Irish grand prix rider Conor Swail calls Count Me In his “horse of a lifetime.” 

Swail and “Crosby” finished eighth in the 2022 Longines FEI World Cup Final (Germany) and have gone on to pick up many grand prix wins together, including several this winter season at the Desert Horse Park in Thermal, California.

Last weekend, they won big in the $746,269 ATCO Queen Elizabeth II Cup at the Spruce Meadows North American in Calgary, Alberta.

Crosby lost form last year while battling stomach ulcers, but his team has worked hard to help him feel better.

“Honestly, what that horse has done for me is just incredible,” an emotional Swail said after their win, which saw them come out on top of a four-horse jump-off. “The highlight reel for me is basically him in my career. He went through a little bad patch last year where we weren’t that comfortable jumping bigger. And then, we’ve just built him back up nicely. And honestly, he feels as good as ever.”

Watch their winning jump-off at Spruce Meadows:

Sandy Lupton and Mannon Farm’s 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Count Grannus—Sunshine, Sherlock Holmes) came to Swail’s barn in 2021 after Canada’s Beth Underhill campaigned him to the five-star level.

Barn manager JohnJoe Gallagher, who has worked for Swail for two years alongside grooms Emeline Heot and Stefan McNulty, has enjoyed watching Swail and Crosby’s partnership grow. He said the horse’s 16.2-hand size belies the huge amount of heart he has.

“I think he’s just a fighter really,” Gallagher said. “He’s super careful, and he knows his job, and he goes in; he knows what he has to do. Him and Conor have a great partnership now, and you can really always count on him, so to speak. When he’s in the jump off, he’s normally very rarely out of the ribbons. He’s a little fighter, not very big. But a big heart.”

Go behind the stall door to learn more about the gelding who has carried Swail to numerous five-star victories.

• Crosby likes his personal space in the stall and doesn’t like being fussed with. And absolutely no kisses or you might get bitten.

“He’s fairly grumpy in the box, and he likes his alone time,” Gallagher said, though his personality changes once he’s turned out. “He enjoys going to the paddock; loves other horses.”

• He enjoys Kelcie’s Horse Treats, but bananas are his clear favorite. “He doesn’t eat the skin, but he’ll suck it out of the skin,” Gallagher said. “You’ll have him on your side, then, if you have a little treat or something for him.”

• Crosby can get wound up when he’s working, either on the flat or jumping, Gallagher said, but the gelding will go full leisure mode on a trail ride. “He loves going out and [having] a bit of downtime and grazing when he’s been hacking out.”

• In the beginning, Crosby needed some hand-holding while traveling, but he’s improved over the years. 

“He gets a bit stressed, and he’d have to have earplugs in,” said Gallagher. “And actually, for a while when we first started with him, I had Stefan, the other guy that looks after them, travel with him the whole time. He was never on his own. He’s definitely gotten better; we figured out a better system for him.”

• Out of the cross ties and the stall, he turns into a bit of a teddy bear. “He could literally have a kid take him for a bit grass,” Gallagher said—and he has.

When Swail’s string goes to Europe to show, they sometimes stay with Crosby’s owner Connall Murray in Ireland. “We went to Ireland over Christmas, and [Murray’s] daughter would be trail riding, and she would hack him out and take him for hand grazing and stuff,” Gallagher said.