January and runs
or 12 weeks.
Of the six horses, four ofthem I have only ridden in a
fewclasses so Palm Beachwillallow me to gel with them andwith
the more experiencedones there will be an oppor-tunity to put a
dent in thecosts by hopefully picking upsome good prize money
to-wards the end of circuit. Ihave studied the show sche-dule for
the whole of 2012. Ihave mapped out Plan A, if allgoes accordingly
but as youall know with horses, Plans Band C need to be on
standbybecause of the uncertainty of
the game.I find it vital to have a
major goal each year andseveral mini goals en route tohelp me
achieve my master-plan, without however com-promising the main
agenda. Icompeted in Olympia beforeChristmas and thoroughlyenjoyed
the show. It is anincredible experience to ridethere.
This year Dermott Lennongave us all a riding lesson inbelief and
he followed his plan
and conquered with convic-tion. He would have been avery long
price to be third inthe World Cup and win theGrand Prix in
everyonesmind except his own. He feltthe horses were coming
rightand a few weeks before Lon-don he was talking about try-ing to
go there. He made aplan and followed it.
For me, his success throwsup something that I touched
inotherarticles, i.e. topridersalways have a chance of
deli-vering on the highest stageregardless of the form of
theirmounts. Form fluctuates butclass remains constant. Fa-cing
into a new year alwaysraises new hope and brightopportunities to
succeed. Un-fortunately though, there isno easy road to success in
any
walk of life and you get backwhat you put in.
I have been overwhelmedwith the positive emails andletters that
I have receivedsince starting this column.
I would like to thank IrishHorse World editor, SaschaGeraghty,
for allowing me tofreely express my forthrightviews on some topics
viewsthat maybe did not reflect theopinion of The Irish Field
itself and which may havegot up the noses of those in
authority, but I believeauthority has a constantcompanion in
responsibilityto its stakeholders.
In my mind thats what agood editor does allows co-lumnists to
air their opinions,whether she might agree withthem or not.
My criticism on varioustopics is intended to deliber-
ately create debate and dis-cussion. To not questionourselves or
our industry andto turn a blind eye to thestagnant state of play is
dis-ingenuous to the sport we alllove.
As Ivesaid before, politicalcorrectness has been over-played in
my view, and asmany are reliant on graceand favour, its
obviouslyeasier for them to go with thegrain. Onlyrecentlytherewasa
letter in this paper thankingeverybody under the sun itreminded me
of a skit onBarry McGuigan Thankyou very much, Mister
East-wood!
I feel that my observationshave made people sit up and
think. Raising your headabove the parapet isntalwaysa way to
make new friendsand while I perhaps didnt geta Christmas card from
somequarters, I know my com-ments havent all fallen ondeaf
ears!
I have archived all 31 arti-cles that I have written on
mywebsite cianoconnor.com un-der The Irish Field page.
For now, I say farewell.With my new wife and ahectic year
planned ahead, I
will concentrate my energieson a few new ventures. I
havethoroughly enjoyed writing
All In My Stride. Im taking asabbatical, but Im not
goingaway!
Happy new year to you all.
Cian OConnor is an interna-tional show jumper based inCo
Meath
ALL IN MY STRIDE >> Cian OConnor
With a busy year ahead, Cian OConnor takes a break from his
column
Feel freeto email
your views [email protected]
Onwards& upwards To not questionourselves or our
industry and to turn a blindeye to the stagnant state ofplay is
disingenuous to thesport we all love
