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Medal
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Riding Accomplishments
2008
Olympics - Beijing/Hong Kong - Mythilus - owner, Harmony Sporthorses
2007
World Cup - Idocus - owner, Christine McCarthy
2006
Courtney King's
Personal Profile
When
Courtney King was 9 years old, her father gave her a package of 5 riding
lessons at a local stable for Christmas. If he had known what would
grow out of this gift he probably would have decided to give her some
Barbie dolls instead. After the package of lessons had been
exhausted Courtney arranged to work off more lessons. The stable was only
about 3 miles from her home in a small town of Northern Michigan, so she
would walk to the stable to muck out stalls in the morning before school,
have the school bus drop her off at the stable again after school to take
her lesson, and then walk home again. Almost immediately Courtney
became aware of the problem of funding her passion. Neither of Courtney’s
parents was capable and/or willing to support her endeavors. When
she was 13, with the burden of high school still on her back, Courtney set
out to find her “big break”. She earned enough scholarships to
attend a boarding school with an equestrian program, and although she was
able to ride, the riding was limited and of poor quality. She
continued her search and ended up attending a different high school each
year.
Alas, at the age of 15 the journal was abandoned, and
Courtney decided high school was her big limitation. So she did her final
two years of high school in one year, and set off to become a working
student. She decided she would grant herself that extra year to see if she
could make it in horses, and then she would return to college. She found
an old ad from Lendon Gray looking for working students, and two weeks
later with $300 in her pocket she took a Greyhound from Michigan to New
York. And there it all began. She spent her year in absolute and exhausted
bliss getting on everything with four hooves and drinking in every ounce
of information she could. When the year was finished, she semi-reluctantly
stuck to her word and returned to the University of Michigan for college.
Her father agreed that he would pay for her schooling as long as she did
not ride. That lasted one year, and then she was back in New York. Lendon
helped her find ways to make extra money through babysitting, pet sitting,
painting portraits, and working at a grocery store in the evenings in
order to take part time college classes as well. Courtney worked her tail off
for Lendon Gray for over six years, and in return she received a wealth of
information and amazing opportunities for such a young rider. She was able
to ride and show horses of all different shapes and sizes, and she was
taught to respect each one equally whether they were on their way to the
Olympics or to someone’s cow shed. Under Lendon’s tutelage and with the support of many clients, Courtney became a force to be reckoned with in the show ring. She won so many Regional Championships at such a young age the announcer dubbed her “the Tiger Woods of dressage”. At age 21, Lendon handed her the reins of a very special stallion named Idocus whom they had both been riding over the past years. Courtney was extremely successful with him at Grand Prix in the States. She then accepted an offer to work with the legendary Conrad Schumacher in Germany. She worked with him for several months, and at the end of the time she entered her first International Grand Prix. Despite her humble wish to simply “not embarrass her country”, she came in third with a 70% ahead of Olympic medallists such as Coby van Baalen and Ankyvan Grunsven. That would be her last ride on Idocus. Due to personal issues, the owner of Idocus had to allow the horse to go in a contract to another country.
Courtney took the opportunity of having no
responsibilities to travel around Europe for a couple of months and then
returned to college at Columbia University graduated from Columbia in 2004
with a degree in literature. By the end of the show season of 2004,
her Idocus baby (Zydeco, for the music) had been the Year End Champion of
every level he had entered, winning approximately 73 out of 80
classes. She has also had substantial national success at the FEI
levels on client-owned horses. However, now that she has finished
school, Courtney is anxious to re-enter the international and elite sphere
of competition.
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