United States Eventing Association

Upstage (1991-2019)

Upstage (Touching Wood x Golly D’Ore), Richard and Vita Thompson’s Thoroughbred gelding, passed away today at the age of 28.

Upstage and Karen O’Connor’s partnership began in 2000 after she catch-rode him to a third-place finish in the two-star at the Radnor Three-Day Event. The following spring, Upstage completed his first Advanced level horse trials at Red Hills with O’Connor in the irons. In his first year at the Advanced/three-star level, he finished seventh in the three-star at Foxhall and fifth at Fair Hill International.

In the spring of 2002, Upstage ran around the Kentucky Three-Day Event for the first time, finishing in 24^thplace. Upstage and O’Connor competed in the Kentucky Three-Day Event another five times, completing the four-star event six consecutive times: sixth place in 2003, 12^th place in 2004, seventh place in 2005, 12^th place in 2006, and 15^th place in 2007.

In 2006, Upstage and O’Connor competed individually for the United States in the FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, finishing in 42^ndplace.

Upstage retired from competition in 2008. To date, Upstage is ranked the 21^st highest scoring horse of all time with 865 points. Richard and Vita Thompson and Karen O'Connor are all members of the USEA's Eventing Hall of Fame.

The USEA extends our condolences to the Thompson family, Karen O’Connor, and all of Upstage’s connections.