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SIDELINESMAGAZINE | October 2026
aren O’Neal could barely walk
when she approached the start box
at the 2026 Defender Kentucky
Three-Day Event. A week after clinching
the CCI4*-S win at Twin Rivers, an
accident while training a young horse
left her with a crushed tibia and multiple
shattered ribs. For most riders, a debut
CCI5*-L would have been out of the
question. But Karen iced her injuries and
refused to scratch.
“I went into Kentucky pretty beat up,
to say the least,” Karen admitted. “I was
hoping each day that my leg would feel a
little bit better. I got through dressage in
quite a bit of pain, and then I kept icing
to prep for cross-country.” When Saturday
morning rolled around, she chose to ride.
“I said to my team, ‘We’re going to give it a
go. The adrenaline might kick in. If I feel
anything bad or unsafe, I’ll pull up.’”
While she ultimately pulled Clooney 14
after he backed off the first water jump,
just making it to the Kentucky Horse Park
after injury proved her legendary grit.
Entirely self-made and fiercely independent,
competing at Kentucky fulfilled a more than
40-year-long dream, after completing her
first international event as part of Young
Riders. “Clooney clearly knew I wasn’t
100%,” Karen continued. “I didn’t have the
leg or the core to support him the way he
needed, and I knew right then that I had to
pull up. It was absolutely a bummer. But it
was the right thing to do for the horse.”
KAREN
O’NEAL
Building an
Upper-Level Horse
From Scratch
By Diana Bezdedeanu • Portraits by Elliott Ralph
Karen O’Neal competing Clooney 14 in the
Advanced division at the 2024 USEA American
Eventing Championship.
Photo by Kris Zeigler for Erin Gilmore Photography