Our New Photo Albums

We're working on a new project to chronicle the progression of all our competition horses.  These photo albums will be linked to their individual pages, but we'd like you to get a little preview with the following slideshows.  Enjoy!

Neville Bardos



Steady Eddie

Welcome to Melinda Walton and T. Larry Smith and Their Horses

I am very excited to welcome Melinda Walton and her husband T. Larry Smith and their amazing horses Duvent and CeCe into my team! I feel so lucky and excited that Melinda and Larry have decided that I am the right person to ride, train and show these wonderful, home bred horses.

CeCe is a 4-year-old mare by Contucci out of Heidekind, who is by Rubinstein. CeCe has only been under saddle for a very short time but if you did not know that about her, you would think that she has been doing her job forever. She is a wonderful, good-natured mare with the best brain. We love having her around and I am looking forward to showing her for the first time at the New Jersey Horse Park in September in the materiale class.

Duvent is a 7-year-old gelding by DeNiro out of Heidekind. Duvent is CeCe's half brother and a spectacular horse. He is one of those horses that catches everybody's eye. He looks stunning and has a lot of quality and potential. I am excited to see what we can do together, not just because I think he is a fantastic horse with a lot of movement and talent, but also because he is a horse that suits me very well. The very first time I rode him I loved the feel of him and we understood each other straight away.

I am going to show Duvent for the first time at the CDI at Saugerties, NY this coming weekend. I am showing him in second level just to see how he acts at the show, without too much pressure for our first time out together.

I took Duvent to Jessica Ransehousen recently to take a lesson and see what she thinks of him. Jessica likes him very much and she thinks that together we have a lot of potential. That is very encouraging!

Here is a little video of our lesson:

Check the blog for news from Saugerties next week!

-Silva

Sea Lord is Getting Ready for his First CDI!

Sea Lord and I are heading to our first CDI at Saugerties, NY this coming weekend! I am very much looking forward to riding him at the CDI. He has been working very well and he is getting more and more confident in both tests. I also feel like he has become a lot stronger just in the last month. We took our last lesson with Jessica before the show this morning. Here is a little bit of the lesson:



I will also be riding Rosa Cha, Duvent and Comet at Saugerties. Rosa Cha is going in her first real competition: she is showing in the East Coast Riders Cup in training level. Comet is showing in the East Coast Riders Cup in third level and Duvent is showing in the East Coast Riders Cup in second level.

I will keep you updated from the show!

-Silva

Winning Weekend for Laurie Cameron's Horses at Waredaca

Boyd riding Lillian Pink, owned by Laurie Cameron

I competed seven horses down at Waredaca over the weekend and my working pupils also rode a horse each. Sara Gumbiner rode Child’s Play to eighth in training level, Caitlin Silliman rode Merging, owned by Laurie Cameron, to fifth in Training Horse B, and Maddi Fleit finished 15th in Intermediate on Guypower Valley and 11th in training riding Juliet.

I jogged up Laurie Cameron’s two up-and-coming home bred horses in the future stars of eventing class. Qui Luma (pictured at left, all photos thanks to Laurie Cameron), is a 2-year-old Swedish Warmblood mare. She won her 2-year-old class of 12 entries and was then awarded the overall champion for the Future Event Horse competition. She is by Quite Easy, (Quidam de Revel/Landgraf) out of Laurie’s Holsteiner mare, "Uma Corwin" (Cor Noir/Winter Morning), a horse that was in training with Silva last year. This dam line also goes back to Bit Of Elegance.

Laurie’s yearling Hanoverian filly "Early Review" (pictured right) placed third with a score of 76 in her FEH class. She is by Earl, (Escudo/Lanthan) out of Laurie’s Hanoverian mare Lois Lane, (Le Premeur/Bit Of Elegance xx). Lois is a full sister to Laurie's five-year-old home bred Lillian Pink. For a bit of background, the TB mare "Bit Of Elegance" is the dam of Are You Ready, (who won the Advanced division of Millbrook with Kristin Bond last weekend).

Laurie didn’t stop there! Lillian Pink won the open preliminary, only her second start at this level. Lillian Pink has been a young up and coming horse in training with me since I broke her in and I finally get to see her quality. She’s only five years old and this was a very tough, technical cross-country course, under testing conditions, with thunder storms and heavy rain throughout the class.

Click here for a slide show featuring Lillian Pink, Qui Luma and Early Review

My own mare Shatzi W’s return to competition after a layup with a niggling injury is looking successful, with her winning the training, and talking of future champions, Summer Breeze W owned by Anne Hennessey finished second in the Novice Horse.

Gretchen and George Wintersteen’s pair of geldings Ringwood Murphy and Steady Eddie had strong performances in the novice and training. Both these horses are very talented and I’m excited about their future prospects at the top level. They’re both developing well and I can’t tell you how pumped up and excited for their future I am.

Last but not least I had two new rides this weekend with Phenomenon, who came ninth in the intermediate horse, and Ringostar in the Open Novice who came second. They’re both new to me and had successful weekends.

For complete results from Waredaca click here.

Over the next couple of days I’m heading to a training session at the O’Connors’ farm with Neville and Remington, training in dressage with Oded Shumoni, jumping with Katie Prudent and then on Wednesday riding at the Culpeper horse show to get some extra mileage in the jumping ring.

-Boyd