“Breeding is not for the faint of heart—but having said that, it’s one of the most exciting experiences you’ll ever have. It’s very hard to be in a bad mood when you have a baby looking over the door at you!”
into upper-level event horses. She recently returned from a trip to both Ireland and Germany, for example, looking for a couple of clients and also for young horses that she can produce herself. While she has had success finding young horses in
Europe, she also enjoys finding young horses in the United States and, though she particularly likes Irish horses, she is open to other breeds. “I’ve had a couple nice Thoroughbreds through the years too, so I’m happy to find horses off the track from resellers,” she adds.
Producing Future Stars In breeding her own horses, Courtney’s goal first and fore- most is to produce a trainable athlete—with the emphasis on trainable. “I used to go overseas and go for the super athlete and not worry as much about temperament. But I’ve learned you can train a horse who’s a little bit less athletic, rather than one who doesn’t have a good work ethic. Now the trainabil- ity comes first. I like to keep a high percentage of blood type horses. Our foundation mare, Heavenly Star, has a lot of Thor- oughbred blood in her, so we’ve been able to mix her with Warmbloods.” Faith’s daughters have all had foals as well. Courtney
explains they breed them as three-year-olds so they foal as four-year-olds, which gives them additional stock on the ground before the mares go into training and start performing. “Last year we had three foals—we had a filly by the
Holsteiner Hunter, who is by Heraldik and did an embryo transfer with Heavenly Star with Power by Far, a local Thor- oughbred, and Determined To Be A Star had a foal by Selle Français Jaguar Mail. I now have two Jaguar Mails, the only two chestnuts we have bred. We are really excited by all of the youngsters.” This year they didn’t produce any foals, though Court-
ney says they always enjoy having a little one around. Heav- enly Star is now 22-years-old and is coming to the end of her career in terms of breeding. After breeding horses for the past 13 years, Courtney says,
“My biggest piece of advice is at the end of the day you have to be happy producing a foal that is just like the mare you’re starting with. If you have a mare that you want to breed, you have to be willing to say, ‘In four years I’ll be happy to have spent $15 to 20k, and if I can stand here and see this mare, I will be happy’—then go ahead and breed her. You can’t say, ‘I’m going to improve all of these things’ because potentially the mare won’t even give all of her good points to the foal and you’ll get less than the mare. I’d caution people to really think about their mare.” Aside from genetics, there are always risks involved with horses. “We have one with a plate and five screws in her leg
Courtney’s foundation mare, Heavenly Star, with her 2011 filly, Determined to be a Star, sired by the Holsteiner Landfriese II. Today this filly is five years old and has started her promising competitive career.
because she was kicked before she was weaned. She went through Preliminary but it was hard physically on her. She’s been retired to being a broodmare. We also lost one: our Count our Lucky Stars mare had her foal three weeks early and he was underdeveloped, so we had to euthanize him and that was the worst,” she remembers. “Breeding is not for the faint of heart—but having said
that, it’s one of the most exciting experiences you’ll ever have. It’s very hard to be in a bad mood when you have a baby looking over the door at you! And it’s fun to watch them grow up and see how their personalities develop. We currently have seven promising horses under the age of three, so we’ll see what they become.”
The Road Ahead With any luck, there will be a few future four-star horses among those youngsters. Courtney has committed herself as fully to her riding, teaching and training business as she has her breeding operation, and her hard working is paying off. “It’s a daunting task when you are asked to coach a
professional,” her coach Boyd Martin says, “but I’d have to say Courtney is the ultimate student. There aren’t many people more dedicated to their craft than Courtney: she trains hard, hangs on to every piece of advice I give her, and the results are showing. I’m very proud of the way her jump riding is improving and she’s got herself some super-talented horses. Her riding is getting better and better.” This summer Courtney plans on competing her newly
minted four-star horse, Who’s A Star, at the Maryland Horse Trials in the CIC**, then Advanced at Millbrook and at the American Eventing Championships in Tryon, North Carolina. In the fall she’ll take him to the Plantation Field International in September, where she plans to compete in the CIC***, followed by the Fair Hill International CCI*** as her big goal. With any luck they will be at Rolex Kentucky again next year, eager to improve on their performance at the toughest competition in the U.S., against the best horses and riders in the world.
Warmbloods Today 29
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