by Merri Melde-Endurance.net
Lily Creek Kong, aka Kong
by Dante X Lily Creek My Secret, by Lafayette
13-year-old half Shagya, half Trakhener/ Thoroughbred gelding
owned by Cameron Holzer Gaytko
2885 AERC Miles
14 100-mile completions
27 Best Condition awards
24 Wins
Decade Team
When you watch Cameron Holzer and Kong flying down the Endurance trails, you can’t help but notice what a beautifully integrated team they are, and what a machine Kong is. They’ve entered their 11th Endurance season together, but don’t let his sweet disposition on the ground fool you. None of it was easy in the beginning.
Cameron got Kong from Michelle Mattingley as a 3-year-old stallion with a goal of eventing on him. “Michelle had been trying to sell him for a while,” Cameron explains, “and he wasn’t selling so she told me about him. I decided to take my chances on him.”
Cameron had him gelded, and even then, “He was a very bad boy and had to go to a trainer to start under saddle. He got kicked out of his first trainer. Was there two months. Bucked him off everyday for a month.
“Then he went to Dan Keen. He specializes in bad horses. After four months there Dan told me do not give this horse a day off or you will regret it. So I rode him every day.”
And with riding every day, Kong naturally got fit, so Cameron decided to try a 25-mile Endurance ride on him when he had just turned four, at Ride the Storm in Texas. He got third place and High Vet Score and Best Condition in his first race.
“The rest,” Cameron says, “is history!”
Kong now has a record of 48 completions in 55 AERC starts, with 2735 miles, 23 wins, and 27 Best Condition awards. Cameron has recently begun to share with other riders the thrill of riding Kong, including Caroline Lindqvist (finished 14th in Tevis), Haley Moquin (won the River Run 50), and Cassadee Jaksch (just finished third in the FITS 100).
“Kong has taken me to Dubai in 2017 and the World Equestrian Games in North Carolina in 2018. He has three Tevis finishes and 14 100-mile completions.
“He just won and BC’d his Decade Team 50 with me at the Tracing in the New Year ride in Texas.”
Incidentally, the pair share an August 7th birthday, something Cameron didn’t find out until she contacted his breeder, Donna Coss of Lily Creek Ridge in Illinois, to register him.
After all these years, Kong is still a handful to ride. “He’s a very sweet horse and loves people, but he has not mellowed. He has to be lunged before I ride him at home, and at races as well. He puts on a show for whoever is around. He runs away with me a lot at home. He loves to run full speed.
“Kong has done it all. He’s a great horse that is very sound and tough.”
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