Indianapolis 12-year-old is taking the hunter, jumper world by storm
On a recent January morning, 12-year-old Samuelle Leerkamp was bundled up in a thick, woolen coat, and climbing into the saddle. Despite the heavy coat, she and her horse were soon galloping around the indoor arena at Canterbury Manor Stables in Zionsville, sailing over jumps and doing flying lead changes. Her horse, Rooster, is a direct descendent of the iconic racehorse Secretariat, but he never so much as won a claiming race at the track. The 23-year-old gelding is a far better jumper than he was a racehorse and he has the perfect partner in Samuelle.
“So Rooster is a very sweet horse once you get to know him,” Samuelle said as she stood beside her chestnut partner who has a bold blaze down the center of his face just like Secretariat. “Rooster was really a jerk at first to me. We did not like each other. He bucked me off and rolled with my saddle and everything.”
Sam, though, stayed with her boy and soon had him doing just as she asked. The pair competed in hunter, jumper shows and collected a lot of ribbons. Sam’s trainer, Sandy Brady, soon realized she had a true horsewoman in the making, an equestrian prodigy. As Sam continued to move up the ranks, Sandy decided she needed to get her young charge a coach who could guide her at a higher level of competition. Sandy connected Sam with Emily Farmer who comes from a long line of Olympic and Grand Prix riders.
Emily put her student on another off-track Thoroughbred, Idol of Kings. Idol wasn’t any better at the racetrack than Rooster, but he is far younger and more fluid than old Rooster. The athletic gray steed, though, can turn on a dime without slowing down a lick. He has, therefore, deposited more than a few riders in the dirt. With her own athleticism and fluidity, Samuelle had little difficulty staying on the horse.
“She can take a horse that’s misunderstood and understand it,” Emily said proudly following a work session with Sam. “And, know why its behavior is abnormal and get it to do what she wants it to do.”
In both 2021 and 2022, Samuelle and Idol of Kings competed in the United States Hunter Jumper Association National Championships in Las Vegas. The pair have earned championship honors in multiple events. It is worth noting that young Sam has only been in the saddle for four years, and her riding career began when her uncle gave her Groupon coupons for horseback riding lessons.
“In the past, he’d always gotten her stuffed horses, horses that you could play with,” Sam’s father, Alan Leerkamp, said with a reserved smile. “This time it was riding lessons in the form of a Groupon to Canterbury Manor Stables in Zionsville.”
The rest, as they say, is history. That history, though, is continuing to be written. Emily Farmer believes her student has unlimited potential because of both her talent and her continuous effort.