Adventures in Advertising with Smartpak

Yesterday we enjoyed doing some promotional work with SmartPak. The SmartPak marketing team flew down to Aiken and conducted a number of interviews on camera with us, talking about some of the great SmartPak products that we have been using for our horses.

One of the projects was the filming of a SmartPak commercial in which daredevil cameraman Donnie lay down in a ditch and had Crackerjack jumping over him. Boyd was relieved when Cracker jumped the ditch perfectly, (otherwise our big sponsorship deal might have been in jeopardy!).

We have been working with SmartPak over the last year; our first understanding of the company was their innovative idea of taking all of the horses supplements and putting them together into a convenient daily pack, in which each horse's name is clearly marked. But we soon realized that SmartPak is soooo much more than that. They have a huge range of the best quality equestrian products for the lowest prices. On top of that they ship anywhere in the US...for free! It has been fantastic for us to not have the bother of driving to the tack store for our supplies, but to order them over the phone or online and the next day have them delivered to the barn.

-Boyd and Silva

Chesapeake Combined Training Spring Clinic Schedule

FOR REGISTRATION & MORE DETAILS PLEASE VISIT OUR CLINIC PAGE!

Boyd to Host Eventing Radio Show 3/21

BOYD MARTIN TO HOST LIVE CALL-IN ON EVENTING RADIO SHOW    U.S. Event Team Rider Will Be LIVE for an Exclusive One-Hour Program to Take Listeners Calls on March 21st, 2011, 7-8PM Eastern Lexington, KY, March 16, 2010 U.S. Team Member Boyd Martin will be the special guest on the Eventing Radio Show's first LIVE call-in program on Monday, March 21st from 7 - 8 PMEastern.  Boyd will take listeners calls from around the world and around the sport of eventing.  The number to call - 347-637-3238 - will also be posted on the Eventing Radio Show's website at www.eventingradio.com.  Boyd said he is looking forward to this unique opportunity to take listeners questions about any issue in the sport or just to have a chat, so be sure to call-in and join Boyd for a whole hour of banter with this popular rider.  Boyd is a regular co-host on the Eventing Radio Show but this will be the first time the program has broadcast a LIVE Call-in Show. ABOUT BOYD Boyd Martin initially worked as Phillip Dutton's assistant trainer at Phillip'sTrue Prospect Farm.  Boyd struck out on his own in 2009 while maintaining a strong working relationship with Phillip. In the spring of 2009, Boyd, who has dual citizenship, received approval from the FEI to compete for the United States. He made his debut on the team at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games with Neville Bardos where he finished in 10th individually as the highest placed American and fourth with the team. Boyd finished second at the Red Hills Horse Trials in Florida last weekend riding Neville Bardos in the CIC 3* division. He also won an Open Preliminary Division on Crackerjack. Already a winning four-star competitor, Boyd has achieved great competitive success since moving to the United States, not least of all winning the Fair Hill International CCI*** Fall Eventing Championship in 2009 riding Neville Bardos. He also won the Jersey Fresh CIC** aboard Remington XXV in the spring of 2009 and the 2008 Bromont CCI** in Canada aboard Galileo. In 2008 he was the top Foreign Rider at the Rolex Kentucky three-day event and was ranked number two on the US Eventing Association Rider of the Year Leaderboard, and in 2009 he was the USEA Preliminary Rider of the Year. EVENTING RADIO SHOW LIVE EVENT COVERAGE Chris Stafford hosted live event coverage from Red Hills Horse Trials, March 11-13, 2011.  The three daily episodes can be heard at www.eventingradio.com and on iTunes.  The Eventing Radio Show will be on the road again to broadcast live daily coverage from the Southern Pines II Horse Trials at the Carolina Horse Park from March 25-27th in North Carolina. Tune in between 5-6 PM Eastern atwww.eventingradio.com.  Now in its third year, the Eventing Radio Show, which is one of three discipline specific shows hosted by Chris Stafford, covers all aspects of the sport and diverse perspectives from around the globe.  As the first and leading broadcaster on horse related content, the Horse Radio Network is in the unique position to deliver dedicated programming to a global audience.  Its team of co-hosts include leading international riders offering expertise and opinion that makes the Eventing Radio Show the market leader. The Horse Radio Network has something for everyone in the horse world with eights shows covering every sport, breed, equine performance, commercial and public interests with a global audience listening through our affiliates in 43 countries. Go to www.horseradionetwork.com for a full list of shows and programming notes. For more information on how the Horse Radio Network can broadcast from your event of show on the Eventing Radio Show, Dressage Radio Show or Jumping Radio Show, please contact chris@horseradionetwork.com.  HORSE RADIO NETWORK  Horse Radio Network (HRN) - the Voice of the Horse World - is the pioneer and leader in equine related online horse radio. With a variety of different shows from the serious to the sublime, the Horse Radio Network is your entertaining and informative source for everything horse. Listen to any of the eight popular shows on the network including the Stable Scoop Radio Show, Tack and Habit Radio Show, Eventing Radio Show, Dressage Radio Show, Jumping Radio Show, Western Radio Show, Horse Tip Daily and Horses in the Morning.  You can find all the shows atwww.horseradionetwork.com or through iTunes or Zune.  CONTACT Chris Stafford: chris@horseradionetwork.com Horse Radio Network (HRN) Shows are all available at www.horseradionetwork.com.

Red Hills Update

Last weekend at Red Hills was a fantastic test for the three horses. I finished 2nd in the 3-star with the Neville Bardos Syndicate’s Neville Bardos and won the Open Prelim on Colin Davidson’s Crackerjack. It was my first complete US competition with Otis Barbotiere, owned by the Otis Barbotiere Syndicate, LLC and he cruised through the OP to finish in 6th place.

Even though I only had a small group of horses there on the weekend it was a great opportunity to focus on the three of them and I felt they all got their best out of the experience. Sometimes when I have a number of horses at an event I use the competition as an outing to give them experience, and don’t push them to their maximum capacity in all three phases. Every now and then I try to limit myself to a smaller group of horses and practice really get the best out of them in all three phases. Red Hills was one of those events.



iPhone Slideshow



iphone click here

Neville came second against some red-hot horses and riders and it was good to get Otis and Crackerjack out against some top competition and get a better understanding of what they’re like at a show. In a perfect world it would be great to put this much energy into every horse at every event but logistically it’s impossible to get to the event a couple days early every time.



iPhone click here

Another positive coming out of Red Hills is the second production of the Boyd and Silva training videos. Josh Walker of the USEA filmed two competition-related videos: the first one is on dealing with the tense and nervous horse during competition. One of the hardest things to do is get a relaxed, soft dressage test out of a fit and fired-up event horse. This video features tips I’ve learned over the years for getting the best out of the hot horse including secrets for the warm-up and things that can make the difference between a tense test where you can’t wait to finish and a soft relaxed performance.

The next video is about the cross-country warm-up. Traveling around the USA I’ve seen a lot of lost looking expressions in the cross-country warm-up. I talk about timing, what sort of jumps to jump in the warm-up, and every detail for preparing for a successful cross-country round. I think this will be helpful to everyone who is curious about the ideal cross-country warm-up.

Our winter in Aiken is starting to wind up: at Pine Top this weekend I’m riding six horses in training, a number of whom are also for sale. Early next week half of my group of horses will go back to PA with Silva and Lillian and then I’ve got nine or ten horses running at the Southern Pines Horse Trials.

-Boyd

Photos property of Lisa Thomas for Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services
Syndicate Owners Please contact Lisa for copies of photos!

Great Results at Red Hills

My apologies the quick style of this blog, but I'm in the airport on my way home from Red Hills.

Boyd finished up a fabulous weekend with an impressive 2nd on Neville in the 3*, a win on Crackerjack in the Prelim A division and a solid 6th place on Otis in the B division.  I have not had the chance to catch up with him after stadium, but I'm sure that he's very happy with these consistent results, as many other top riders had some challenges this weekend.

Caitlin also finished 11th out of 30 riders in the 2* and Erin Sylvester finished 6th in the Advanced!!

Live Scoring

iPhone photo gallery

We'll be sure to get more details out to you tomorrow.  Cheers!  LT