The dark bay gelding stands stock still, in a video making the rounds on social media, as a 4-year-old girl dressed in pink, wearing a pair of cowgirl boots, carefully paints glitter—pink, of course—on his front hooves. As she leads him to the ring, he follows docilely, not once attempting to snag a bite of the grass that lines the path. When the girl, Luz Otis, trots him along the rail, reins loopy, he dutifully carries her around as any saintly school pony would.

Without more context, you’d never know that gelding is Fernhill Cubalawn.

At the height of his career, Fernhill Cubalawn was one of the top event horses in the United States. In his five-star debut at Rolex Kentucky in 2015, he was the USEF national champion as the highest-placed U.S. horse in fifth. The next year, in his second attempt at the level, he was fifth again and was named to the U.S. Eventing Team for the 2016 Rio Olympics with Phillip Dutton, though he was later withdrawn due to injury.

But at 20, the Holsteiner gelding embarked on perhaps his most important job: Carrying mother and daughter combination Sarah and Luz Otis, 4, into the horse world.

“Cuba” came to the United States in 2010 when Alexandra Green Kerby purchased him as a 6-year-old from Carol Gee of Fernhill Sport Horses in Ireland. Kerby developed him from training level to the four-star level with guidance from Julie Richards and Dutton. In 2014 Dutton asked whether she’d be interested in selling the Holsteiner (Con Capitol—Corse Lawn, Arkan) bred by Tom Goode.

“What I’ve learned over the years that I find a lot of happiness in the horse world in general, and I love producing horses,” said Kerby.  “What a compliment, when Phillip Dutton calls your phone and asks you if you’d sell the horse you’ve ridden for him to take through the five-star level and be able to get named to teams. I don’t think you could ask for a better compliment.”

Dutton campaigned Cuba seriously from 2014 to 2016 and tried getting him back to the upper levels after his injury, but ultimately the gelding went back at the lower levels with other riders. A few years later, Kerby got the opportunity to take the gelding back to her farm in Loudon, Tennessee.

Three months ago, the Otis family entered the picture.

Sarah Otis, Luz’ mom, had ridden hunters as a junior before taking a 15-year break from the sport. As the story often goes, Otis leased a pony for her daughter and found herself yearning for her own saddle time.

While searching for somewhere to take lessons, she found Kerby, who’d recently caught the show jumping bug and had switched to that discipline. For Sarah brought Luz along for her first lesson with Kerby, who had mounted her on Cuba.

“As I’m tacking him up, Luz was like, ‘Mommy, can I lead him to the ring?’ ” Sarah recalled. “He’s like 16.1 and we have a small pony, and I just kind of looked at Alex like, I don’t know this horse at all, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, just let her lead him to the ring.” And I’m like, OK, if Alex trusts him. And he just followed her like a puppy dog to the ring, literally just so gentle with her.”

After Sarah’s lesson, Kerby offered to let Luz hop on Cuba.

“They’ve been obsessed with each other ever since,” said Sarah.

As their relationship with Cuba progressed, Sarah began bringing Luz’ pony saddle out and letting her daughter ride after lessons.

“She will trot him around and he’ll go for her, consistently on a loose rein, just like go around the ring,” said Sarah. “And it’s funny because you know, Alex will look at him and be like, ‘If any of us trotted him around on the loose rein like that, he would dodge out of the arena so fast.” And he just doesn’t; he just lets her tell him what to do.”

The grown-ups were most impressed, however, by how gentle the gelding is when Luz leads him, as Cuba has a tendency to bulldoze his handler in pursuit of grass.

“Emma Ford [Dutton’s former groom] and I would joke when she started to take care of Cuba for Phillip,” said Kerby. “She’s like, ‘I have never met a horse that can drag me to grass like this horse.’ And I was like, ‘I know, Emma, it’s nuts. Like he is a chow hound.’ His name is Cubalawn, well, I think he’s actually a lawn mower. Luz, Sarah’s daughter will lead him to the ring without any help, and he will not even try to get a blade of grass. Anyone else would lead him and like he would take you to the farm for food.”

Though his relationship with Luz is unique, it isn’t the first time Cuba has demonstrated his capacity of knowing what his person needs. Last year, Kerby’s friend Kate Wooten leased the gelding as she battled cancer, even competing him at a few schooling shows. While he could be a bit cheeky on the flat, he always took care of her, and in December 2023, Kerby hauled him to Wooten’s property, so Wooten, who was in hospice care, could ride the gelding for what she thought might be the last time.

“She brought him over in the trailer and we’d be doing trots up the hill,” Wooten recalled. “It was so cute.  He’s such a good boy now. He’s a bit of a pony, like if you lead him into the field [being] tiny and frail like I am, you would think he would get away from me because he gets away from everybody, but he doesn’t do it to me.”

In May, Cuba attended the Nashville Classic at Brownland Farm, where he pulled double duty. He carried Sarah around her first show in years, competing in the jumpers from 0.70-meters to 0.90-meters throughout the course of the weekend. He also made his leadline debut with Luz, with Kerby leading.

“His ability to take care of me as an amateur and then also take care of a 4-year-old is pretty incredible,” said Sarah. “And then to also have performed at that level, you don’t find a horse like that.”

Sarah hopes she’ll have a few more opportunities to learn from the veteran, but she’s fast losing him to Luz, who has begun requesting to ride him before Sarah’s lessons.

“I think Sarah has got a little more time on him before Luz snags him away,” said Kerby. “He’s been having a great time.”