Publisher Alan Leveritt rushed in breathlessly following his lunchtime reading of the New York Times with big news: An Arkansas horse is going to be a star of the Rolex Central Park Horse Show.
The Arkansas horse, owned by Stacy Nazario, makes his home in Siloam Springs. A website for Pinnacle Friesians has a page devoted to the show horse to be strutting in New York — a Friesian named Frederik the Great. He’s fresh off an appearance with Stephen Colbert.
The New York Times seemed smitten:.
On Wednesday, a day after he appeared on “The Late Show,” Frederik the Great was resting at the United States Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, N.J. Ms. Nazario, wearing a blouse embroidered with a Frederik the Great logo and sitting in a Frederik the Great-monogramed director’s chair outside his stall, said he became an internet star a few years ago when she hired a photographer. The images took off on social media.
Ms. Nazario, a former owner of a construction company, said that managing Frederik the Great was her full-time job. His earnings from appearances, photo shoots and advertisements on social media average about $20,000 a month, enough to keep a staff of three gainfully employed. His retinue includes a social media manager and a veterinary technician, Jessica Ray,who travels with him as his handler. As Ms. Nazario spoke about him, Ms. Ray was giving Frederik the Great a deep-tissue massage.With 14 million views on YouTube and a New York City schedule that includes an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” as well as cameos at the horse show this weekend, the stallion, who lives in Arkansas, is perhaps the Kardashian of horses: famous not necessarily for his skills, but for his looks. Coal black, with a curving neck from which at least four feet of cascading mane and little tufts at his ankles, Frederik the Great is a Friesian. “They are a war horse,” Stacy Nazario, his owner, said of the breed. “They are ‘look at me’ type horses.”
Frederick, or rather Nazario, has turned down a couple of movie roles. She didn’t like the scripts.