Having entered her second semester as a psychology major in the Hamilton Holt School at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., Courtney Rodrigue could apply her studies to help keep a cool head in the show ring. The 18-year-old doesn’t appear to need much help though, having already won the children’s hunter, 15-17, circuit championships the past two years on the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit (Fla.), with Role Model.

Rodrigue was born in Maine and raised at her family’s Ironwood Farm in Morrill. After she began riding at age 7, her German-born mother, Marion, developed a pony business out of the farm where they would buy barely broken ponies, train and resell them.

“I was a little pony jock,” she said. “My first pony was a green one we made up, and we just kept doing it. It was a fun bonding experience. It was something for us to do together that we both loved.”

Although she got her start riding at some “low-key” barns in Maine, Courtney said that her mom has always helped with her riding and credited Marion with being one of her first primary trainers. “They’re always there,” she said of her parents. “I don’t think they’ve ever missed one horse show.”

When Courtney was 13, her family began splitting time between Florida and Maine, and two years later they became full-time residents of Lake Mary. The move resulted from a combination of factors, including her father, Rodney’s work at the helm of an engineering consulting firm, the weather, and Courtney’s growing talent and interest in showing.

The family still owns their 500-acre farm, which last year was converted into Ironwood Maine, a residential treatment center for troubled teens. Courtney’s decision to pursue a career as a therapist actually came before the facility, which Marion manages, was developed. She’s already spent time with kids at the facility in an unofficial capacity and plans to intern there during breaks from college, where she attends the night program to free her days to focus on riding.

Now training with Bill Schaub of Over The Hill Farm in Sanford, Fla., Courtney kicked her show schedule into gear after she moved to Florida. Having only done small shows in Maine on ponies, she initially worked with Jill Townsend after moving, doing a little showing at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington before starting her Ocala reign.

The year before her back-to-back circuit championships at Ocala, she won the reserve circuit championship with Role Model, her 7-year-old, Hanoverian gelding. She also won best child rider honors two consecutive weeks last year.

“Bill called me after the horse show last year and told me I’d gotten best child rider–I didn’t even think we were registered to go for it!” she said. “And the following week, he called me again!”

“When she started riding with me, she was still on ponies. She didn’t have a lot of formal education and rode from the seat of her pants, but she had a background of riding lots of different horses,” said Schaub. “She has amazing self-confidence. We just put a little more education with that.

“She’s quite a good gal, and I really admire and enjoy her family,” he continued. “They like to stay at home and drive in to the shows, and they really keep a good balance, which has kept her grounded but still allowed her to be successful.”

The Rodrigues found Role Model, who also won the Ocala low hunter circuit championship and high pre-green reserve circuit title last year with Hunt Tosh, in Germany two and a half years ago. “My mom loved how he moved, and after I got off of him, I couldn’t stop smiling. My dad knew he was the one,” she said. “He gives it everything he has and is very willing. You never have to push him; he does it because he wants to please you.

“We call him Elvis, which was the nickname they gave him in Germany–we thought that was a riot,” she added.

Courtney is returning to Ocala this circuit but will enter the adult amateur ranks and work her show schedule around college for the first time. “I look at my whole schedule before I commit to horse shows. I ride four to five times a week, spending a lot of time really bonding with my horse,” she explained. “I’m really happy doing what I’m doing and doing it for fun. I want to ride all of my life and do it as something I love instead of doing it as a job.”