US eventer Libby Head has paid tribute to the 15.1hh former racehorse with whom she went to the top of the sport, after his death aged 27.
Sir Rockstar, who completed Badminton and Kentucky, and won a gold medal at the North American youth championships with Libby, went on to excel as a schoolmaster in retirement, and was happy until the end.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have a horse like him,” Libby told H&H. “He was definitely my horse of a lifetime.”
Libby got “Rocky” when he was 10 and she was 16; he had retired from the track and had a couple of owners by the time Libby’s trainer heard of him.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” she said. “I was just coming off a horse barely going training level [similar to BE100], and when we went to try him, he was awful. He looked really bad. My dad actually had the trailer to bring him home but they wanted $10,000 for him. And my dad said ‘Absolutely not’. And we just left.”
But the sellers called a few days later and offered Rocky to Libby at a lower price, and the rest is history.
Asked what she would have said had someone told her what he would do, she said: “I would not have even thought about that. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but he was super light on his feet, jumping. And I just wanted to help him; if it had been up to me, I would have brought him home then.”
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But things were not straightforward from the start – “He was awful!” Libby said.
“He was so nappy everywhere; at home, at shows. He did move up the levels fairly quickly, because he was talented. If he gave me that much trouble now, I don’t know if I would have stuck with it, but I knew my parents weren’t going to buy me another horse! So I had to figure it out.”
And she did. Libby took Rocky with her to university and competed on the university team. The pair went up the levels together, until their first four-star (now five-star) at the Kentucky Three-Day Event in 2014, when they finished in the top 20.
“I was very lucky; I had him to keep me safe,” she said. “He would jump anything. We just kept moving up and my coach would say ‘Let’s start thinking about the next level’ and I’d say ‘Ok’, and go with it. The dressage was always really difficult for him; I remember qualifying for a three-star, now, four-star, was really hard, just with the dressage score, that took a while. But [then the jumping phases were] amazing. He was only 15.1hh, but he never felt like that; his jump meant I never felt like I was on a tiny horse.”
The pair went on for years; Libby breaking her wrist shortly before Luhmühlen in 2015 meant that plan did not work out but she recovered to complete Badminton the following year when Rocky was 18.
“He had such an ego; he would always make the decisions and even if it wasn’t the right one, he would act like that was what he was supposed to do!” she said. “The highlight was definitely going to our first five-star at Kentucky, because I had no expectations. And I went out, especially across country, just having fun. It wasn’t until probably I got through the coffin that I thought ‘Ok, we’re actually doing this. It’s happening’. Then he jumped clear on Sunday. He’d always been a careful jumper; you never know going into that but he jumped super that day.”
Rocky was stepped down after 2016 and did some lower-level eventing with a friend of Libby’s for two years, after which she moved back home to start a teaching and training business.
“He never truly retired; he taught a lot of kids, they all loved him and he loved it; he was perfect,” she said.
But age caught up with Rocky and blood tests showed his kidneys were failing so Libby had to say goodbye.
“He went everywhere with me; wherever I moved, except those two years, he was always with me,” she said. “I had him for longer in my life than I did without him.”
She added: “He was the kindest horse, and I’m so glad I got to share him with so many other people along the way. I love you, Rocky.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
