Karl Cook is a thinker, with meticulous attention to detail that has been a key element of his career in grand prix show jumping.
An example is what he did after winning the $200,000 4-star JTWG grand prix on Candy at the Winter Equestrian Festival last weekend.
Karl and Candy on the way to victory.
Even with the victory lap and trophy presentation wrapped up, the Californian still was analyzing the way he edged Ireland’s Darragh Kenny on Collibelle Hero Z by a mere 0.85 seconds. So Karl walked back into the ring to examine his tracks.
“The last line was eight or nine (strides), but the eight was a tall ask,” Karl recounted about the end of the tiebreaker route.
Musing on the way his mare jumped the next to last fence, he revealed, “I actually went to look at my landing prints. I was far to the right of the standard. I wasn’t planning to have that much of an inside line, and that made the eight not that big of a deal.”
That single stride also gave him the victory, his first in a grand prix with the Swedish warmblood. He is both patient and determined in figuring out how to produce a horse’s best performance.
“It’s been a long two years that we’ve had her. It’s not been a straight road. It’s been challenging for me to understand her, and her to understand me,” he said.
“It’s like any relationship. You build and you build, and a lot of times, it feels like you’re on a plateau and nothing’s really changing.
“What happens then is you have a steep climb…and all of a sudden, it changes. That’s just our work we’re doing every day, finding little things we can do better, little adjustments to our flatwork, how we approach the fences.”
Finally it all paid off.
Candy gets her reward of horse candy (carrots)
Assessing the abilities of Candy, formerly ridden by Shane Carey of Ireland, Karl observed, “She has a lot of power, that’s her big strength. It’s just figuring out how you can let that power shine. She’s not one of those naturally quick jumpers…you have to walk your course accordingly…and ride her to her strengths.”
It was completely in character that after the grand prix, he was still mulling what happened in Saturday night’s Nations Cup, where he was clear in the first round on his number one mount, Caracole de la Roque. In the second round, however, he had a rail at the first element of the triple combination.
It was a pattern that too often happened in Nations Cups; clear in the first round, 4 faults in the second.
“I need to work on that,” he said.
On Saturday, he and Caracole “were getting a little bit chesty, really driving forward, especially after water (obstacle). I made my adjustment, she did the adjustment well (but) she didn’t take a step to do the jump. I tried to prepare (the) A (element) a little bit more, slow her down, set it up.”
But as she left the ground, he realized immediately, “It wasn’t the takeoff i was hoping for.” So that’s something to keep thinking about for next time.
Whatever happens, Caracole, his 2024 Olympic team silver medal partner, “is obviously the number one. I can’t imagine one being above her.”
But having a grand prix less than 24 hours after the Nations Cup “opens it up for an opportunity for a horse like Candy. In a format like this, some people use their Nations Cup horses” (Karl’s teammate McLain Ward, did that to finish fourth with a rail down.)
Karl, however, chose to go with Candy. The grand prix was “stressful because it was significantly bigger than what we jumped in the past. This is by far the biggest we’ve ever done with her. It’s not just double clear, but how she jumped. I think it will make us rethink some things.”
Karl and Candy with their ribbons.
Karl flew back to the West Coast after leaving Wellington. He will jump Foxy de la Roque — you guessed it, yet another mare — in a 4-star at Thermal to finish off the season there.
So: “mares, mares, mare?,” I said to him.
He replied, “All mares; not a rule. I seem to get better results with mares instead of trying to fix it with something that isn’t working. You go with what works.”
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