By Britney Grover
Portraits by Melissa Fuller
Unlike many in the equestrian world, Rowan O’Riley didn’t grow up with Olympic ambitions. She didn’t even discover dressage until she was an adult. In fact, Rowan is unlike many equestrians because even after 25 years of competing, her fondest dressage dreams aren’t for herself—they’re for others. And they’re coming true in the biggest ways.
“Rowan is a horsewoman and competitor herself, so she knows what goes into the preparation for a competition,” said Rebecca Hart, an elite rider Rowan sponsors. “She understands the physical and mental requirements, which makes her such an aware sponsor and advocate for high-performance sport. I am honored that she took one of my dreams and made it one of her own. We were able to make that dream a reality in Paris.”
Yes, that Paris—home of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, where Rebecca and Rowan’s horse Floratina won not just one but three gold medals. As amazing as that record-setting feat is, Rowan’s impact goes even deeper than Rebecca’s successes: She is championing and transforming an entire discipline, one very near and dear to her heart.
“Rowan has elevated the entire sport of para dressage. She has brought visibility and awareness, and always fought for us to have the same opportunities and benefits that the able-bodied riders enjoy, like competing in the stadium at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival and having access to the tent and services during competitions,” Rebecca said. “She has helped to grow this sport into a world-record medal-winning discipline.”
Arizona to Adult Amateur
Rowan grew up riding a “cow pony” in Arizona, but took a break from horses as she pursued her education and career. She began studying engineering at the University of Santa Clara, then moved across the country to Massachusetts, where she studied English literature at Wellesley College. After graduating, she worked in publicity for a technology firm and then at an advertising agency, married and started a family—and also found her way back to horses. “When I lived in Massachusetts, I looked for a way to continue riding and visited a friend’s dressage barn. I had never seen dressage before, and I thought the horses were frighteningly huge but magnificent,” Rowan said. “Once my children were all in school, I bought a dressage horse of my own and began the long learning curve of trying to pick up dressage as an adult amateur. Let’s just say that I was not a natural.”
Juggling the many tasks involved with raising three daughters, Rowan loved riding for the “time out” it gave her from everything else in her life at the time. “I loved the connection with the horse, the time in nature, the hard exercise—but the thing that made dressage important to me was that it modeled the assertiveness and clear communication that I was trying to work out at that point in my life,” she said. “My relationship with my horse taught me a lot about my relationships with people.”
Equestrian experiences with her children also laid the groundwork for Rowan to be drawn to supporting para dressage many years later. Her oldest daughter was born with cerebral palsy, and part of her early therapy for the physical disability was horseback riding. “For a person who doesn’t walk, horseback riding is one of the few activities that can model the weight-bearing movement of walking because the rider’s hips go up, down, forward and back with each stride, giving feedback to the brain that is similar to walking,” Rowan said. “As any rider knows well, it also strengthens the core and back muscles and the bilateral movement of hips, legs and arms. It’s great for balance and the experience of feeling one’s body moving through space.”
As Rowan’s daughters grew, so did Rowan’s involvement with dressage: She began competing and pursing the upper levels of the sport. In 2015, a fellow student at the barn where Rowan rode had a disability similar to her daughter’s—and was competing at the elite level of para dressage. Rowan began attending her shows out of admiration and support, and learned about para dressage and the community of elite para riders competing in Wellington toward international championships. Rowan began sponsoring para shows at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival with Rebecca Reno, and getting to know the individual athletes.
Working toward her USDF Gold medal—which she successfully earned in 2018, the same year she was Region 8 Adult Amateur Champion at Grand Prix—Rowan built Fair Sky Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida. She built the farm, conveniently next door to White Fences Equestrian Center, for her seasons in Wellington to ensure her horses, and the others who lived there, would have a clean, safe facility and supportive amenities. It also gave her a home base with which to sponsor riders toward international competition. As it turned out, the able-bodied riders she sponsored did not prove the most able to help Rowan reach her owner’s box goals.
A Heartfelt Partnership
In the spring of 2017, top para dressage rider Rebecca Hart, who had already competed in three Paralympic Games on the U.S. team, invited Rowan to lunch. “Becca’s horse had recently retired, and she was looking for a way forward. She made a very professional presentation to me over lunch, complete with budgets, timelines, and plans A, B and C describing the kind of sponsorship she would need to achieve her goals,” Rowan said. “I didn’t have to think very long.”
Rowan and Rebecca set out horse shopping that summer in Europe, where they found El Corona Texel—and got to know each other. “Rowan has become one of my inner circle and I feel blessed to have her as a friend and mentor,” Rebecca said. “She has a wealth of knowledge and is such a kind, funny and generous person. I truly value having her in my life and getting her opinions and support not just with horses, but in all avenues of my life. She likes to have fun and she’s just one of those people you want to be around.”
“Rebecca is an amazing athlete—very strategic, analytical, focused on horse welfare and very driven to reach her goals,” Rowan said. “She started her working life as a groom in an eventing barn, so she knows every aspect of the job. She has been competing internationally for 25 years now, so she has tons of experience with international travel, stabling, show schedules, FEI rules and all the many things that can go right or wrong when competing. She is a pleasure to work with and support because she works so hard herself.”
Back home in Florida, Rebecca got right to work with her new partner, Tex, and competed at Tryon that same year—where she also competed the following year at the World Equestrian Games (WEG). They earned both a bronze and a silver medal, the first para medals at a WEG for many years. From there, they began traveling the world. Rowan traveled as Becca’s sponsor everywhere from WEG to the 2021 Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan—from which Becca brought home a team bronze medal—and the 2022 World Championships in Herning, Denmark, as well as Doha, Quatar, Japan and many European countries. She didn’t just show up to sit on the sidelines, either.
“One of my favorite things about Rowan is she is totally real and will jump in with you. She’s a true horse person,” Becca said. “Once, we were driving together through Europe really late into the evening; it was about 2 a.m. before we got to our layover barn. In order to keep ourselves awake, we had carpool karaoke. Rowan is a singer, but I most definitely am not. I serenaded us with my dulcet tones and she was gracious enough to laugh and sing with me—even though I sound like a dying cat. We got to our layover barn only to find it unfit and dirty. We were going to a CDI and couldn’t put our horses in stalls that looked like that. So, at 2 a.m., after driving for hours, Rowan got out of the car and joined me and my groom in scrubbing stall walls and re-bedding stalls. She dives into everything with humor and grace.”
“Being Rebecca’s sponsor has given me an inside view of the elite aspect of our sport,” Rowan said. “I had a bucket-list wish to ‘sit in the owner’s box’ at the Olympics, and I tried to get there by sponsoring able-bodied athletes, too, but Becca was the one who made it to the top.”
Paris & Beyond
In 2023 Rebecca began riding Floratina, a horse that had competed successfully in able-bodied dressage before Rowan leased Floratina from owner Chloe Gazierowski for Rebecca to ride and compete. Their partnership took them—and Rowan—to an incredible experience in Paris last year. “I was bursting with pride—absolutely jumping up and down,” Rowan said. “A few friends sent me screenshots of myself from the TV coverage, and I was smiling like a goofball from ear to ear. There cannot be any other feeling comparable to winning a gold medal at the Olympics—well, being part of the team that won it!—and Becca won three gold medals. She was crying, I was crying, our groom and trainers were crying—it was such an outpouring of joy. Seeing our flag and hearing our anthem was an unforgettable moment.”
The next goal for Rebecca—and, therefore, Rowan—is competing towards the World Championships in Aachen, Germany, in 2026, and then the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. In addition to Fair Sky Farm, Rowan developed a second property: ROasis Riding Oasis on South Shore Boulevard at Indian Mound in Wellington, where Becca both lives and trains. “ROasis’ training areas are located away from the roads so that horses and trainers are not distracted by traffic. It’s also very private but close to all three showgrounds in Wellington, and will be even closer to the anticipated new WEF and dressage facilities off of Gracida Road,” Rowan said. “The proximity to showgrounds is important for Becca’s active competition schedule, and is convenient for me when I want to watch dressage classes or give prizes at shows that I sponsor.”
With room for 28 horses under two trainers at ROasis, a covered arena identical to that at the original property and lush landscaping, Rowan has decided to sell Fair Sky Farm and keep ROasis as a home base for Becca. “I love being a part of the Wellington community,” Rowan said. “We’re looking for the horse that will take her to the Los Angeles Games. Now that we’ve seen her competitors in Paris, we know exactly how good that horse needs to be.”
After 25 years enjoying many wonderful experiences training and competing in the New England and Wellington dressage communities, Rowan has taken a step back from riding and retired her horses. She’s now turning her attention to sponsoring Becca’s competitive goals—and saving some time for painting and her three grandchildren: a 2-year-old boy “who talks a mile a minute and tumbles around and makes me laugh,” and twin newborn granddaughters.
In 2020, Rowan took an online course in portrait painting and began creating a series of colorful portraits, beginning with her family. “I guess there are as many ways to enjoy making art as there are ways to enjoy riding,” she said. “I enjoy it because I don’t take it too seriously. I was a serious learner when I was riding—now I want to just paint for pleasure, so I purposely don’t study painting in a serious way. I love the puzzle of creating a three-dimensional image on a two-dimensional canvas. I like experimenting with color. I love faces; I love the similarities and differences in faces, and the many ways to create a likeness.”
Rowan also has several philanthropic endeavors, such as funding an organization dedicated to Sudanese refugee children living in a refugee camp in Uganda. The project is close to her heart, as it’s run by a former Sudanese university student Rowan met 20 years ago in Uganda who had been a lost boy from Sudan with a dream to make life better for other refugee children.
But most of Rowan’s time is still dedicated to the equestrian world, and para dressage in particular. As a member of the USET Advisory Board, she stays informed about plans that benefit para equestrians and strives to represent the para community among the board members and advisors. “Para athletes are so hard-core,” Rowan said. “They have physical impairments and yet they choose to make a physical achievement the goal of their lives. It’s an incredible thing, when you think about it. They express themselves through their athleticism. So, I’m proud to be a part of this incredible community, and I’m proud to help make it possible for para athletes to compete at Global and have access to the Stadium there. The shows are expensive to run, and my sponsorship, along with the generous sponsorship of others, helps to make it possible.”
For one para equestrian in particular, Rowan’s sponsorship is golden. “Our success in Paris wouldn’t have happened without her,” Rebecca said. “Rowan has been an advocate from the beginning, and I’m honored to now be able to call her a friend and mentor. That support has meant the world to me and let me live my dreams.”
For more information, visit roasisridingoasis.com and follow on Facebook and Instagram @roasisridingoasis
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com
