Chris Pratt

Birthplace: Toronto, Ontario
Birthdate: April 18, 1969
Hometown: Wellington/ Florida

Occupation: Full-time athlete and coach
Stable: Epic Stables
Coach: Self

Biography

For Chris Pratt, it all began with four goats. After spending his first ten years in the city, Chris moved
to the country when his father inherited a farm north of Toronto. There were sheep, chickens, goats;
every type of farm animal except horses. Tired of hearing Chris ask for a pony, his father finally
relented, trading four goats for what would become a lifelong commitment for Chris.

In 1994, Chris made a name for himself by topping the Kanatek Talent Squad, a means of identifying
future members of the Canadian Show Jumping Team. It would prove to be an accurate predictor of
the future, as Chris soon scored his first grand prix victory in the $50,000 Audi Grand Prix at the 1997
Collingwood Horse Show riding Davos.

After operating his own training business, Performance Horses Unlimited, in Terra Cotta, ON, Chris accepted a full-time position riding for Susan Grange’s Lothlorien Farm in 2004. The move propelled him onto the international stage, and he was named to Nations’ Cup teams for the 2005 Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ tournament in Calgary, AB, followed by the 2006 Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, FL, where he jumped double clear riding Mustique to clinch an important victory for Canada. Chris made his major games debut riding Rivendell at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany.

In 2007, the winds of change took Chris to sunny California where he built up an impressive clientele at his Epic Stables based in Los Angeles, then later in Rancho Santa Fe.

Representing Canada in the 2011 Gijon 5* Nations Cup, and the 2011 Barcelona 5* Nations Cup was key to keeping a focus on the top sport for Chris. While balancing coaching and quality horse sales with his own competitive pursuits, Chris won four grand prix events, including the $350,000 CSI5* Grand Prix, riding three different horses during the 2016 HITS Desert Circuit. That was quickly followed by a win in the $100,000 Grand Prix of Del Mar in May of 2016 with Concorde.

Maybe the biggest call to duty for the Canadian Equestrian Team came in 2017 when Chris and Concorde were selected for the Nations Cup Finals at 5*Barcelona alongside Eric Lamaze, Yann Candele, and Tiffany Foster. Canada led the competition after the first round.

Making the decision to continue to pursue the sport at its highest level, Chris spent the summer of 2018
in Europe and relocated Epic Stables LLC permanently to Wellington, Florida. While spending that winter in Holland, he achieved the life-long goal of competing at two iconic competitions: CSIO5* La Baule, France, where he was a member of the Canadian Nations’ Cup team, and CSIO5* Rome, Italy, where he rode as an individual.

The next year was an important one as a permanent base in the Netherlands was secured. Located in Helmond, just outside of Eindhoven, “Stal Epic” is an ideally situated private show stable for producing high-level show-jumping horses and riders.

In addition to propelling his own career forward, Chris is also an accomplished trainer, coaching his students from Japan, Shota Ogomori and Kazuteru Kitai towards their Olympic dreams. Ogomori was silver medallist at the 2018 Asian Games as a member of the Japanese team.
Over fifty Grand Prix wins on eighteen different horses to date, Chris Pratt is ever passionate for competing and coaching at the highest level of International Show Jumping.