THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9506300252
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 169 lines
SINCE DEBI CONNOR was a little girl riding horses at Hillcrest Farms in old Princess Anne County, she has dreamed of competing in the Olympics.
``From the beginning, from the very beginning, I wanted to ride on the U.S. Equestrian Team,'' Connor said.
But unlike most little girls, Connor's dream didn't go away - ever.
She's all grown up, an expert rider and trainer of Olympic caliber horses, author of videos on training hunters, jumpers and ponies and part owner of Cavalier Farm, a pleasant spot with pristine white fences and horses grazing in green fields on West Neck Road.
Yet Connor's Olympic dream is still alive, too. She has aspirations of taking Cavalier Farm's world class jumper, Second Honeymoon, to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
If things go according to Connor's dream, she may also find herself both competing against and cheering for the Guatemalan Equestrian Team. Two of the three team members are training under Connor at Cavalier Farm and so are horses from all over the United States.
Connor is a Portsmouth native and daughter of the late Larry Weldon whom local sports fans will remember as the football coach at the old Cradock High School for 25 years. ``She's just like him except she's a girl,'' said Connor's mom, Margaret, who now lives in Virginia Beach and is Connor's greatest fan.
A 1974 graduate of Wilson High School, Connor went to Virginia Tech and quit, telling her dad she loved ``horses as much as you love football.'' At 19, Connor saw her Olympic dreams become a possibility when she began riding for Cavalier Farm. Farm owner Herman Valentine became her sponsor.
``I had a jumper of my own and also rode horses for Mr. Valentine,'' Connor said. ``He believed in me and made sure I had the best coaches and went to the best horse shows.''
She rode the circuit for eight years and almost made it to the Olympics in 1984 with Touch of Class. Connor purchased Touch of Class from a race track and trained the mare as a jumper, taking her to the Grand Prix level, the highest level of competition for jumpers, world wide.
``That was one of my strengths,'' Connor said, ``buy them reasonably and make them great, like taking a diamond in the rough.''
Touch of Class became the shiniest of baubles.
The duo was on track to qualify for the U.S. Equestrian Team for the 1984 Olympics when fate cruelly interrupted Connor's first Olympic dream.
``In 1983, a year before the games, a horse slipped and fell on me,'' Connor said. ``I was in a coma for 10 days with my left side partially paralyzed. It left me epileptic but with the will to ride again.'' Some riders aren't so lucky. Actor Christopher Reeve was recently moved from a Charlottesville hospital to a New Jersey hospital after breaking his neck in a jumping accident this spring.
Following her accident, Connor sold Touch of Class. But living up to Connor's expectations, the mare went on to win the Olympic gold medal. Incidentally, a Connor-trained horse, Chin Chin, also won the silver medal in 1988, one of many other honors for horses whose reins Connor has touched.
After her injury, Connor moved to Charlottesville where she said she was ``a gypsy for about 12 years.'' She had a business, buying and selling horses, was an actress and produced her ``The American Way'' training videos. But in December, she came home again to Cavalier Farm, forming a partnership with Valentine and William F. Muddyman, who lives in Monte Carlo.
Back home, the Olympics are once again Connor's focus. She is confident she has the right horse in Second Honeymoon, a bay mare with a white star, which Cavalier Farm purchased this spring. The handsome 12-year-old characterized as a Dutch warm blood, comes from a long line of horses bred for jumping. So far, Second Honeymoon has lived up to her genes, winning three Grand Prix events back to back in 1994.
She was chosen as the No. 1 horse on the American team for the Pan American games in Panama this spring, but was withdrawn from the event when she became ill with a cold. Now Connor and Second Honeymoon are getting to know one another as the horse regains her earlier form.
They will attend all the major Grand Prix events between now and next spring when the Olympic team is announced. Connor and Second Honeymoon were in the money in the first two events in which they competed, placing seventh and 10th. At this stage, being No. 1 is not the point, Connor explained.
``The strategy of the games is that she's peaking for the games,'' Connor said. ``You don't want to use her up. You want her jumping clean rounds with confidence. I feel really good. That we've already placed is to me being ahead.''
The United States Olympic Team is chosen not only on the basis of winning points. The opinion of the judges, who attend many of the Grand Prix events anonymously, also is a part of the selection process.
``From a logical point of view we need more time,'' Connor said. ``But from a heart point of view, I believe in my heart we'll go and I believe in my heart we'll win the gold.''
Connor is not lacking in confidence when it comes to the Guatemalan Team either. She said she believes they will meet their country's qualifications for the Olympics also. Unlike Connor and other United States Olympic hopefuls, Marco ``Chiqui'' Lara and Julio Carrion, both from Guatemala City, and another teammate who is training in California are the only Guatemalans competing for the team. Still the three have to meet their country's minimum criteria on the Grand Prix circuit. Carrion said if anyone can get them there, Connor can.
``I heard Debi was a great coach,'' he said.
Carrion is living full time in Virginia Beach and his horse, Castello, is stabled at Cavalier Farm. Lara, on the other hand, commutes every two weeks or so back to Guatemala and his farm where he grows coffee and ornamental plants. Lara has been training under Connor for several years. His horse, Dusky, is also a Cavalier Farm resident and both Guatemalans' horses travel the Grand Prix circuit with Second Honeymoon and other Cavalier Farm horses.
At Cavalier Farm, the cheerful red, yellow and white poles on the jumps with window boxes of pink geraniums underneath, belie the intensity of the training that goes on in this bucolic setting.
Thirty-one hunters and jumpers from all over the country are in training here, four of them owned by Cavalier Farm itself. And one of them is Twiggy, a young half sister of Touch of Class.
``She wants to grow up to be just like her sister,'' Connor said.
Connor took Twiggy through her paces over those colorful bars. The mare leapt over the closely spaced jumps in the same way a human runner takes hurdles, one after another, with hardly a step in between. At the successful conclusion, Twiggy, lathered in sweat, was kicking up her heels, shaking her head, snorting and whinnying.
``She loves her job,'' Connor said.
Though Twiggy is only 6, Connor said she feels she has the makings of a champion, too. It's a long haul to train a Grand Prix jumper. Connor said making a grand champion is a 10 in a million proposition. The horses don't come into their prime until they are around 12 and they usually compete until they are 18 or so.
``It takes a long time,'' she said.
Later Connor stood to the side of the bars and coached Carrion astride Castello through the jumps. After one successful run when the bars had been raised to a higher level, Connor called out loudly to Carrion. ``Big pat,'' she said.
Connor believes in big pats. ``What we have here are happy horses that enjoy doing their job,'' she said. ``Some people treat them like machines, but I believe they'll try harder if they love you.''
Later that day, back at the barn, Connor gave Second Honeymoon a big pat of another sort, a crunchy green apple that the horse attacked with gusto. Connor said a little fruit is one way to the mare's heart. Second Honeymoon arrived at Cavalier Farm, feisty and mean, but since her arrival, Connor said the horse had become mellow.
``When Second Honeymoon came along, she was simply in the right place at the right time for me,'' Connor said. ``I believe in destiny and it has significance to me, as a second chance.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
ON THE COVER
[Color cover photo]
Debi Connor works out with Twiggy in a staff photo by STEVE EARLEY.
In Second Honeymoon, a bay mare with a white star, Connor has a
horse bred from a long line of jumpers.
Debi Connor looks on as one of two members of the Guatemalan
Equestrian Team that she is training - Julio Carrion - takes his
horse Castello through a workout.
Debi Connor is an expert rider and trainer of Olympic caliber
horses, author of videos on training hunters, jumpers and ponies and
part owner of Cavalier Farm, a pleasant spot with pristine white
fences and horses grazing in green fields on West Neck Road.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
So far, Second Honeymoon has lived up to her genes, winning three
Grand Prix events back to back in 1994.
Second Honeymoon arrived at Cavalier Farm feisty and mean, but since
her arrival, Debi Connor said, the horse had become mellow.
by CNB