When Libby Head’s underdog eventer, Sir Rockstar, died this month at age 27, it struck her that the five-star horse had been in her life longer than he hadn’t.  

“I’ve had him since I was 16,” Head, 33, said. “He went to college with me. He moved everywhere with me. He was just the most consistent thing in my life.”

While Head retired “Rocky” from high-level competition in 2016, the Thoroughbred still played a big part in her daily life, teaching a new generation of riders. “Kids’ schoolmaster” wasn’t a role she’d ever anticipated for the spirited gelding, who would sometimes rear in the startbox and jig while hacking at home. But for as long as she knew the unassuming 15.1-hand ex-racehorse, he surpassed expectations. 

The day that a teenage Head and her father met Sir Rockstar (Rockamundo—How Unusual, Great Sun) 17 years ago, he was skinny and neglected, offered for sale with an uncertain future. Head left that first meeting with an empty trailer after Rocky’s then-owners named their price for the gelding: $10,000. 

“My dad just laughed at them and left,” Head said. “Then, thankfully, they called us back a few days later and lowered the price, and we got him.”

“Thankfully,” because Head was immediately smitten with the scrawny gelding, who felt significantly different from her previous mount, a horse that just didn’t take to eventing. Rocky was 10 and still rough around the edges, but the enthusiasm she sensed under saddle caught the young rider’s attention.

“I remember he was small—like, he wasn’t much—but he felt just very light on his feet, very easy,” she said. “From what I knew then, you know, that was a good feeling. … His jump just felt really naturally easy.” 

In that first year, Head bonded quickly with Rocky and appreciated his bravery over fences, but the pair still had their struggles. 

“I feel like I got eliminated from every other show,” she recalled, laughing. “And then he just became really easy and—except for on the flat—just really fun and brave. We obviously had our struggles with the dressage, but that’s OK.”

Head and Rocky found a groove, and when it was time for the teen to head to college, she brought her beloved horse to join her on the University of Georgia eventing team. They climbed together through the preliminary, Young Riders and intermediate levels, but their career really took off when they began working with Canadian eventer Kyle Carter. The Olympic veteran could see that Rocky had unusual talent. 

During a schooling ride with Carter, Head remembers misjudging the strides. That one mistake became a turning point for her relationship with Rocky.

“On the cross-country, there was some sort of jump and then four strides to a bounce, and I put in three,” she said. “Kyle sat me down and really gave me a lecture, and was like, ‘This horse is going to be really, really amazing. He should not have made that jump, and he did. If you get it together, you’re going to have a really, really nice horse.’ 

“I think he knew from the beginning,” she continued of Carter. “He believed in [Rocky], and I’m glad he gave me that lecture that I needed to get my riding together.”

Things didn’t just come together—Head and Rocky made their way to the very top, competing at Badminton, Burghley and Kentucky, and winning North American Youth Championships gold along the way. When the pair left the start box at their first five-star at Kentucky, Head could hardly believe she was living out a lifelong dream on her very own project horse. 

“I sort of went into [our first five-star at Kentucky] with no expectations at all, like not really any pressure on myself or him going there,” she said. “So it was really just fun to run around. Finally, I remember by the coffin, I was like, ‘OK, we’re doing it! This is happening.’ I didn’t go out like, ‘Oh, I have to do XYZ.’ ”

From his scrappy beginnings, Rocky had given his all to Head and risen to the very top of the sport. So when he began to slow down, Head listened, retiring him from five-star competition in 2016. She offered a lease to her friend and then to intercollegiate rider Erin Jarboe, who was horseless coming into the intercollegiate eventing championships. 

Jarboe knew the horse well and was impressed with his history with Head. But the reality of his size also surprised her, considering his record. 

“My first impression of Rocky was, I knew that he was small, but when you see him out competing with Libby, he always had such a big presence. So the first time I met him in person, and he was on the crossties, I was like, ‘Wow, he’s actually really small!’ ” Jarboe said. “Like, he wore a size 72 blanket, which is really tiny.”

Like Head years before her, Jarboe was awed by the little horse’s power once she was in the tack. 

“The first ride I kind of picked up the trot and was trotting around, and he just felt kind of like a normal horse,” Jarboe said. “And then once I started cantering, I was like, ‘Wow, this is why he’s a five-star horse,’ because he just had an incredible canter, and he was so adjustable. He could have probably 100 different canters.”

Along with his talent, she also felt that electric enthusiasm he’d had when Head first tried him.

“When I got on Rocky, I was like, this is what it’s supposed to feel like when you have a horse that just goes out there and absolutely loves what they’re doing—which I think when you do eventing, that’s the feeling that you thrive on, is that you’re out there and that the horse is just having a blast,” she said. “I love that.”

After a few years with Jarboe, Head stepped Rocky further down the levels until he took on his final job at her farm: favorite lesson horse. 

“They all wanted to ride Rocky,” Head said.

Head was surprised to see Rocky, who still might occasionally rear on the lead rope or refuse to be caught in the pasture, lowering his head for tiny riders to put on his bridle. He seemed to love his new job.

“It was not in my plan for him to be a lesson horse, but it just kind of worked out that way,” Head said. “I needed something, and I started having some kids ride him and he was really good. Like, he could tell when there was a kid on him versus when there was somebody that knew what they were doing on him. He was very gentle and kind.”

Head felt she knew Rocky better than anyone. Still, she sometimes looked for extra insight into her horses and occasionally consulted animal communicators.

“I do talk to animal psychics sometimes, I think it’s very cool,” Head said. “I would send him out on the longe line, and he would immediately trot. And I was like, ‘Why is he doing that?’ And [the animal psychic] was like, ‘He says that he wants them to get better faster.’ I was like, that’s so funny. That sounds exactly like something he would say.”

This moment, which fit her gelding’s personality so well, has stuck with Head since his death in mid-April. From the start of Head’s partnership with Rocky to his sunset years popping over crossrails, Rocky spent 17 years making his riders better.