Neville's Official Team Hats

With a large contingent from the Neville Bardos Syndicate making the big trip across the pond to cheer their man on, I decided on getting together on official Neville Bardos Syndicate Members' team hat to wear at Burghley. These hats are a limited edition, members' only hat that can't be bought at a shop...

I am lucky to be good mates with Scott and Claudia Winter who own and run Dirt T Shirts clothing company in Kingston, New York. Not only am I lucky enough to teach a few clinics at their wonderful CS&W Farm, I was also gifted with these great hats for my syndicate to wear.

I have a great group of owners behind Nev's up and down year. They have all rallied together and chipped in the shortfall of funds that was needed to get Nev over to England. I am really looking forward to getting out there and having a crack at the world's toughest four star for them...

Neville's Syndicate:

Ron & Densey Juvonen, PA
April, Chuck & McKenzie Whitlock, KY
Steve Blauner, NY
Bonnie Stedt, NY
Craig & Gloria Callen, NY
George & Gretchen Wintersteen, PA
Parker Collier, FL
Tim & Cheryl Holekamp, MN
Nancy & David Hathaway, NY
Spike & Jeanne Sylvester, MA

Update From Silva, With Pictures from Steffen Peters Clinic

I recently rode Faye Woolf's Aesthete, ("Stately") in a clinic with Steffen Peters, held at Hassler Dressage in Maryland. Suzanne and Scott always do a beautiful job setting up these clinics for everybody; there were 7 riders and about 200 auditors. I was really impressed with Steffen too, everything he said was spot-on.



Stately just loves to show off, so with all those spectators he had a good time. He did everything very well; the lesson on Saturday was about 45 minutes and on Sunday it was only 20 minutes because he felt that a for a 6-year-old he’s doing really well, so I was happy with that. We started with the basics and then moved on to harder things like canter pirouettes and half-pass, asking him a few harder questions; his answer was always ‘yes’ so then we quit.

We’re leaving Tuesday to go to the National Young Horse Championships at Lamplight in Chicago. Michael Barisone has been helping us a lot with Stately, too and I feel really good about going to the championships. I hope we do well considering we have to drive so far! I’m also taking Duvent to do the PSG and Faye’s other horse Carrera, who’s doing 2nd level, to Chicago. After that is Devon at the end of September, where Stately will do the Young Horse Finals and is also qualified for Fourth level.

A lot of people at the clinic came up to me and were very excited and mentioned that they are so impressed with how Faye is helping the sport and what a special horse Stately is. I’m excited that we have this special horse we can share together. She’s changed sides – she’s into the dressage now! Eventing is still her passion but she loves a good horse, I think if she had a special reining horse she’d probably love that too. We as professionals could not do this without people like Faye who put their heart and soul into a horse – Stately is being so well cared for by the vets and farriers, and so on. Faye doesn’t save one dollar, the way she takes care of him. I could never afford to treat him so well and I really appreciate it.

We’re on our way to Saugerties right now where Ashleigh is doing her second CDI, trying to qualify for the Younf Riders World Cup in Dec. and Kymmie is doing 4th level on Friday and Sat. I’m doing the Grand Prix with Sea Lord, the PSG with Duvent and the East Coast Rider’s Cup in 2nd level with Carrera.

-Silva

A New Horse for Anne

Photo of New Cadet with groom Lindsay Taylor courtesy Mike McNally

One of the most devastating outcomes of the True Prospect Farm Fire was the passing of Anne Hennessey's Summer Breeze. She was an awesome, up and coming horse that I bred in Australia and whom Anne owned and loved dearly. Anne has been one of my longest-time supporters, supporting me with event horses from my early days in America and it was heartbreaking to see Anne so devastated after losing a horse she truly loved and believed in.

After taking our time getting over the heartbreak of this loss I believe we've found an exciting new prospect for Anne. New Cadet is a 6-year-old, 16.2 bay Thoroughbred gelding that has the movement of Totilas and the jump of Sapphire (nearly). I'm very excited about this horse: he's got four-star written all over him. I'm also excited to see Anne have a new partner with us and the new excitement of a future project.

-Boyd

Heath Ryan

Heath Ryan Riding Cold Harbor

I took a walk back in time and had a fantastic training session with my coach and mentor from Australia Heath Ryan Monday on my Pan-Am hopeful Cold Harbor. Heath is in America teaching for 14 days straight on a whirlwind tour and it was fantastic to hear him letting loose, yelling and screaming and firing everyone at True Prospect Farm up yesterday.

He hopped on and rode Cold Harbor at the beginning of the session and really worked on getting him soft and through and improving the quality of his gaits. The other main focus of the lesson was the flying changes, which are new to this horse as he is just starting his advance eventing career. Heath was encouraged by the quality of the horse and he couldn't help himself in his rants and raves about how I should be riding him better. It was great having a lesson with my friend and first trainer and he has given me a lot of fresh ideas on how to work with Bo.

I first met Heath when I was 17 years old, the day after I left high school when I first moved into the bunk house at his New South Wales eventing facility in Lochinvar. I had eight long, hard years of learning the art of becoming a true horseman thanks to Heath. He is a very motivating and inspiring - and half mad - horseman who has represented Australia at the Olympics and World Championships in both eventing and dressage.

I do believe there are a few spaces left in some of Heath's clinics here in the states. For more information contact glenda@playlandequestriancenter.com

Waredaca Horse Trials

On Sunday we had a wet and wild day at the Waredaca horse trials in Maryland. The first part of the morning was spent in the pouring rain and then the sun came out in the afternoon for a great day of champagne eventing. We had a group of young up and coming horses who are all showing improvement with every start. I feel like there are definitely horses there that you'll see bombing around Rolex in a couple year's time.

Open Prelim-A

2nd Place (36.10) - Merging, owned by Laurie Cameron
6th Place (38.8) - Steady Eddie, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin

Open Prelim-B

2nd Place (37.4) - Party Boy - owned by Fernanda Kellogg and Nick Myers

Novice Horse -A

6th Place (37.0) - New Cadet, owned by Anne Hennessey

Novice Horse - B

8th Place (36.5) - Brewster, owned by Katie and Cuyler Walker

Open Novice

16th (53.2) - Krugerrand, owned by Manny and Dana Diemer

Heath Ryan Coming to the USA

Boyd's mentor from Australia Heath Ryan will be in the USA conducting a series of clinics over the next few weeks. There's still time to sign up for the clinic at Playland Farm (Maryland) this coming weekend!

For complete information check out this article by Margaret Rizzo at the USEA Blog!