Pine Top Advanced Event This Weekend

This is a big weekend for me, taking Remington and Benwald in the advanced horse trials at Pine Top Farm in Thomson, GA. It's pretty exciting for Remington since it's his first run at the advanced level. Benwald is doing his second season at advanced so he's a little more confirmed at this level. They both jumped well schooling yesterday and I'm looking for a good run from both of them to set them up for their first three-day event at Jersey Fresh later this year.

Shatzi W is doing her fourth intermediate and I got some good advice for her from Mark Phillips at the team training session; I've changed my tactics in dressage and I am interested to see if she can come up with a better test.

Minotaure du Passoir entered in the preliminary division and I think this should be one of his last preliminaries before he moves up to intermediate level.

Unfortunately I have some depressing news as well: Neville Bardos tripped in a hole the other day while I was doing his slow canter work and the next day his leg was swollen, so I've scratched him from this weekend. I had it scanned and there is no tear or anything like that, but it's still swollen. I'm a bit wary of putting him straight back to work when the swelling goes down so I'll probably play it safe with him for a while just to be careful.

-Boyd

Vidalia and Boyd pictured at the Young Event Horse Championships two years ago in Chicago, photo by Amber Heintzberger. Click here to see the entire gallery.

I had a fantastic weekend at the Paradise Horse Trials in Aiken. I rode two horses in the training level: Vidalia and Houston. Vidalia is slowly but surely becoming a seasoned horse. She destroyed the competition in the dressage with a score of 20! This is my best-ever dressage score in the US. Vidalia did not miss a beat after her fabulous dressage, and with a great cross-country round and a clear show jumping round she won the class by a staggering lead.

It was Houston's first training level event and I have to say, he impressed me. He was a little green in the dressage with a score of 37, but like his stablemate was faultless after that and finished a creditable 8th.

Picante looked all class over the weekend in the Preliminary division. He has had a few outings at that level now and is starting to feel like a real prelim horse! He finished second, which is his best placing at this level.

Click here for complete results from the event.

Next weekend all of the big guns are coming out at Pine Top...

Until then, be good,

Boyd