Windurra Eventers Gearing Up for Fair Hill

I'll be taking a few horses to Morven Park (VA) this weekend as their final outing before the Fair Hill International Three-Day Event. I have six potential horses entered at Fair Hill; all of them had brilliant outings in the CIC divisions at Plantation Field, and Morven Park will help me determine the game plan for them going forward.

In the CIC2* I have SBF Cortez, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin, as well as Welcome Shadow, owned by Craig and Gloria Callen. I plan to run both of these horses conservatively in all three phases, as they need this event to qualify for the CCI** at Fair Hill. Both horses are still relatively green at this level, so I'm up in the air as to whether they will run at Fair Hill or wait until spring for their CCI debut. They are both good quality, talented horses, so I don't want to move them up too fast.

My four three-star entries for Fair Hill are Pancho Villa, owned by the Pancho Villa Syndicate; Steady Eddie, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen and Denish Lahey and Pierre Colin; Crackerjack, owned by Lucy Boynton; and Master Frisky, owned by Stephen Blauner.

All of these horses were fantastic in the CIC3* at Plantation Field and I entered a few of them in the Intermediate at Morven Park this weekend to give them a nice run. I'm not sure if I'll run this group in all three phases at Morven, since they did so well at Plantation. In all likelihood I will do the dressage and show jumping but skip the cross-country, then give them a good hard gallop at home in Pennsylvania on Sunday.

I had a fall last Saturday when Trading Aces slipped on the wet grass, but I've been checked out by the doctors and feel sharp and ready for action. Speaking of Oscar, he is currently prepping for our California debut at Galway Downs in the beginning of November. He ran beautifully at Plantation Field and Silva has him down in North Carolina right now, where she's competing at the GAIG finals, and she plans to show him in third level dressage this weekend to polish up his skills. Any young, aspiring eventers out there, take note of the huge advantage of being married to a dressage rider....

-Boyd