Boyd Martin-Friend who has ridden several horses for us.
Lucy Davis-husband’s jumper trainer used to work with her.
I’m friends with McLain and his right hand man, Lee!! I know Beezie and her groom Clark a little too.
not sure if you could call a connection, but one of my horses has the same breeding as Weihegold (Don Schufro-Sandro Hit) and I am kind of proud, that I knew in 2008 already that this is an amazing combination 
I used to swim with a club near Cleveland that produced at least one Olympic medalist–Diana Munz (gold and silver in 2000). I’m not sure if we overlapped because I was only there for one season and I would have been in the next age group up from her. Plus I was only 9 so my memory’s not that reliable.
My high school basketball coach was good friends with Dawn Staley and she used to practice with us sometimes. I remember her being really nice to me, even though I was an unathletic mess of a power forward.
I played “jump crew” at one of Jessica Phoenix’s last clinic, in St-Lazare. (I was a spectator but no one seemed to be helping her at all…?!?) She was very friendly and appreciative!
I partied with Sir Mark Todd -and Clayton Fredericks in Le Pin, Normandie. Eventers are… funny! 
My employer as her horse at Belinda Trussel’s barn.
A friend of mine is doing a clinic with Selena O’hanlonat the end of the month.
Clearly, for a dressage rider, I hang out with a lot of eventers it seems. 
Think I said this before but;
My mare is closely related to dressage mare Caravella (Contango/Riverman)
so I do call that a connection!
But so much goes into developing the strength of a dressage horse, sigh.
Valegro is my second cousin twice removed.
My mare was bred by Lendon Gray, out of an Olympic quality mare, Crown Juel, by one of her Olympic horses, Medallion.
I volunteered at her Dressage 4 Kids show for several years, so I met, however briefly, Robert Dover, Courtney (then) King, Alison Brock, along with lots of other really cool people. And I almost got to meet Sue Blinks!
All my associations are through my stallion, A Fine Romance.
He is the sire of Jessica Phoenix’s wonderful mare, A Little Romance, and I am friends with her owners and breeders.
Rebecca Howard came to my farm to look at youngsters, with the owner and breeder of Riddlemaster, and they bought a baby to hopefully become Rebecca’s “next 4* horse”.
Peter Barry, who is the owner of Colleen Loach’s horse also bred to AFR,that baby was started US by Colleen, and Selena O’Hanlon who was originally named to the team has an AFR son, A First Romance.
Ms Mars, who owns two of the horses on the US team has also bred to AFR, and Lauren Kieffer rides some of them (she won O-I on one Landmark’s Ginger Rogers, just before the Olympics.
The O’Connors also bred to him.
Yann Candele threw me his ribbon at his victory ride at the Capital Classic years ago.
Sales staff at Ruuning Fox assure me that Eric Lamaze bought three pairs of the same gloves that I bought there. Sucker for marketing…much??? Hope Eric likes the rhinestone embellishment. ??
[QUOTE=Dee-Vee;8803216]
Sucker for marketing…much??? Hope Eric likes the rhinestone embellishment. ??[/QUOTE]
LOL!
My farrier is the former husband of Allison Brock.
McLain Ward brushed right by me at Devon one year. I mean, that’s kind of a big deal… :lol:
Oh and George Morris was eating dinner at the table behind ours in Wellington last year… So I guess we are pretty much BFFs now!
I met David o’conner at a USDF convention and asked him to sign his book for me…best of all, he took the book from me to sign, and said, so, tell me about your horse.
Isn’t that just the best ever?
I went to high school with one of the US steeplechase runners, Donn Cabral (track and field), so it was great to see him after the London Olympics at our 5-year reunion and congratulate him in person! Super nice guy, super smart, and my “claim to fame” is telling him our sophomore year that he was silly for quitting soccer to focus on track. (Yes, that’s a true story…)
And I was lucky enough to meet Charlotte in Central Park at the horse show last September! I have a photo of the two of us together. She was super nice, even with how busy I know she was during that trip. I was giddy!
[QUOTE=caffeinated;8794328]
Boyd Martin used my bathroom once.
Sadly I wasn’t home that day to lock him in the basement.
:([/QUOTE]
:lol::lol:
I’ve ridden with Karen O a bunch of times - not an Olympian anymore, though.
She and I also once uncast a horse together.
Schooled at Boyd’s once, he was there as I was tacking up and we chatted.
I did a coursewalk at Fair Hill with Phillip Dutton when I was 14 or so. Now that I’m eventing (20 years later), I keep telling myself I need to fish out the photo and take it with me if I expect to run into him at a show. It’d be really cute to have a photo of us now holding the photo of us then.
CARL HESTER’S SISTER WORKS AT MY COMPANY!!
Found this out recently sooo exciting!
I used to volunteer on the gate at Spruce Meadows, so I regularly got to give a lot of Olympians (past and present) a hard time when they were late for their pre-load.
I was in a Sociology course with Erica Weibe (CAN), who will wrestle for gold in her division later today. Go Erica!
My son track cycles with Monique Sullvan (CAN) and used to ski jump with young people who will make up the next Olympic squad.
I rode with Joe Fargis and Conrad Holmfeld in the early 1980’s and was part owner of Touch of Class. Joe gave me the t-shirts that all the athletes get in their clothing bag, since he does not wear t-shirts. And as a part owner of ToC, I was the first one that Joe let wear his gold medals. <3 — They were not as heavy as they appear to be now, but they were just as cool. 
While Joe and Conrad were whisked away (with police escort) to get their medals before the closing ceremonies, I got to answer their phone and write down names and messages from everyone (around the world!) who called them with congratulations.
It was quite an exciting time.
