Appeal Tribune Wednesday, July 19, 2017 3B
Teen performance horse exhibitor
always displays a stable attitude
JUSTIN MUCH
STAYTON MAIL
The corgi-Aussie mix puppy, Bailey,
yawned once, then licked fingers and
lounged as she sat in 15-year-old Emmer-
sen Cook’s lap beneath a shady parasol
on the back porch of the Cook family
home Friday.
In a sense, Bailey is a prize, or per-
haps a reward for multiple prizes Em-
mersen has earned these past few
months while competing from atop one
of her Paradise Stables horses. She’s
earned enough hardware that her moth-
er and trainer, Karmen Cook, mentioned
that her father, Dan Cook, may have to
build a separate shed to store it all.
Bailey won’t be stored in that shed.
Paradise Stables’ manicured grounds
with adjacent stables and arena on the
west fringe of Silverton are happy, if
hard-working, environs for humans and
critters alike.
“Horses are a lot of work; there is a lot
of effort involved behind the scenes be-
fore that 5-minute (showing) in the are-
na,” said Karmen, who has owned and op-
erated Paradise Stables for 11 years and
trained riders for a quarter of a century.
“Lots of long, hard hours cleaning and
taking care of the horses behind the
scenes that non-equestrians are un-
aware of.”
Emmersen could fill a trophy cabinet
of testimony to that hard work if her
modest demeanor afforded such. But it
took a bit of prodding from Karmen just
to nudge her inside the house to fetch one
medallion for an illustrative example of
what is presented to performance horse
exhibitors.
By the numbers, Emmersen’s list of
spring plaudits is impressive, even to
equestrian-for-dummies ears. The Sil-
verton High School sophomore-to-be
won seven medallions at this month’s
Marion County Fair: High Point Inter-
mediate, High Point Jumping, High
Point Ranch Horse, High Point Reins-
manship, High Point Driving, High Point
Combined Driving, and High Point
Training Level Dressage.
Of course, a little twist in the fair com-
petition was that Emmersen had to com-
pete with a different horse than the one
she’d been competing with during this
past school-year’s Oregon High School
Equestrian Team competitions, then
again at the Pinto Horse Association of
America's World Show, June 12-24.
She won a World Championship and a
Reserve Championship as well as multi-
ple top-5 placings in Tulsa, riding her
trusty, if quirky, companion “Eliot,” a 15-
year-old, pale-blue-eyed paint.
Emmersen also rode Eliot through
arenas of high school competitions this
season, including the Champion Perfor-
mance Rider out of 84 vying in the North
Valley District. She was also the dis-
trict’s Champion Rookie and won medals
and state qualifying status in all of her
performance events.
Emmersen won Hi Point Reserve
Champion out of 156 riders at state, then
joined the top-5 Oregon riders, along
with Washington’s top 5, to compete in
PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE APPEAL TRIBUNE
Emmersen Cook, 15, of Silverton is a rising star in the equestrian arena.
the Pacific North West Invitational
Championship where she won Bronze in
Trail, Silver in Western Horsemanship
and Silver in Huntseat.
Following the Tulsa trip, its long trav-
el and two-week competitions, Eliot was
rewarded with a respite.
At the fair Emmersen worked with
versatile quarter-horse, Sally, a 24-year-
old Paradise Stables veteran who has
twice been snatched out of her retire-
ment pasture to perform in a pinch.
Sally’s veteran poise impressed
equestrian officials at the fair, but Kar-
men thinly veils her trainer/mother’s
pride in underscoring the importance of
its rider.
“A lot of people think it’s the horse”
Karmen said, elaborating the impor-
tance of riding skills; technique, but be-
yond that is the feel, connection, and in-
tuition with the horse.
Karmen stressed that her calm-coun-
tenanced daughter demonstrates those
intangibles.
“It’s like, just because you have a nice
pair of running shoes doesn’t mean you
are going to win the race,” Emmersen
analogized.
Emmersen has been riding since
about age 5. She recalls crying once
while graduating to a canter stride, prod-
ded on by her mother. But that passed.
“Sometimes that can be a big bump
for kids,” Karmen said. “It’s a hurdle
they have to get over, and once they do
they love it.”
Karmen has trained scores of riders
from around the Willamette Valley. She
insists they take on a number of differ-
ent challenges, become a complete rider
rather than trying to specialize in one or
two events.
“There is no shortcut to being a great
horse rider,” she said, adding that “One
thing you can’t teach a rider is the feel.”
Emmersen exhibits that feel. Perhaps
more importantly, she exhibits a love for
riding.
“I plan on riding forever; I want to go
to the Olympics,” she said.
Karmen said there are a lot of differ-
ent disciplines in riding, and the idea is to
work at many events; be versatile and
then you can narrow down your compet-
itive focus.
“Only problem is,” Emmersen inter-
jected, “I haven’t found one I don’t like.”
jmuch@StatesmanJournal.com
or
cell 503-508-8157 or follow at twitter.com/
justinmuch
Emmersen Cook’s list of plaudits is impressive
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