Horses Name: The Rock Star

Locksley Hall is the name of a limited liability company that owner C. Dirk Peterson chose to own The Rock Star, a three-gaited prospect representing his re-indoctrination into the horse business after a more than two-decade hiatus. The name of the LLC is derived from a Lord Alfred Tennyson poem by the same name. The poem refers to an imaginary place and contains mythical imagery, which Dirk decided was particularly apt, considering the sort of unreal and mythical aspects of the horse show world, particularly the Kentucky State Fair. For Dirk, show horses are clearly not a mainstream interest, but one he picked up as a youth and never really lost, notwithstanding his long absence from the horse business.

Why show horses? Says Dirk, "I think it is a great social outlet that is very pleasing to the eye. I really just love watching the horses. All horses are beautiful to me, even the pasture horses. In fact, they are some of my favorites. Of course, the travel is not all that glamorous, considering you are hanging around often dusty fairgrounds at places like Louisville, Lexington (both Virginia and Kentucky), Springfield, and Kansas City. Not exactly hot spots, but great places to be if you are into Saddlebreds. So I would have it no other way."

Why American Saddlebreds? "Well, when I got into showing horses in the mid to late 70's (yes, last century), I started with Morgan Horses as a juvenile exhibitor (Park and English Pleasure) because, in part, their wonderful temperament, but more importantly, they were not Quarter Horses, much to my father's ire," recalls Dirk wryly. "Although I had seen American Saddlebreds (mostly at local open shows), I had never seen really top Saddlebreds until I attended the 1979 Tulsa Charity Horse Show for the first time. I will never forget, but at that show, I witnessed the most glorious horse I had ever seen literally float into the ring pulling a fine harness buggy.

At that moment, I was hooked on American Saddlebreds and announced rather naively (the spirit of youth you know) that, 'I want THAT horse.' Well, I must have had good taste even at that young age because that jaw-dropping beauty was La La Success who went on to two World's Grand Championships in the fine harness division in 1979 and 1980, and arguably is on the short list of the gold standard for the breed. So, after almost obsessive determination and persistence (and a few compromises by showing my father's Quarter Horses from time to time), I cajoled and begged until I got the privilege of riding Saddlebreds on the Southwest Show Circuit in equitation classes, not exactly on La La Success, but the damage was done and I have been a fan of the breed ever since."

"After I left the ring in the early 80's, I picked up along the way a law career. I practice securities law in the Washington, DC office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham, about a 1,000 lawyer firm with offices all over. After visiting the Kentucky State Fair in 2004, I was bitten by the bug again (actually the bug was always there but dormant). I had the good luck of meeting John and Tammie. By that next March in 2005, John found a prospect for me and I bought The Rock Star. Watching him develop over the past year and getting him ready for the ring has been a great adventure, not to mention the pleasure of meeting new friends along the way. I feel so privileged to own one of these horses and intend to stick around for a while to make up for lost time. Oh, and guess who is most interested in my new horse? None other than my father. So it's all good."