Special Deal For a Special Horse: Shatzi W Offered For Sale

I have an opportunity of a lifetime for a lucky person out there. The mare 'Shatzi W' is an 11-year old Advanced event horse that I bred in Australia, imported to the USA, trained and have loved very much for the past decade. Last year, we placed second at the Jersey Fresh CCI** and also competed at the Advanced level at a few events. I think she has only ever had two rails in her whole career. You can check her USEA results here.

I realized after falling off her last year at the Richland Park CIC*** that she does not have the makings of a 4-star horse. After having a slow start this year after recovering from injury I have come to terms with selling her. She is a very sweet, genuine, talented mare that has plenty of life left in her. One problem that I have is getting her through pre-purchase vet check for when I sell her. When you trot her up on a hard surface or on a tight circle there is a 1 degree lameness that is visible....however, the lameness is not visible and cannot be felt when she is ridden.

I have spent thousands of dollars with vets trying to work out this small lameness with no answers. At the end of the day, it's just the way she is. This however is a major problem when trying to sell her for her true value.

So here is the deal: I am interested in giving this wonderful horse a life of low level eventing (up to training, maybe prelim), breeding (she is by the Dutch super sire 'Salute'), trail riding, dressage or pony club to someone out there. It would have to be the right person as I love this horse very much. The person who ends up with her does so with the understanding that they are buying this horse for nowhere near her real worth because of her condition. I would like to fetch $15,000 to the right home only.

Please call me if you are interested.... 610-806-2381

Cheers,

Boyd

Maryland Horse Trials

The Maryland Horse Trials is a great event to prime the horses for the international CIC's and CCI's that are coming up, and to get the training and sales horses out for a run to see how they've come along. This past weekend I competed eight horses on Saturday, four at intermediate, one at prelim and four at training level, and two prelim horses on Sunday.

It was great to be riding Remington, Shatzi and Benwald who are all gearing up for the CCI***-W at Wit's End in Canada next month. Remi went his best ever, winning the OI-A with 34.5. Benwald came a creditable eighth in the same division, his first run since The Fork in April, where he pulled both front shoes on cross-country. He was foot sore after that and we've been playing around with his shoeing and seem to have him back on track.

Shatzi W scored 36.2 to finish sixth in OI-B. I also finished 13th on Select, a catch-ride who belongs to the organizer of the event. She was too busy to ride him and he just flew around for me.

In training level I rode an exciting mare called Sancerre who belongs to Sandra Ranke, a fashion designer for the catwalks of New York City. Sancerre is a gorgeous Dutch/French cross mare who placed second with a 33.7 in her first run at training level.

The rest of the day was spent with three catch-rides that I had never sat on before. Two of them, Zack and Wrandels, belong to my friend Betty Adams, who is ill with shingles right now, so I hopped aboard and spun them around for her. The other horse is Clover Sky, an Irish horse that's just getting established at training level and gave me a great go this weekend.

On Sunday I brought Minotaure du Passoir out for his first run since the Bromont three-day event in Canada and he placed fourth in preliminary A with 39. In Prelim B I rode Double Exposure, a new horse that's in for training and sale. He's a classy seven-year-old Thoroughbred and finished fourth as well on 39.6.

For complete results click here.

Now Silva and I are on vacation for a few days, living it up in Las Vegas, doing a bit of gambling and catching some entertainment before we get back to work on Thursday.

-Boyd

The Fork CIC***

The Boyd Martin Fan Club

Photos by Amber Heintzberger

It was a glorious day for champagne show jumping at The Fork in beautiful North Carolina. Minotaure du Passoir held on to his lead in preliminary with a clear round. There were a lot of rails down in the class and it was a big, technical course. I switched to a hackamore for today and it kept him nicely balanced and better to the fences. After this big win it puts him into the lead on the Nutrena/USEA preliminary leaderboard for 2009. I’d like to move him up to intermediate eventually but his owner, Amy Lindgren, has her sights set on the CCI* at
Bromont in Quebec this summer, so that is our goal for now.

Shatzi (pictured right) had a fantastic show jumping round in the intermediate, clear and in the time. Mark Donovan built a really testing course, but she handled it well and moved up a couple of places to finish second. I’m planning to take her to the two-star at the next event at Fair Hill, in a couple of weeks, and then on to the CCI** at Jersey Fresh in May. She’s feeling better and better on cross-country; I didn’t push her flat-out yesterday, I just kept a nice rhythm; I’m saving that for the two-star.

In the three-star Benwald, (left), owned by Anne Hennessey, had a rough round in cross-country, losing both of his front shoes. He got pretty wound up and ran out at a corner, and with his missing shoes he was jumping quite poorly, but he had a respectable round in the show jumping today. He’s getting better in that phase. It was a bit of a disappointment overall this weekend, so I think we’re going to have to rethink his spring three-day plans and try to get him more established, then aim for the two-star at Bromont in June instead of Jersey Fresh in May.

Ron and Densey Juvonen’s Remington XXV (pictured left) was very impressive this weekend. He had a reasonable dressage, with a couple of small errors, then on cross-country he went all the direct routes . It was his first three-star so I was cautious about going too fast, I just wanted to ride accurately, and I probably could have gone a little faster.

He jumped really well today. Since he jumped poorly at Southern Pines a couple of weeks ago I have been working quite hard over the past two weeks on his show jumping, and Phillip changed the way I ride him a bit, getting him more uphill, and he came up with a clear round today.

I was also proud of my student, Molly Rosin, who moved out from California and has been training with me for the past year. She and her horse Charly had a brilliant round in the advanced – he’s a great little horse and they are aiming for Bromont. She rode very well this weekend.

-Boyd

Minotaure du Passoir Takes the Early Lead at The Fork

Boyd is riding four horses this weekend at The Fork CIC*** and horse trials in Norwood, NC. Minotaure du Passoir (pictured, photo by Amber Heintzberger) is off to a great start, leading his division of preliminary with 31.9. Shatzi W scored 33.8 to stand in second place in Intermediate-B. In the CIC*** Remington XXV is sitting 18th and Benwald is tied for 31st out of 60 starters. Yesterday torrential rains turned the venue into a sea of mud but strong winds dried things out today and the footing is in good shape heading into tomorrow's cross-country. For complete results visit this link.

Southern Pines

Photos courtesy of Kat Netzler/The Chronicle of the Horse and Sam Poole

This past weekend wrapped up our winter eventing season down south with the Southern Pines II horse trials in North Carolina. I rode three horses in the advanced: my usual rides, Benwald and Remington, and a catch-ride called Isabella II, (pictured below right, photo courtesy of Kat Netzler/The Chronicle of the Horse) who is usually ridden by Susie Beale but Susie was undergoing knee surgery, so I was fortunate to get the ride this weekend to keep her going, since Susie is planning to take the mare to Kentucky.

Remi won the dressage and Isabella was third. Benwald had a fantastic test but the judge was a little unjust, I thought; I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind some of the scores. He got 4's on the medium to extended trot and the horse didn't do anything wrong - for a four I'd think he's be tossing his head or really acting up. He was tied for seventeenth after dressage.

It was quite unusual to go eventing with no rain, considering the past couple of events, but conditions were perfect this weekend. The cross-country courses were tough and beautiful, probably the toughest Remi has seen so far. I didn't go flat-out with any of the horses, I just gave them good comfortable rides. It was a good preparation for Remi and Benwald, who are both doing the three-star at New Jersey in May.

In the show jumping Benwald had one rail but jumped around well, finishing seventh overall. Remi has been jumping well, but he lost his concentration and had three rails down, also finishing seventh in his divsion. Isabella was fifth in the same division with the round of the day; she was amazing, just really turned herself inside out to get over all the fences without touching a rail.

Belmont II won the intermediate B division with a 37.3. I had hardly sat on him since Fair Hill last fall. His owner Kate Dichey has been doing the training on him and brought him down in time for me to ride him the day before the event. She's done a fantastic job and he won quite comfortably.

Shatzi, my homebred mare, is just going intermediate and it was a real sizable test for her. It confirmed to me that she is a four-star horse in the making, but in the end she had a heart-breaking rail that cost her second place, to finish third overall with 49.3.

Minotaure du Passoir finished second overall in the prelim with an outstanding effort and a score of 36.9. In training I rode Vidalia, who has been placing consistently at the top at this level and finished fourth with a 29.

For complete final results click here.

Also during this event was a fantastic retirement ceremony for Will Faudree's partner Antigua. They had a pretty moving ceremony for him. He's been a wonderful horse for Will, and I've known Antigua since he was competing in Australia. He's been phenomenal and to watch Will, who's a friend of mine, retire his horse was very moving.

I'm driving the horses I rode at Southern Pines back to Pennsylvania, then heading right back to Aiken for another truckload. Next weekend I'm teaching a clinic in Maryland with Kate Chadderton, and then in April I'm riding a bunch of horses at The Fork CIC in Norwood, North Carolina.

-Boyd

Boyd's first US training session with Captain Mark Phillips

All photos in this blog entry compliments of Emily Merrill.



I had my first official US training session with the US eventing coach Captain Mark Phillips. The Captain has been in Aiken for the last few days, and I have been lucky enough to secure dressage, show jumping and cross country lessons with him. I have focused my training sessions with my two "up and coming" horses, Remington XXV and Shatzi W. Both horses are just hitting the big time, so I thought it would be beneficial to see what Mark thought of them.

The most exciting session was yesterday with Remington. We jumped at a new equestrian facility called "Three Runs Farm" that is just down the road from Phillip's farm. Mark worked with Remi a couple of days ago over the show jumps so this was actually his second show jumping session. Mark felt I was giving him too nice of a take off distance every time, and wanted to get Remi to a deeper take-off spot to make him work a bit harder. I must say, it took me out of my comfort zone, as we were jumping bloody big fences! Bigger than I usually school over. It was very interesting, as after a few jumps with me "daring" Remi in, he just jumped better and better.

The other main focus of the session was the connection between the bit, rein and hand. This connection can be a little inconsistent sometimes, and can sometimes lead to Remington being too bold to a fence, which is were we have had a rail in competition. After all this it was encouraging at the end of the session when Mark commented very positively on Remington's potential as a top class horse.

Remington's owners, Ron and Densey Juvonen, (pictured at right with Remi and me), are staying down here in Aiken with their team of fox hunters from Pennsylvania, and were keeping a close eye on their horse's progress.

I compete this weekend at Paradise Farm Horse Trials on three horses.

Boyd