01. Carolyn Curcio
- Role:
- Owner, Rider , Manager,
My competitive career really got underway in the summer of 2007, when I was on the bronze medal winning junior young riders team in Lexington at the North American Young riders Championships, riding my old faithful gelding, Croft Temptation. I was then proud to be part of the Gold Medal winning Young Riders Team at Kentucky Park in 2009, alongside teammates Jessie Springsteen, Alexandra Thornton and Chelsea Moss. From here, I double majored in Entrepreneurship and Marketing at the University of South Carolina, with a minor in International Relations. I was fortunate enough to complete my studying in the UK, while being a working student for Laura Kraut and Nick Skelton. I was honoured to be voted captain of the varsity equestrian team at Uni, and I still maintain close connections with the team coaches and the professors there. While working for Laura and Nick, I had the pleasure of producing the beautiful superstar mare, Zermonie. After working for Laura and Nick, I was ready to branch out on my own and was thrilled to be given the opportunity to ride at Sagamore Farm, where I had the opportunity to produce horses who are now jumping 5* Grand Prix. I rode for Sagamore until 2016, when I took some time out to have much needed surgery on my shoulders and hips. Once fully recovered from 4 major surgeries, I took on a riding and management role back in the UK for Lauren Hough. I worked for Lauren until 2018 when I decided to set up my own training base, Chiron Stables. I am currently living out my dream of having my own business, with high quality stock of competition horses. I really love producing the young horses, and I still have competitive goals that I am striving to meet. Competitively, dreams of a gold medal gets me up in the morning. What I’ve been learning the last couple of years is that so much is out of my control, but what its in my control is improving horses - a direct influence I have. It’s another skillset to pursue the highest level of the sport. When horses are a lifetime, when looking at the scope of my life, I always look at the bigger picture, so striving for a team gold medal is still the pinnacle.
