Karl CookOlympian

About Karl Cook

Karl Cook (born 25 December 1990) is an American showjumper from Woodside, California, an Olympian and Olympic team silver medallist, and the rider behind one of the sport's most publicly documented approaches to horse management. He competes from Pomponio Ranch South at Rancho Santa Fe and, on the FEI's 3 August 2026 snapshot, stood 19th in the Longines Rankings with 2,457 points.

He grew up around horses — his mother, Signe Ostby, rode and owned horses for other riders — and was given his first pony, My Mini Milton, at eight. He trained in California with Butch Lu and Guy Thomas, and won four medals at the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships: team and individual gold in 2007 with Uno de Laubry and team and individual silver in 2008. When his progress plateaued he spent an intensive period in France with the former world champion Eric Navet and, from 2012, rebuilt his riding and stable-management system entirely under Navet's direction — a relationship he describes as having required becoming a horseman before being a sportsman, and which continues today.

The stallion Jonkheer Z took him to championship level, carrying him to 11th at the 2013 FEI World Cup Final in Gothenburg on his debut at 22 and 27th at Las Vegas in 2015. A third Final start followed at Omaha in 2017 with Tembla, where he retired in Final I. Caillou 24 became his number-one horse in 2019 and led the North American Western World Cup sub-league in 2019/20, but the Las Vegas Final was cancelled during the pandemic. His first five-star Grand Prix victory came in 2022 at the Hampton Classic with Kalinka van't Zorgvliet, who went on to win a Traverse City MLSJ five-star Grand Prix and the inaugural $1 million Coachella Cup in 2023.

Caracole de la Roque joined the stable in 2023 and transformed his championship record. They won the American Gold Cup that year and then team gold at the Pan American Games in Santiago, the result that secured US qualification for Paris — Cook's twelve faults in the first round became the drop score, and he was clear in the second. In 2024 they won the Rolex Grand Prix of Rome and were second in the Rolex Grand Prix of La Baule. At Paris 2024 Cook travelled as the alternate and was called into a no-drop-score team hours before the qualifier after Kent Farrington withdrew Greya; he jumped clear in the team qualifier and clear again in the team final as the United States took silver, then finished 16th individually on 8 faults, publicly accepting responsibility for cutting the turn to fence 12 too sharply.

Caracole was voted 2024 USEF International Horse of the Year after 27 FEI clear rounds and 15 top-ten finishes. In 2025 the pair won three consecutive five-star Grands Prix — Rotterdam, the Rolex Grand Prix of Falsterbo and Saint-Tropez-Gassin — a sequence US Equestrian's analysis reported only eleven combinations had achieved since 2010. These are Rolex-sponsored fixtures rather than Rolex Grand Slam Majors, of which Cook has won none.

Cook's distinguishing contribution is methodological. He integrates veterinary input into feeding, exercise and travel rather than reacting to problems, weighs rations and feeds within narrow time windows, changes one variable at a time when problem-solving, and preserves each horse's natural way of going — with Caillou, Kalinka and Caracole the answer was less hand and more rhythm and trust. He has prototyped tension sensors to measure rein and stirrup pressure with near-immediate audio feedback, and had 3D-printed glue-on shoes and hand-milled titanium components made for Caracole on grass. Through his Walking and Talking platform he publicly analyses his own rounds, successful or not, and discusses welfare, rules and show formats.

Pomponio Ranch, founded by his mother, breeds and produces showjumpers in California from European bloodlines, standing stallions including Jonkheer Z and Uno de Laubry and keeping former competition mares such as Tembla and Fecybelle as broodmares. Cook was named to the US short list for the 2026 World Championships at Aachen with Caracole and Foxy de la Roque, but was not among the five combinations selected on 26 June; he had earlier jumped double clear with Caracole as the United States finished second in the Rotterdam Longines League of Nations. His 2026 season has also brought a Thermal CSI3* Grand Prix with Foxy, the Wellington CSIO4* Grand Prix with Candy and a Woodside CSI2* Welcome with Home-Run. He has said a home Olympic Games in 2028 is a long-term goal.