CUSTER, Wash. -- The owner of a prized stallion is waiting for a possible ransom note after someone stole the horse renowned for its jumping abilities.

The jumping stallion named Capone is worth several million dollars. He disappeared on Friday from his stall in a barn in Custer, just south of the Canada border.

"We refer to him in our little world of show jumping as a 'rock star,' and he is. He's Capone," said Douglas Spink, Capone's trainer.

The 12-year-old stallion is in his prime, Spink said, and is one of the most successful show jumpers on the continent. His owners have turned down multi-million-dollar offers to sell him.

It appears as though the horse thief walked into the barn, opened up Capone's stall and led the stallion into a trailer. Whoever stole the horse left other horses and knew how to handle the specially-trained German shepherds in a neighboring pen.

"This would take a certain amount of chutzpah or something to do," Spink said.

Because Capone is so well known, Spink said it would be impossible for the thief to show him, and nearly impossible to breed him. He said the best hope is that the thief will demand ransom.

"These are the things you sit up late at night and worry yourself to tears over. If it's a financial issue, we at least know he's OK. But as of right now, we don't know he's OK. We don't know he's alive. We don't know anything," Spink said.

Detectives with the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office are investigating.