Oct. 1 started as a normal workday for Molly O’Brien. As Lehua Custer’s assistant trainer and head groom for the past three years, she has settled into her daily routine of riding, training and grooming. 

A quick glance at her phone while tacking up a horse changed that. An email in her inbox informed her The Dressage Foundation had awarded her and Custer’s 8-year-old Oldenburg stallion, Fortunato H20, $25,000 from its Anne L. Barlow-Ramsay Grant for U.S.-Bred Horses Fund. Winning the grant came as a surprise to O’Brien. 

“It was just a normal day at work. I was in the barn and in-between horses. Lehua was out riding in the arena, and I was getting the next horse ready. I just happened to be checking my email, and a message from The Dressage Foundation pops up: ‘We’d like to congratulate you on being awarded…’ ” she recalled. “I ran out to the arena. I yelled so she could hear—of course, she was at the other end of it—she was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ She came trotting back over, jumped off, and we hugged. We were both just in shock.” 

This year was O’Brien’s first year applying for any TDF grant. She had always known that the nonprofit organization offers financial assistance to professionals in the dressage industry, but she had never fit the eligibility criteria until a year ago, when Custer handed her the reins on “Tuna” (Fuechtels Floriscount—Raleska WF, Rascalino). O’Brien has known the Oldenburg stallion since her first days working for Custer in Loxahatchee, Florida. 

“I’ve ridden him over the years,” O’Brien said. “For example, when she was out of town or for whatever reason, she would just throw me on. I’ve seen him and ridden him at all these different stages of his life.”

Well before she was Tuna’s regular rider, she was his groom during his successful career in para-dressage. Ridden by Roxanne Trunnell, the chestnut helped the United States earn bronze at the 2022 Orifarm Healthcare FEI Para Dressage World Championships (Denmark). 

For several years the stallion balanced two separate high-performance careers without problem. With the help of Custer, Trunnell and O’Brien, he was able to work toward the upper levels of able-bodied dressage while staying competitive as a para-dressage horse at the same time. 

“He’s a versatile horse, and honestly, for being a stallion, incredibly sensitive in the best way,” O’Brien said. “Like, there were some days where I would ride him in the morning and make him hot enough to do the Prix St. George level work, and then Roxie would ride him in the afternoon, and he’d just walk around perfectly. He really separated the two jobs.” 

O’Brien grew up riding in Tuscon, Arizona, where her passion for dressage began aboard her Quarter Horse-Paint cross gelding named Hawk, who will be turning 35 next year. When she was 16 and he was 22, they earned their USDF silver medal together. And though she competed in the FEI Junior and Young Rider classes when she was younger, she has never contested the FEI divisions as an adult. Neither has Tuna. 

“We’ll be like two little fish jumping in a very big pond,” O’Brien said. “But that’s OK. I mean, in another sense, Tuna has been around the world, and we’ve been around the world together when I was his groom. We’ve traveled, and we’ve been to some pretty big competitions, and he’s done it.”

In addition to making their CDI debut together this year, O’Brien hopes that she and Tuna will be able to qualify for the 2025 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions. The TDF grant, designated specifically for U.S.-bred horses like Tuna, will pay for training and entry fees to international small tour competitions in Florida this winter season that would otherwise be financially inaccessible to O’Brien. 

“It just wouldn’t be possible without the grant,” she said.

Tuna’s competitive career with O’Brien also depends on the generosity of Custer, an accomplished professional in her own right. After the stallion’s para-dressage career came to an end, she had every reason to want to take over the ride on Tuna herself. To this day, O’Brien can’t fully explain her boss’s steadfast support of their partnership. 

“Not many owners of horses are also trainers themselves,” O’Brien said. “Lots of sponsors don’t even ride, let alone ride professionally. A year ago, Lehua just said to me, ‘I think you two are a great fit and would be a great match. Just try it. And if it doesn’t work out, it’ll be fine, no matter what. Just do your best and get a give it your all.’ 

“Her support leaves me a little bit speechless,” she added. 

For her part, Custer said handing Tuna’s reins over to O’Brien has had benefits both expected and unexpected.

“It was a little bit the classic issue of a trainer with their own horse getting put on the back burner,” Custer said. “I had so many other client horses to show, and I was also showing in the CDIs with my Grand Prix horse at the time, so it was hard to make time for him.” 

More than any logistical considerations, however, her sense of responsibility to mentor the next generation of dressage professionals motivated her to share Tuna, she said.

“My mentor, Hilda Gurney, had always been supportive of us younger people when I was newer to the sport, so I just thought that it would be a way to support the future of dressage,” she said. 

“Plus, I get to watch and learn from their rides,” she added. “I get to see him blossoming and making other people’s lives happy. I wouldn’t have expected that, but, in a way, it’s even more fun to get to watch him get ridden every day. I get to watch how beautiful he is and how nicely he goes and his sweet personality. It’s a pleasure. So, having Molly work him really benefits me in many ways.” 

The opportunity to ride the stallion, who O’Brien calls “really Lehua’s baby,” is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that has made O’Brien especially cognizant of her responsibility as his rider. 

“I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to do right by him, not because of Lehua—who is my best friend and she’s the most amazing owner and everything—but I think, quite honestly, that he might be the nicest horse I’ll ever get to sit on in my life,” O’Brien said. “So, I’m trying to be the best that I can be for him and be his advocate while I am his rider.”

Custer decided to buy the now 8-year-old Oldenburg from his breeder, Kendra Hansis of Runningwater Warmbloods, before he had even stood up. O’Brien encourages other young professionals to work with breeders in America to find their next upper-level prospect, in the spirit of the grant she was awarded. 

“There are really wonderful breeders here, like Tuna’s, that have very good eyes, and they want to get these horses with good professionals,” O’Brien said. “There’s the will on their end to get these horses out and but people just must be willing to trust them, buy a young horse, and train them up.”