American Idol contestant Kristy Lee Cook, who recently announced her engagement to boyfriend Andrew Dobner, has a new guy in her life — a black bay thoroughbred horse named Captain.
Cupid’s arrow struck again when she laid eyes on eight-year-old Captain. “I instantly fell in love with this horse,” Cook gushed to PEOPLE from her home in Selma, Oregon.
Idol fans will recall that Cook sold her barrel horse, Montana, in order to earn enough money to travel and audition for the show. The sacrifice paid off in that the 24-year-old landed in the top ten before being eliminated on April 16.
Cook, who has five other horses, says a friend from Spokane, Wash., contacted her while she was in Los Angeles working on Idol.
“He had two horses and he said if I wanted to buy them I could have the first option, but I didn’t have the money at the time and it didn’t work out. But for some reason it didn’t work out with the other buyers and I ended up buying him when I was in L.A.,” Cook says. “When I got back into town he brought [Captain] down from Spokane.”
Since then, Cook says, “I haven’t stopped riding him. The first day I threw a saddle on him and put him in the round pen. The next day I took him for a ride in the woods and up around the house. He’s really sweet and he’s a really fast learner.”
Cook, who hasn’t yet set a wedding date, will return to Idol for the season 7 finale on May 21. Then, she and the other top ten finalists will begin rehearsals for the Idols Live Tour, which kicks off on July 1 in Glendale, Ariz.
But what will Captain do without her?
“If I have a weekend off, I’d love to come home and see him,” she says. “And as soon as it’s all over I’ll be with him. I’ve got six horses now that I’ll never get rid of.” –Monica Rizzo
Courtesy Kristy Lee Cook
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