Text © World of Showjumping

Cian O’Connor has added yet another talent to his string of horses, this time the 10-year-old gelding Valdocco des Caps (Number One d’Iso Un Prince x Quidam de Revel). 

Valdocco des Caps has had a successful 2019 season with French rider Guillaume Foutrier, who has produced the horse since it was a youngster. This year, the two impressed when jumping on the French team at the Nations Cup in Aachen with a score of 0/4 – also qualifying for the Rolex Grand Prix. The pair also finished fourth in the CSI5* Grand Prix in Bordeaux in February, and won the CSI4* Grand Prix competitions in St. Tropez in April and June – to mention some of their many top results.

To World of Showjumping, O’Connor comments: “I’m very pleased to have been able to secure Valdocco. Guillaume has done a wonderful job developing him slowly and I hope I can continue that progression. I think he’s a special horse and should complement PSG Final and Irenice Horta very well in my string.”

Furthermore, O’Connor says: “I’ve bought some great horses over the past year, but nearly all of them I have sold which is a part of running my business.  

I plan now though to try to build myself a nice team of horses to do the sport properly for the next few years. 

Jenny Rankin, who started to ride for me a few months ago, will develop our younger horses where I have invested quite seriously. My thought process here is that top horses are hard to come by and very expensive, but this way we should have many coming through to both compete or sell which I believe is the best way forward.”