Keeping Up With Kaley Cuoco

What’s our favorite celebrity equestrian been up to?

It’s no secret that we love Kaley Cuoco here at Horse Nation: we’ve long admired her killer equitation, her sense of humor (because she understands like all of us that horses keep you humble) and her obvious appreciation for the hours of hard work it takes to be successful in this sport. And our favorite celebrity equestrian has been crushing it recently: winning classes, welcoming not one but two new horses to her herd, and starting a new romance with West Coast-based Grand Prix rider Karl Cook.

Any time we share news about a celeb-equestrian, there are inevitably a few people who ask “why? Why should we care what some famous person does with her horses and her boyfriend?” To which we reply: in a world where the general public is typically pretty confused about what it is that we actually do, we need all the good press we can get — Kaley Cuoco isn’t just a famous woman who likes to ride, she’s an ambassador for our entire sport.

Without further ado, let’s meet Kaley’s new horses: first, another bay mare, “Bella,” presumably to join fellow bay mares Zaza and Bionetty.

And then in a sharp break with that color scheme, Kaley just yesterday posted this drop-dead-beautiful gray gelding that has also joined her string:

These new additions come right on the heels of Kaley’s announcement that her beloved horse Santos was retiring from competition, coming home to be her pleasure riding horse.

A horse girl after our own hearts! Gotta love and respect that. Meanwhile, Kaley and Bionetty, aka “Nettypie” have been casually nailing the big-time, from picture-perfect schools over the water…

… to conquering the aptly-named Devil’s Dike in the show ring:

Oh, and then there’s this whole boyfriend thing: Cuoco went public in mid-March with her relationship with this guy, Karl Cook:

If you’re more of an avid show jumping fanatic than a Big Bang Theory fan (or celebrity stalker, like us) then you know all about Karl Cook, the show jumping wunderkind who had a young rider curriculum vitae that was the stuff dreams are made of: helping his team win gold (twice!) at the FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) as well as winning the individual gold in 2007.

Then Cook made headlines in a different way — after his performances took a decided downturn in 2012, he went back to the drawing board and switched trainers, rebuilding basically everything he knew about his training program and riding style. He got more involved with the daily care of his horses and soon returned to his winning ways with marked success at this year’s HITS Desert Circuit.

The only thing we love more than a good comeback story is a good comeback story that ends in an adorable romance.

Go Kaley, and go riding!