PrintAfter a decade spent with her partner Cunningham, she’s perfected the balance of breeding and showing her popular Holsteiner stallion.
Mary Slouka doesn’t run a large breeding operation. She only has one breeding stallion, some competition horses and a few young horses and boarders at her 15-stall, one-acre Wildwood Farm in Newport Beach, Calif.
While not considered horse country—Slouka’s farm is the only commercial stable in the area—Newport Beach has proven a fine location to develop her acclaimed hunter stallion, Cunningham (Cassini I—Iorella H, Contender).
The beautiful California coastal community is the perfect backdrop to showcase a horse with equally beautiful traits, including textbook movement and jumping style. Cunningham has traveled the country, bringing back innumerable tricolors in the regular conformation divisions, including 20 consecutive wins in 2008, with John Bragg aboard.
Cunningham was the 2008 Farnam Platform/USEF National Champion in the regular conformation hunter division and finished second nationally and first in Zone 10 for 2009 with a modest 18 shows under his belt.
“He’s just a quality horse,” said Bragg. “He’s the kind of horse who goes around with his ears pricked all the time, not because he’s spooking, but because he’s looking for the next jump. He clearly loves what he does. Mary did a wonderful job getting him started and stuck with it, and he’s become incredibly consistent in the ring.”
That 40 Horse
Slouka traveled to Neumunster, Germany, for the Holsteiner auction/inspection in 2000. She had no intention of purchasing a stallion that particular year and was thinking about buying the following year. But her well-laid plan changed when she saw Cunningham, then a 2-year-old colt, trot by.
“I saw him come through, and my husband usually sits in the car because it’s cold, and when I got in the car at the break he asked me if I saw anything I liked. I just said, ‘Oh, that 40 horse.’ The whole time we went through the three days of processing I just kept saying, ‘Oh, that 40 horse,’ ” Slouka said.
Cunningham, bred by Volker Redderberg, was approved as a Holsteiner and was to be sold the first day of the sale. Slouka decided to bid on him despite her original intentions.
“I said if I was going to spend real money on a stallion, it had to be one that took my breath away,” Slouka said. “My husband gave me a limit, and that was gone in a few minutes. I told him I would pay the rest—I was determined to have him. We got the bid, the champagne started flowing, everyone was congratulating us and I turned to the guy who was bidding for us and I said, ‘Felix, how much did I just pay for this horse?’ It was painful, but he’s been an amazing, amazing horse.”
After Cunningham made his journey to the United States, Slouka started him under saddle herself. While the first year with him proved a little trying, he quickly found his way and turned into a kind, reliable horse.
“The first six months I was on him he took off every day,” Slouka said. “He just found something
to make him take off. It was a matter of learning to trust I would protect him, and now he would die for you. He goes in the ring and gives everything he’s got.”
The Next Level
