We hear all the time about horses at the top of the sport, but what about the next generation of equine talent? EN’s Got Talent introduces the future superstars of the sport, interviewing riders about how they’re tackling training with these youngsters. Have you spotted a spectacular young horse at an event you think should be highlighted in this column? Tip me at [email protected].
Courtney and R Star in her second event at Paradise Farm. Photo by Mark Lehner.
I love writing about homebreds. It’s so much fun to hear the back story about the parents, the early years and, of course, see the adorable baby pictures. Courtney Cooper spoke to me this week about R Star — not to be confused with Kristi Nunnink’s gorgeous grey mare — a 7-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare who holds the honors as the third oldest homebred in her breeding program.
“Hope” is out of Courtney’s foundation broodmare Heavenly Star, who is sired by I’m A Star, the elite eventing Thoroughbred stallion who also sired Mary King’s Star Appeal. Courtney competed Heavenly Star through preliminary before the mare suffered a career-ending injury and was retired to brood. Heavenly Star also has Clover Hill and Chou Chin Chow bloodlines through her dam line.
Heavenly Star also sired Courtney’s upper-level partner Who’s A Star, who most recently finished third in the Jersey Fresh CCI3* in May. And Hope’s bloodlines are equally exciting on her father’s side, as she’s by R. Johnson, a Dutch Warmblood stallion whose sire, G. Ramiro Z, has produced many excellent sport horses. His daughter, Ratina Z, was a gold medallist in show jumping at both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
In short, Hope was bred to be a superstar, and she stole a lot of hearts as a baby. “She was just wonderful as a baby and very easy to work with,” Courtney said. “My husband Neal, who is an amateur, rode her as a 2-year-old, and she just always had a wonderful disposition and was so sweet.”
R Star with her dam, Heavenly Star. Photo courtesy of Courtney.
Courtney started Hope after the mare turned 2, and she was lightly worked through her 3-year-old year. “We breed our foals when they turn 3 so we can get a sense of what they will put on the ground, so she had a foal as a 4-year-old,” Courtney said. Hope’s daughter, Count R Lucky Stars, is by the Holsteiner stallion Linaro. After taking her 4-year-old year off to have the foal, Hope went to Aiken in the spring of 2011 to start her eventing career as a 5-year-old.
“She was a little bit tough in the dressage, which is funny because she’s quite fancy,” Courtney said. “She just didn’t know where to put all of her body parts. She was extravagant and couldn’t find the connection. If you look at her record, her first dressage score was a 44.8 in novice.”
Six months later, Hope’s dressage scores were down in the 20s, and she’d finally begun to understand the little white box. Hope steadily cruised through training level and had just moved up to preliminary when Courtney fell and suffered an injury in June 2012. “She had done six preliminaries and placed second three times,” Courtney said.
“When I got hurt, I kicked her out in a field because I didn’t want anyone else to compete her. We brought her back that fall and she would have these moments where all of a sudden she would go 4/5 lame and then the next day she would be fine. One time it happened at the walk, another time it was when she came in from the field, and a third time was when I had just started riding her again and had jumped her. I went to brush her after the ride and she was quite lame again. Nobody could figure it out.”
Next week on EN’s Got Talent: I’ll reveal the mysterious source of Hope’s lameness and how Courtney was able to diagnose the problem. We’ll also learn more about the “Star” family behind Courtney’s breeding program, as well as what it’s like to train a horse you’ve raised since birth.
“I’ve had some difficulty making the time with her on cross country, through through no fault of her own,” Courtney said. “It’s more my problem because I don’t always want to press her. It’s hard when you have horses you breed yourself and bring along. At some point, they go from being your baby to being your performance horse, and it’s hard to make that switch and know when to push.”
