Ups and Downs at the Carolina International

Making the best of it

Everyone at the event at Carolina International put on one of the best events I've ever seen this weekend; they made a massive effort which in my opinion rockets their status to one of the best CIC's in America. 

I'm heading back to Pennsylvania, and unfortunately our house is going to look like a hospital ward with Silva hobbling around on a walking frame and me on a pair of crutches! I have to say, though - I was proud to tell Silva that I hurt my leg falling from a horse rather than a scooter.

But let me start from the beginning. Steady Eddie is one of my top young horses, and he made the leap to advanced this year. He's a very careful jumper so I decided to be competitive on him and really go for it at the Carolina International. About half-way around the course, at the Ruins jump -- a vertical to a forward three to a very wide corner -- I was moving along and decided to carve my turn and jump the fence at pace; unfortunately due to Eddie's greenness it came as a surprise to him to see the corner and at the last moment he ducked out. My leg hit the edge of the corner at high speed which knocked me off the Eagle. Right away I knew my leg was broken - the medical staff thew me in the back of the meat wagon and took me to the local hospital for X-rays to confirm that my shin bone took a beating.

Just a little scratch...

...or not

I'll add this to my X-ray collection

I take full responsibility for the accident, it was a very well designed course and in hindsight I made the error of riding Eddie like a seasoned campaigner rather than like the green advanced horse that he is; obviously this is a very frustrating injury to pick up, due to the fact I'm just getting all my ducks lined up in preparation for the spring horse trials.

Bandaged up - they're almost as good as my groom Lindsey

Overall I was extremely pleased with the way all the horses went this weekend. I've got a superb group of top-level horses at the moment and they all put in fantastic dressage tests and good show jumping rounds. I'm hoping the injury to my leg doesn't hold off their improvements for too long.

-Boyd