Chelsey O’Brien

Horse trainer

Chelsey O’Brien is a self professed OTTB lover. She started riding at the age of 5 in Massachusetts and grew up as the guinea pig/crash test dummy for all kinds of horses primarily in the hunter jumper realm. As a teen, she helped to restart dozens of OTTBs and helped and boarded at a farm that did layups, rehabs, restarts and resales where she learned about the bigger aspects of horses, not just riding. This led to purchasing her own project at 16 to bring along alone that further cemented her love and devotion to the thoroughbred.

After a bad riding accident causing serious concussion during an IHSA show in college that left doctors telling her she should never ride again, Chelsey took time off only to find a life without horses was not one for her. What better way to come back into a year off of riding by going to Suffolk downs and buying one three days off the races? This horse, who was purchased for what looked like a fabulous conformation for the hunters, quickly showed her ineptitude for that discipline which had Chelsey seeking to get creative to find what set her mare’s heart on fire. By chance, she tried barrel racing and that was the ticket.

While training this horse for barrel racing, Chelsey also worked at a thoroughbred breeding farm in Southern Indiana, where she furthered her education of proper husbandry, foaling, handling, and large scale operations while helping with over 100 mares in foal, foals, weanlings, yearlings, in the breeding shed and daily care. She headed home to New England with that experience and a few more OTTBs and started teaching and training again, while also working at show farms as a groom, rider, trainer, and manager. Her career brought her down to Wellington FL, where she and her family resided for 2 years but another riding accident after having her daughter brought them up to Northern Virginia.

She took a job as a broodmare manager at a private farm where she foaled 25 mares over 2 years. During that time she found homes for many retiring racehorses from the farm, prepped sales yearlings for Saratoga, Keeneland and Timonium, cared for layups and handled surgical rehabs. This job was a great test of the many years of horsemanship/husbandry education Chelsey had gotten from previous jobs and horse people she was mentored by.

In 2023, she was chosen to be one of the inaugural trainers for Pastured Place, a not for profit out of Pennsylvania dedicated to Thoroughbred Aftercare. They sponsored her for the last two years to compete with two of their horses at The Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, where this past season, Chelsey and Unbeknownst To Me were second overall in the Barrel racing and ninth in the ranch work. She now manages a farm in Berryville VA where she offers training, restarts, rehabs, lessons, and sales. Her business focuses on a horsecentric approach to finding what the horse wants to do, whether that be an English or western discipline. This year, Chelsey hopes to compete again at the RRP and continue to show the versatility of the thoroughbred as both a western and English mount, as well as compete her seasoned mare in some bigger barrel races and rodeos, and step back into some rated shows in the hunters and jumpers.