Katie and Cuyler Walker Have Two Horses for Boyd to Ride

Drummond, owned by Katie and Cuyler Walker. Photo copyright Red Horse Media

I’m very proud and excited to say that I have two exciting new young horses in training thanks to my new supporters Katie and Cuyler Walker. The Walker family has had a huge history and tradition here in the Cheshire Hunt Country, with relations to the very famous foxhunting legend, Mrs. Hannum.

Drummond was hand-picked out of a field in Canada by Katie and her foxhunting trainer Dave Leinhauser. Drummond is a magnificent-looking 5-year-old gelding who has the movement of a dressage horse and a very bold jumping technique. Dave did a full season hunting him last year to give him a wonderful start to his career and I was lucky enough to hunt Drummond late last year, where he impressed me immensely. Thanks to his foxhunting background Drummond now has successfully competed around a couple of training horse trials with a very good start.

Brewster, also owned by Katie and Cuyler Walker. Photo Copyright Amy K. Dragoo

The second horse the Walkers purchased is Brewster, a brilliant-looking 4-year-old bred by none other than Bruce Davidson. This horse is about 1/16th Irish Sport Horse and is closely related to one of Bruce’s most famous eventers, Eagle Lion. Dave Leinhauser also got this young horse started over the winter, where Brewster got his education in the hills of Unionville, PA. Brewster has had a couple of starts this year and the horse has looked very impressive at the novice horse trials.

Not only do Katie and Cuyler own these promising young horses, they also are the land owners in Unionville where the Plantation Field CIC will run in September. Year by year this event is getting bigger and better. Without question this year’s Plantation CIC will go beyond last year’s efforts with the inclusion of a world-class jumping and dressage stadium which has magnificent, prepared wax-coated footing kindly donated by members of the community. They're also aerovating the gallops so the cross-country footing will be in top-notch shape.

This year’s event will also go far beyond just the international horse trials with a huge trade fair, a parade of the Cheshire foxhounds, and the infamous cocktail party at the Walkers’ residence in Unionville before the event starts. I urge anyone who has a horse eligible to compete there to get their entry in, because this could be the most exciting event of the year. Any spectators or fans of eventing, buy your tickets for the luncheon now, so you can sit back in the VIP tent – or even better, become a sponsor - and enjoy the event of events!

-Boyd

Click here to become a Fan of Plantation Field on Facebook

Click here to see Amy Dragoo's photos from the June, 2011 horse trials at Plantation Field

USEF Awards $120,000 in Land Rover Grants to Eventing High Performance Riders

Updated: 2011-08-10

From the USEF

Lexington, KY - In Land Rover's continued quest for excellence, the USEF has awarded Land Rover High Performance Grants to eight horse/rider combinations in their preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. The Land Rover High Performance Eventing grants will help offset the expenses related to competing in Europe this fall. Building on last year's support of the Land Rover U.S Eventing Team, USEF and Land Rover have created a new initiative: the Land Rover Competition and Training Grant Program for Eventing Riders.

The following horse/rider combinations will receive $15,000 grants:

William Coleman III and James Wildasin's Twizzel
Phillip Dutton and Bruce Duchossois' Mighty Nice
Will Faudree and Jennifer Mosing's Andromaque
Will Faudree and Jennifer Mosing's Pawlow
Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos Syndicate's Neville Bardos
Boyd Martin and Henley House Stables' Remington XXV
Clark Montgomery and Jessica Montgomery, Kathleen Kraft and Holly Becker's Loughan Glen
Michael Pollard and Nathalie Pollard and Mieke Hanssens' Icarus

In addition to the base grants listed above, there are performance incentive grants available as well to all US riders: $10,000 for a top 10% finish, $5,000 for a top 20% finish.

"I'm very excited to have received one of this year's Land Rover grants," said Clark Montgomery, who recently won an Advanced division at the Millbrook Horse Trials. "The funding will be used toward competing Loughan Glen at the Blenheim Palace CCI3* in England this fall. It is an exciting opportunity to further the career of an exceptional young horse and I am thankful for the support."

"We are excited that our support of the USEF and the Land Rover Grant Program will help this group of competitors develop their skill and experience at the International level," said Kim McCullough, Brand VP Marketing, Land Rover North America. "Land Rover has a rich heritage in the sport of Eventing in the UK and our support of the U.S. team riders will continue that tradition and expand upon our brand association in the United States and on a global level."

About Land Rover

Since 1948, Land Rover has been manufacturing authentic 4x4s that represent true 'breadth of capability'across the model range. Defender, LR2 (Freelander 2), LR4 (Discovery 4), Range Rover Sport and Range Rover each define the world's 4x4 sectors, with 78% of this model range exported to over 140 countries. Land Rover employs 8,500 people and supports a further 40,000 jobs supported in the supply chain.

Land Rover takes its responsibility to the environment seriously. Emissions have been cut with all new models and, together with Jaguar, Land Rover is investing £800m on technology specifically aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Since September 2006, carbon dioxide generated by Land Rover manufacturing activities and UK customer vehicle use has been balanced through an industry leading offset program run by Climate Care™.

Land Rover has been the official vehicle of the USEF since 2010.

Thanks to Succeed Digestive Conditioning Program

I want to give a shout out and a big thank you to Succeed. After the devastation of the fire, we had a number of horses that survived the ordeal but were distressed and sick from being stuck in the blazing inferno. The most serious of injuries were incurred by Neville, Otis and Hoku with terrible body and throat burns and smoke inhalation. These horses were locked in a stall not only at the intensive care unit at New Bolton Center, but also for weeks on end after their release. As time went on, their physical appearance was that of sickness and exhaustion.

Succeed was kind enough to donate to Neville, Otis and Hoku a course of their paste. This was a daily dose of their formula for digestive conditioning. After about a week, the shine started to reappear in these horses, their appetite increased, and their enthusiasm began to rebuild.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Succeed for the gesture of this donation and to mention how impressed I have been with the results of this product.

-Boyd

Millbrook Horse Trials and Neville's Comeback

Jessica Mongeau was kind enough to send this photo of Neville to Eventing Nation. Check out more of her photos here, and a shout out to Jessica's blog as well.

Millbrook Horse Trials turned on superb weather for a very successful horse trials this year. It was good to ride a fantastic group of horses throughout the levels - they all competed beyond my expectations. I was thrilled with my group of up and coming horses moving up a level for the first time: New Cadet, Crackerjack, Partyboy, and Cold Harbor. It was also a great feeling riding a few of the old faithfuls around the testing advanced track.

• Remington, owned by Densey Juvonen, 2nd Advanced A
• Neville Bardos, owned by the Neville Bardos Syndicate, 4th, Advanced A
• Ying Yang Yo, owned by Faye and Eliza Woolfe, 6th, Advanced B
• Cold Harbor, Dana and Manny Diemer, 11th Advanced B
• Crackerjack, owned by Colin Davidson, 13th Open Intermediate A
• Partyboy, owned by Fernanda Kellogg and Nick Myers, 10th Open Preliminary A
• Steady Eddie, Gretchen & George Wintersteen, Denise Lahey & Pierre Colin, 6th OP B
• Quinn Himself, owned by Bonnie Stedt, 3rd ON A
• New Cadet, owned by Anne Hennessey, 9th, ON B

Neville felt like his lungs held up to the Millbrook terrain in his first serious test since the Memorial Day barn fire. It looks like we're still on track for Burghley in a few weeks as he looks happy and feels healthy and keeps checking all the boxes as he makes a remarkable recovery from a close call two months ago. At the moment he feels fantastic and is showing true fighting spirit and thus far is giving me no indication that we should not continue towards our goal of the 2011 Burghley CCI4*. Obviously part of being a good horseman is listening to your animal, and if there is any sign that he is not 100% or shows any discomfort I'll quickly put the brakes on that plan but at the moment he's riding right.

Next week we're very much looking forward to getting the young horses out at Waredaca Horse Trials in Maryland. It's one of those summers where too much eventing is not nearly enough.

-Boyd