It was a great day of eventing at The Fork Farm today, with the Advanced, CIC*** and CIC** cross-country taking place on Sunday according to the new FEI format. Tremaine Cooper's challenging course set the bar high for the advanced horses, who shared many of the same fences as the CIC*** horses. With clear skies and temperatures around 70 degrees, and the footing back in good shape after Thursday's deluge, the stage was set for competitors and spectators to have a fine day out.
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| Trading Aces |
Boyd says:
I had six very exciting young horses at The Fork this
weekend. All six are very green at the level they are competing. I feel like
I’m in a year of really building my eventing stock and it’s a very exciting
time. To be sure I don’t have a really experienced horse in the string at the
moment which means I’m working on giving these horses confidence and exposure
to a lot of atmosphere at places like The Fork.
My 3* horse Trading Aces had his final outing before
Rolex Kentucky.
I feel like he’s really starting to hit form; he was brilliant in all three
phases and his fitness seems to be getting stronger and on target for our goal
of Kentucky
in three weeks.
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| Crackerjack |
I had two advanced first-timers, Master Frisky and
Crackerjack. I must say it was one hell of a course to try them at this new
level; both boys felt very green but showed true heart and class in getting
around without and jumping penalties. We’re giving them some mileage and will
look at doing another advanced somewhere soon in order to get them qualified
for a couple of three-star events somewhere this year.
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| Master Frisky |
I had three Intermediate horses: FYI, Steady Eddie and New Cadet, all Thoroughbreds
who all have a huge amount of talent. It was the second Intermediate start of their
careers and they all showed plenty of quality in this event and gained a lot of
experience. There were some testing questions on the course.The three Intermediate horses are now qualified for the
CIC** at Fair Hill and beyond that we’ll look at a CCI** at either Jersey or Bromont
My apprentice rider Caitlin Silliman rode well in the 3* and
2* with Catch a Star and Remington XXV. Catch a Star is on track for her and Caitlin’s
Rolex Kentucky debut and had a confidence-building round. Unfortunately at the end of a
brilliant round that had them in the lead, Caitlin jumped the wrong last fence with Remi (advanced instead of 2*),
disqualifying them from the event.
