Any lucky lady who had the opportunity to ride Kudra, Katie Ortepio’s beloved dressage mare, cherished their time with an expressive mount who was small in stature but considerable in charisma.
“Everyone called her the princess. She just had so much personality when you rode her. She always let you know exactly how she felt about everything,” recalled Erin Laurent, one of those who was able to earn U.S. Dressage Federation medals on Kudra, along with her sister, Carolyn, a professional trainer, and of course, Katie, among others.
Erin commented on the Ortepio family’s generosity in terms of how many people were able to enjoy the Dutch warmblood daughter of Rampal. Kudra help Erin achieve her silver medal and was her ride for all of her gold medal scores. Erin was aboard Kudra in her last show at the 2011 USDF Regional Finals in Lexington, Va., when the mare was 19.
“It was the amateur Grand Prix and we won,” Erin recalled.
“It was almost like she knew that was going to be her last test, and she gave me everything she had. It was awesome.”
Kudra’s thirtieth birthday party got all some of her biggest fans together — Sharon and Katie Ortepio and Carolyn and Erin Laurent.
Kudra’s retirement after that was long and happy at Mountain Manor farm in Readington, N.J., where she passed away this month just short of her thirty-fourth birthday.
Katie’s mother, Sharon Masar Ortepio, and those who loved Kudra wanted her to go out with dignity. After she stopped eating and started declining, they called the vet and the mare went peacefully. Kudra left behind many cherished memories.
“She had an amazing life,” said Sharon.
Erin observed that Kudra “was challenging, but so many riders were able to learn from her and get their medals, which is incredible,” noting how wonderful it was that the mare was sound throughout a long career.
“Once you got her working with you, she was a blast. When she clicked into gear, she was phenomenal and so much fun.” Oh, and she loved bananas, Erin pointed out.
“We had her 27 years,” said Sharon, who took care of her in retirement at Mountain Manor Farm for more than half that time.
“She was like my best friend,” commented Sharon, who works in real estate and is known for horse farm sales. While there were opportunities to sell Kudra, she wasn’t going anywhere. She was too valuable to her family.
New Jersey trainer Sara Schmitt first saw the mare on a video cassette. She and Katie Ortepio flew to Plano, Texas, where Kudra was being campaigned at Fourth Level, and knew they had located the right horse. In fact, Sharon chuckled, Sara and Katie were so excited about their find they forgot their riding boots in Texas and had to have them shipped back to New Jersey.
Sharon, who started the Readington Trail Association, remembered Kudra was “pretty sassy, pretty spunky, pretty spicy, but the great Grand Prix horses usually are.”
Katie showed her from Training Level all the way to Prix St. Georges and was a winner in the juniors during Dressage at Devon. She earned the Lazelle Knocke trophy, quite a coincidence, since Lazelle — founder of the Eastern States Dressage Association (now ESDCTA) — had been the Ortepios’ neighbor in Readington.
When Katie went to college, Sara trained and showed Kudra to Grand Prix. Kudra performed that test in competition more than 30 times over six years.
Although Sharon never showed Kudra, on a special occasion just before Christmas one year, Sara told Sharon to get on the mare.
“All we did was passage and piaffe,” Sharon recalled It was a revelation.
“This is how you do it,” she said, “and this is what it feels like.”
