I have known Karl Cook since we were in diapers together. My best memory of him is one where he was climbing to the top of a tree in Huddart Park. He got to be at least 25 feet high and yelled, “Come get me.”
Another favorite story of my family’s about Karl is how he was riding a two-wheeler around his driveway at age 3, and careened wildly into the side of our Suburban and hit the back tire head-on. All of the observers gasped audibly, thinking he would be knocked out or even dead. But he bounced off the tire, got back on the bike, and kept going around and around the driveway. There was no stopping Karl.
Flash forward to November 2008. Karl is a world-class champion junior equestrian after riding just nine years, which means he started at age 8. It is no surprise to anyone who has known him that he is so successful.
At 17, he has already won the $50,000 World Cup class at the Oaks Horse Show, a double gold at the North American Junior Young Rider Championships in 2007, Top Junior Rider in California in 2007 and 2008, and the Gold and Silver Medals at the North American Junior Young Rider Championships in 2008. These are just his top-level achievements.
I asked Karl some questions about his riding and why he thought he did so well at the sport. Here’s what he told me:
Miles: Riding seems to be a lot like race car driving. Split second timing is key to your success at the level you ride. What do you enjoy most about the sport?
Karl: I love the intangible connection I get with the horse when I land off the last fence and I know both the horse and I put out a really good effort. I love that feeling I have that I have done something well.
Miles: How do you communicate with the horse?
Karl: It is hard to describe. I can just sense when the horse is feeling uncomfortable or excited and I gauge what I am going to do off of how the horse is feeling.
Miles: In what events do you compete?
Karl:
In the Junior and World Cup Division. I have had the most success in the Junior Division because I have been doing it for the longest. I just moved up into the World Cup Division with all of the professionals.
Miles: To what do you attribute your success?
Karl: My trainer’s training me the right way. My parents supporting me, and luck.
Miles: What makes the sport so dangerous?
Karl: You are riding on a 1,500-pound animal that has a mind of his own. If the animal miscalculates a fence or the rider miscalculates the distance, then that 1,500-pound animal will go flailing through the air with metal shoes. People can get kicked, stepped on, landed on, thrown through the fence, etc. But I have never taken a major fall that knocked me unconscious. I have been really lucky.
Miles: When are your next events?
Karl: I show in Sacramento Nov. 5-9. And then the week after that I am in LA at the Burbank show grounds.
Karl ‘s trainers are Butch, Lu and Guy Thomas (Guy is the son of Butch and Lu) and he keeps his horses at the Woodside Horse Park. Karl is a senior at Menlo School in Atherton. He has to miss school sometimes to meet his horse show schedule, but he is still a good student.
I am sure we will be reading about Karl for many years to come as he is hoping to keep riding for a long time. Any kid who at age 3 takes a tire of a Suburban head-on and jumps right back has got to have a pretty tough skull, and that seems to be especially important for equestrians.
Miles McMullin of Woodside is a senior at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough.
