Darragh began competing in the sport of show jumping at the age of 10 in his homeland of Offaly, Ireland. He quickly moved up the ranks, competing in his first grand prix at the age of 14. Darragh eventually made the decision to move to the United States to train under the tutelage of Missy Clark and John Brennan, where he began to accumulate some of his career highlights, such as winning the $100,000 Budweiser FEI World Cup™ Qualifier of Syracuse CSI4*-W. Over the next few years, Darragh continued his steady and impressive climb with top placings in prestigious grand prix classes up and down the East Coast. In September 2012, Kenny made the decision to form his own Oakland Ventures, LLC. Since its inception, Oakland Stables has become one of the most successful competition barns, offering high-performance sales horses and an elite training program with three bases in Wellington, Florida; Thermal, California; and Meijel, Netherlands. Darragh has amassed a number of career highlights over the years, such as representing Ireland at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Normandy and helping to earn Olympic qualification for Ireland after jumping double-clear with Balou du Reventon to win team gold in the 2019 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Final at CSIO Barcelona. He currently sits at number 7 on the Longines FEI World Rankings as the highest ranked Irish show jumping athlete with a current impressive string of top horses.
Valentina Truppa, born in Milano on March 18, 1986, currently is the most successful Italian Dressage rider ever. She is trained by her father, Dr. Enzo Truppa, who was an internationally successful dressage rider himself, being the first Italian to participate in Dressage World Championships in 1982. Dr. Enzo Truppa is working as an FEI 5 Star international dressage judge today. Valentina Truppa started riding at the age of four and began competing on horse shows when she was twelve. As a military police officer, she is a member of the Carabinieri Army Sports Group. Valentina achieved excellent results both on national and international level right from the start of her career. She was three times Young Riders’ World Champion and two times Young Riders’ European Champion. Furthermore, during this period, she won two other individual silver and bronze medals and one additional team bronze medal. Valentina can also look back to 28 wins at national championships by now. In 2012, she became bronze medalist at the Dressage World Cup Finals and took part in the Olympic Games in London, representing Italy as an individual rider. Valentina won several outstanding international competitions, two of which on World Dressage Masters level. Besides this, she has been training and schooling numerous Italian Grand Prix dressage riders during the last years. At the Arezzo international dressage horse show on June 7, 2015, she fell off one of her younger horses and was heavily injured. Due to a severe head trauma, she had to be placed in an artificial coma. Fortunately, she recovered well and after only 109 days, in September, she returned to competition and qualified for the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games where she took part, being her second Olympic Games.
Anne (born 1962 in Aalborg Denmark) is a Danish Olympic dressage rider living in the Netherlands, running a very successful dressage and breeding yard with her husband Gertjan van Olst. In the beginning Anne was into Show Jumping however it quickly changed to her becoming completely focussed on dressage. At van Olst Horses Anne is fully in charge of the dressage side of things, she is training her own competition horses, managing and training her riders and horses and teaching to Grand Prix as well as managing the care of the horses. Her first international appearance was in 1988 aged 26, with her then horse 'Le Fiere’ they went onto compete at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In 1989 they competed at the European Championship in Mondorf les Bains and 1990 Stockholm World Championships. Her next horse was 'Chevalier' and together they had many successes, 1992 Barcelona Olympics where they finished 10th individually, 1991 and 1993 European Championships where they were 5th individually and 1994 World Championships at The Hague where they were again 9th. Anne then competed 'Chronos' in the 1995 European Championships, and in 1998 she finished 10th in the GP special at the Rome World Championships with 'Dempsey’. In 1999 she won Bronze with the team at the European Championship in Arnhem with her horse 'Any How'. Her next Olympics was Sydney 2000, the team were 4th at Sydney. The next big success came with 'Exquis Clearwater' where she was a member of the bronze medal winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she then went onto compete at the 2009 Windsor Europeans, 2010 World Championships in Kentucky, 2011 Rotterdam Europeans and 2012 London Olympic Games. In total Anne has been a member of the Danish team 17 times, has competed at 5 Oympic Games and been Danish Champion 3 times, competed more than 20 horses at Grand Prix and trained close to 100. At the moment Anne has some very exciting prospects training at Grand Prix, and with the talent that the van Olsts breed and Anne's experience and knowledge the next couple of years are going to be very exciting to watch.
Charlotte Fry (Lottie) is a 23 year old British dressage rider based in Holland at Van Olst Horses for the past five years, and rode on the British team at the Senior European Dressage Championships in Rotterdam this summer. Having been around horses from a very young age she started riding with a couple of very small ponies. Lottie's grandmother Rosemary Shewen then made the first of a number of acquisitions, Haverkamps Jorik who really sparked her interest in dressage. This was followed by Andexer, a pony stallion who was bought as a project and went on to compete at Lottie's first European Championships in 2010 with a place on the GB pony team. Then Z Flemmenco (Dinky), a young horse who had the potential to be Lottie's Junior horse at the time, eventually she trained him all the way to Grand Prix. On the way she rode him at the 2014 Junior and 2015 Young Rider European Championships, where they finished best of the British at both. Lottie also rode at the 2013 Junior European Championships aboard Remming, a horse previously trained and competed by her mother, where they finished best of the Brits and placed a new British record with a 5th place in the individual test. They also became 2014 PSG National Champions. In her early years she was trained by her late mother Laura Fry who rode at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and was a European team silver medalist, and from 2012 with Carl Hester who helped to secure a place for her at Van Olst Horses working and training with Anne Van Olst from 2014. Since making the move to the Van Olsts she has had many amazing opportunities, in 2015 she competed Anne's Olympic Grand Prix horse 'Exquis Clearwater' in her first U25 Grandprix, winning at Roosendaal CDI. Also in 2015 Lottie competed at the World Breeding Championships for the first time with the Van Olsts 'Graaf Leatherdale' finishing 6th in the final. Over the last 4 years, she has ridden many top breeding stallions at competitions and shows including Inclusive, George Clooney, Don Joe, Glamourdale, Everdale and many more. In 2017 Everdale won the Stallion of the Year competition at the World Breeding Championships and a week later Lottie and Dark Legend were best of the Brits at the Young Rider European Championships with a 5th place. 2018 was a very exciting year as she made the step up to Grand Prix level, Everdale competed in his first Inter 2 scoring 77%, Inclusive won the 5 year old class at Bolesworth CDI in England with 86%, at the same show Dark Legend made his international Grand Prix debut to finish 3rd behind Olympians Carl Hester and Richard Davison. Glamourdale competed at Leudelange CDI winning the 7 year old classes with over 80%, before he went on to become World Champion for 7 year olds at the World Breeding Championships with 87%! 2 weeks later it was the U25 European championships with Dark Legend where they won team Bronze, Individual silver and Freestyle Gold with over 82%! 2019 started with Everdale competing at U25 Grand Prix with scores between 72 and 76%, he then made the step up to senior Grand Prix and is fast improving!Competing at Aachen in July this year was a massive dream come true, with 3 horses gaining personal bests... Glamourdale won both the small tour classes and posted 80% in the Inter 1! Everdale scored 72% in the Grand Prix Special, and Dark Legend competed in the Nations Cup and scored 75% in the Grand Prix Special to qualify for the kur! Approved KWPN 4 year old stallion 'Kjento' has been making his mark at the stallion shows and won the first round of the Pavo Cup scoring a 10 for canter on the first day and a 10 for trot on the second day! We're looking forward to the winter season when we will be campaigning our first season on the World Cup circuit with 2 horses. With 16 horses on her list, the future is looking very exciting with 3 year olds to Grand Prix horses. But for now the aim is Tokyo 2020.
