returned from a scouting trip to Europe with several of her clients, and has added a beautiful mare, Caia Z (a Zanger- sheide by Calato Z) with some new owners, to bolster her competition string.
It’s a Business After studying at Houston’s well-known Rice University, Courtney had an extremely successful career in the insur- ance industry. “I did that for seven years, made the ‘Million Dollar Round Table,’ the industry’s highest accolade and was successful, and enjoyed it, but at the end of the day I wanted to do horses full time,” she says. She decided to shift gears and ride, train and breed sport horses. “My husband Neal and I moved here, sold the insurance business and started the new horse business. We really enjoy it.” Husband Neal Camens has been her full partner in the business since C Square Farm’s inception, even while he works full time as a civil engineer. Neal competed through Preliminary level in eventing and now enjoys helping Court- ney at competitions, but he also has a passion for the breed- ing side of the operation. “We do all of the breeding and raising ourselves,” Court-
ney says. “Right now the babies are off-site to let their pastures rest, so on his way to work Neal feeds them and checks their eyes and legs, and in the evenings he helps with the business and odds and ends. He was originally a little opposed to the whole idea of the breeding program, but he has foaled out a baby himself without me being there because I was away at a competition—he loves the babies and handling them and is great at making them friendly, happy individuals.” Courtney says the key to running a successful busi-
ness, especially her sales operation, is to treat people as you would want to be treated. “In the horse business, things are often done on a handshake, which is great, but I like to have contracts, boarding agreements, bills of sale, documents that people have to look at and know that everyone is on the same page. I like to release vet records at pre-purchase exams so people can make good decisions.” Success also requires running your horse business like
a normal business by promptly returning phone calls and emails and always keeping people up to date, for example. It’s a lot of balls to juggle and, even though Courtney has a business background, running the farm takes a lot of time and energy. As a result, she has sought out some help. For the last eight years she has had Margaret Rizzo McKelvy of Mythic Landing Enterprises in Maryland help keep the busi- ness organized by taking on some of the administrative tasks. “In the early stages I was tentative about giving over
responsibilities, but as our relationship has grown I’ve had her handle more and more. A local designer named Lisa Thomas of Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services redesigned and repositioned our website presence recently and that was a lot of work too. I think people have become more profes- sional these days; Facebook and social media have changed so much of the horse business and how people view it.
28 September/October 2016
Courtney rides another homebred, the mare Rock Star (by Dutch Warmblood R. Johnson) at Plantation Field at Training level.
Professionals are relying on others to augment the business and marketing aspects.” Margaret has worked with Courtney for nearly a decade
and says, “I can tell you that her horses and her custom- ers always come first. Her ability to balance her busy sales business with her own upper-level competitive career is inspiring.”
Breeding and Buying While breeding has become an integral part of life at C Square Farm, it started by happenstance. Courtney had bought the mare Heavenly Star, or “Faith”, as a five-year-old in Ireland and developed her into a Preliminary horse. She did the one-star in Kentucky, but that winter the mare tore her meniscus and was unable to continue with her career. “We played around with rehabbing her, but at the end of
the day it didn’t work out —but she was very well bred,” Court- ney says. So they set about finding a suitable “husband” for the mare. “Denny Emerson’s stallion Aberjack came from the Aber- lou line, which has produced many upper level event horses. Between the two I thought I might be able to produce a good prospect—and the result was Who’s A Star.” Her success with this pairing prompted Courtney to breed more horses. Courtney also travels to Europe several times a year, look- ing for good, young, quality athletes who can be developed
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