Bienvenue Otis Barbotiere!

I’m very excited to say that we have a fantastic new addition to the team of event horses here: Otis Barbotiere arrived last night after a marathon trip from Europe. I found Otis in France late last year after going on a horse-hunting pilgrimage with my mate Peter Barry. Otis looks like a very talented, exciting and promising young horse. He also has a great pedigree: his sire is Quidam du Ravel, the most prolific jumping sire in France’s history.

Otis happens to have a few wonderful traits that I also associate with Neville Bardos: a glaring white eye, a big white blaze, and he's an avid wind sucker! They’ll make a good team, or partners in crime anyway. I want to thank the group of fantastic supporters that have come together to make this happen. The syndicate members include:

Steve Blauner, NY
Bonnie Stedt, NY
Ron and Densey Juvonen, PA
Nancy and David Hathaway, NY
Craig and Gloria Callen, NY
Kelly Morgan, MA
Kirk Henckels and Fernanda Kellogg, NY
Dr. Timothy Holekamp, MO

It's atrocious weather here in Pennsylvania today, so instead of turning Otis out in the field I decided to throw a saddle on him and hack him around the indoor for 45 minutes – with my helmet on! My plan is to send him to Aiken in a week and place him with Silva for a couple weeks of gentle dressage work to let my chief dressage trainer make the first assessment of what we need to be working on.

Once again, thanks to the fabulous group of people that has come together to help bring Otis to the Unites States for me to ride. I couldn't have done it without you and I'm looking forward to sharing many exciting times with all of you.

-Boyd