Five years ago, Christan Trainor’s life could have been the inspiration for a Disney feature film.

She was training with her idol, Olympic event rider Karen O’Connor, on an idyllic farm in Middleburg, Va. She had three upper level horses in her care, including Ticket to Ride, with whom she had been shortlisted for the 2000 Olympics, and Theodore O’Connor, a 14-1 hand pony who was electrifying crowds with his “how-did-he-do-that?” jumping style.

Most gratifying for Trainor, then 24, was taking “Teddy” from preliminary up to the advanced level, and making believers of all the naysayers who had questioned her faith in the spunky little gelding.

The fairy tale fractured later that year, when Teddy’s owner, Wynn Norman, took the pony from Trainor’s barn, citing financial reasons. When Teddy resurfaced, it was with O’Connor, and the rest, as they say, is history. Teddy went on to win individual and team gold at the 2007 Pan American Games and become a bonafide superstar, virtually doubling attendance at events wherever he competed.

Trainor’s current mount, a rangy 8-year-old bay thoroughbred named All Purpose Brown, is neither pony-sized nor owned by another party. And that made their win in open training at last weekend’s Longleaf Horse Trials even more gratifying. Trainor, now 29, bought “Spike” in 2008 from Middleburg horse broker Lisa Reid, who thought the gelding had the potential to be an international level eventer.

“I walked around the corner of her barn, and this nasty, skinny, ugly horse lunged at me like a snake,” Trainor said of her first meeting with Spike. “I asked Lisa which horse Spike was, and she pointed to the horse that tried to bite me.”

Trainor and Reid had done business before. In 2005, Reid called Trainor about a thoroughbred mare named Morchant. Trainor bought her and took her up to preliminary before residual damage to a hock from an earlier pasture accident ended her competitive career.

Trainor has taken her time with Spike, picking and choosing his show schedule carefully. He will run training at the Virginia Horse Trials next month with an eye toward moving up to preliminary this summer.

“He’s always showed a lot of physical talent, but mentally he’s had a lot to overcome,” Trainor said.

Trainor credits local trainer Keith White with helping Spike progress.

“He ended up having to go back and do a lot of ground work in the round pen to gain his trust and respect,” Trainor said.

Trainor, who has been based in Southern Pines for two years, was raised in the Virgin Islands. She rode ponies bareback in St. Croix, eventually joining the local Pony Club. When Trainor was 7, her 5-year-old brother, Ian, drowned at a marina where their father kept his boat. Her grieving parents could not recover from the tragedy and eventually divorced.

Trainor moved to Siler City with her mother and began riding with the local Pony Club chapter. She had a spirited gray pony named Cloud Nine, whom she occasionally took to Middleburg to train with eventing legend Jimmy Wofford.

Spike’s show name — All Purpose Brown — is a nod to Wofford, who wrote in a recent book that his cure for many ills was a glass of “all purpose brown.”

At the 1995 Culpeper (Va.) Horse Trials, Trainor and Cloud Nine were in second place in the training level division after dressage. As she was heading to the start box for her cross-country round, Trainor heard the announcer call for a hold on course.

“Superman” actor Christopher Reeve had fallen from his horse at the third fence, resulting in injuries that would leave him paralyzed for the rest of his life. In a daze, Trainor went on to complete the course and win the event.

At 15, Trainor bought Ticket to Ride, an off-the-track thoroughbred. The duo went from novice to advanced in three years, claiming a silver medal at the 1998 North American Young Riders Championship. Trainor graduated from Jordan-Matthews High School in 1999 and enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill on a full scholarship.

But horses were always on her mind, so Trainor decided to defer her scholarship. Norman had called her about riding Teddy.

In their first event together, the NCDTA Horse Trials, they finished second. After the event, Trainor remembers telling people, “This pony can do Rolex.”

Trainor never got her chance to ride Teddy at Rolex, the only 4-star event in the U.S. O’Connor did, finishing third in 2007 and sixth in 2008. Sadly, a month after his final Rolex appearance, Teddy had to be euthanized after severely injuring his right hind leg in a barn accident.

Trainor says she harbors no ill will toward Norman or O’Connor. In fact, when Trainor saw Norman’s ad in a trade publication two years ago offering Teddy’s full brother for sale, she flew down to Florida the next day and bought the 3-year-old pony, whom she named Theodore al Coda.

“He so much like Teddy it’s scary,” said Trainor, who trains at a farm on Hollybrook Lane in Vass. “He feels exactly the same over the jumps.”

Theodore al Coda has one (or two) things his brother did not — the family jewels. Four weeks ago, his first foal was born, a long-legged filly who is a replica of her mother, Morchant, who is also called “Gracie.”

Trainor was stuck in Virginia with a broken trailer axel the night “Roux” made her debut, but her good friend, Diana Hoberecht, who had been sleeping in the barn next to Morchant’s stall for two weeks, was on hand for the birth.

“She’s just beautiful,” Trainor said as she watched Roux gallop after her mother in their spacious turnout. “And she’s so sweet and curious. She’s really about the friendliest baby I’ve ever known.”

Whether Roux can duplicate the feats of her famous uncle, or her mother, who was prepping for a move up to intermediate before a previously undiagnosed hock injury flared up, is yet to be determined. The filly has the stature of a pure thoroughbred, which isn’t surprising, since Coda’s father, Witty Boy, was a thoroughbred, while his dam was 1/2 thoroughbred, 1/8 Arabian and 1/8 Shetland Pony.

Trainor recently learned that Gracie’s hock had partially fused, clearing the way for her to be ridden. Elated, Trainor saddled the mare, and with assistance from White, took Gracie for a short ride around the pasture, with Roux in fast pursuit.

She’d better step on it. She’s got some little shoes to fill.

NOTES: Lindsey Staiano Williams and Triumph II won the open preliminary division at the Longleaf Horse Trials with a score of 36.20 ... Alexandra Pingree and Toy Master finished on their dressage score of 35.90 to win preliminary rider ... Former advanced horses competing with lower level riders included Buck Naked II (open preliminary), Orange (training rider), Ying Yang Yo (training rider) and Benwald (open novice) ... Full results for the Longleaf Horse Trials can be found at www.carolinahorsepark.com.