Thank You George & Gretchen Wintersteen!

George and Gretchen Wintersteen, who are owners of Steady Eddie and syndicate partners in Neville, had a great celebration at their farm in Unionville on Thursday, toasting Boyd & Neville's performance at Burghley.  Party Photos

Photo Credit Calina - Horse Junkies United!

There was a fun group of supporters who enjoyed watching the videos of all 3 phases of Burghley, as well as the following slideshow of photos.  I want to thank Patricia and Calina from Horse Junkies United, Samantha from Eventing Nation and the Wintersteens who all contributed to this great group of photos from the event!  Burghley Photos

It was a treat to go back to their farm, where I personally hold many fond memories as a child, riding my pony over to play with their daughter Laura when we were classmates at Upland.  Unionville has such an unusual culture, where our communal love for horses has created a landscape like no other.   It was a wonderful evening of camaraderie in sport, and a fine example of the people who are proud supporters of Boyd and Neville.  Many thanks to the Wintersteens for hosting such a great celebration!

Sales Horse Spotlight: Sophia Fab!

NAME: Sophia Fab
DOB: June 25, 2007
HEIGHT: 15.3hh
BREED: Hanoverian
SEX: Mare
SIRE: San Brasil (Sao Paulo/Argentinus)
DAM: S. Alcatrina (Alcatraz/Ramiros Bube)
BREEDER: Laurie Cameron, DVM
FARM: Clear Blue Farm, Stockton NJ



Royally bred for performance with famous relatives on the sire's side include Gold Medal GP Dressage horse Satchmo, World Cup Grand Prix Show Jumping champion, Shutterfly and GP Show jumper Arko lll.

Her dam line includes the great names of: Alme, Gotthard, Rinaldo, Ramiro and Pik Bube. Top performers from this dam line include the Advanced Level Event horse "Are you Ready" and USEF 2008 top five Green Conformation Hunter "Fortune Hunter".

Sophia was bred to jump and started with Boyd and Silva on May 1st, 2011. Within thirty days under saddle, this rising four year old mare is showing serious dressage potential or event horse with three lovely, well balanced, uphill gaits.   This recent video will also show her athleticism and natural talent over fences as well!

Please call Boyd at 610-806-2381 to set up an appointment to see this fabulous young horse!

PRO Fair Hill Video

An Update from Caitlin and Hoku!

I received a recent update from Caitlin on Hoku's (Catch a Star) progress and wanted to share this with Boyd & Silva's supporters.  It is so uplifting to see that everyone is continuing to make progress & find optimism in the future.  


"I can't begin to put into words the impact that the outpouring of love and support for our loss has had on my ability to move forward following the fire. Our entire team has been overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and strangers, and this amazing response has truly demonstrated how wonderful the equestrian community is. I am forever grateful to everyone who has responded to our tragedy, and wish I could thank everyone individually. 


The donations have enabled me to pay all of Hoku's vet bills from New Bolton, and her continuing bills from our vet team at home. I have been able to do everything possible to help her heal the horrific burns she sustained from the fire, and she has gotten through her recovery without any infection or other complications. I have also been able to replace many of my personal belongings as well. 

Hoku is doing really well. She still has a long way to go before she can be ridden again, but I am able to let her be a horse again. I keep her at Suzanne Kloud's beautiful farm, right across from Boyd and Silva's new farm where she is allowed to go out all night, and her skin heals a little be more every day. She still has no hair on the top of her back where the saddle goes and on the tops of her shoulders, but her skin gets stronger everyday. She has put on more weight then I ever thought possible as she is naturally very skinny! She is an amazing mare and has been fighting to get better since the second she emerged from the burning barn and I am sure will make her return to eventing some time next season.

Boyd has allowed me to compete a lot of his young horses while he has been in Europe at Burghley and Boekelo, which has been and amazing opportunity.  It has been great to be out competing again. I also went to Ireland with Ryan in the beginning of August to visit Lillian at her new job and look at some young horses. My grandparent, Tom and Belle Maher, helped me buy a young horse that seems to have lots of potential and I am very excited about his future!"


Again, thank you to the entire community who has shown such amazing support towards the entire team at Boyd and Silva Martin's.  Your efforts have made such an incredible impact!

Great Fair Hill Article & Audio on Equisearch!

Postcard: 2011 Dansko Fair Hill International

By Nancy Jaffer

Boyd Martin and Kylie Lyman earned top honors to win their CCI3* and CCI2* divisions as well as claim 2011 USEF National Eventing Championships at the Dansko Fair Hill International. Postcard sponsored by Bates Saddles.

October 16, 2011 -- "On any given day, there are so many amazing horses and riders at the top and everybody's got a story. It's good old friend luck that kind of shakes everything up."

That was Becky Holder's accurate assessment following this afternoon's Dansko Fair Hill International 3-star show jumping, where the top three each did indeed have quite a story, and some had more luck than others.

Boyd Martin and Ying Yang Yo won the 3-star at the Dansko Fair Hill International

© 2011 by Nancy Jaffer

The winner, Boyd Martin, actually has many stories, but for the moment I'll just talk about his clear round, peppered with rails that bounced but didn't come down. The leader in dressage with Ying Yang Yo, who was second after cross-country by 0.2 penalties, returned to the head of the line with equal measures of good riding and good fortune.

Boyd, you'll remember, sadly lost six horses in a barn fire last spring at Phillip Dutton's farm in Pennsylvania and the event world rallied round him to help out.

Everything works two ways. If there had not been a fire, he likely wouldn't have been riding his old pal Ying Yang Yo this fall, and thinking of perhaps pointing him toward the 2012 Olympics.

FULL STORY FEATURING AUDIO INTERVIEW!

Go Boyd Go

Waiting for Boyd and Thomas to arrive at our fence on cross-country, my 2-year-old daughter Emily got her first lesson in cheer leading.

-AMH

Boyd and Thomas in the News

A few links from Fair Hill coverage:

The Chronicle of the Horse

EventingNation.com

The New Jersey Star-Ledger

The USEF

HorseCity.com

EventingUSA

Fair Hill Show Jumping Video from EventingNation.com

Victory for Boyd and Ying Yang Yo at the Fair Hill International CCI*** and USEF Fall CCI*** Eventing Championship

Boyd and "Thomas" Lead the Victory Gallop
Photo Copyright Amber Heintzberger 2011

It was a sensational day in the show jumping at the Fair Hill International. My long time partner Ying Yang Yo came through the cross-country without a dent on him and looked fresh as a daisy for the morning jog up. In typical Thomas fashion we jumped Sally Ike’s testing three-star show jumping course with a round that heard lots of “oohs" and "ahhs” from the crowd for the wrong reasons. We managed to bump and tap a number of rails but narrowly escaped with a clear round, which gave Thomas his first CCI*** victory. It was a satisfying victory due to my long history with this great friend.

L-R: Becky Holder (2nd), Boyd Martin (1st) and Jan Byyny (3rd)
Photo Copyright Amber Heintzberger 2011

Two months ago I saw my working student Randall bouncing around on Thomas, trying to get the feel for counter canter and I knew at that moment there was still a bit of juice left in his legs. Faye Woolf had lost her horse Call Me Ollie in the fire at True Prospect Farm on Memorial Day and was kind enough to return Thomas to Silva and me to help keep us afloat financially. From that moment forward we haven’t missed a day of training and it’s been a fantastic preparation for one of the world’s toughest three-stars.

A big cheers to all the connections of Ying Yang Yo who include his part-owner Faye Woolf, Eliza Woolf, who has been his rider for the past two years, Lindsey Taylor, who has catered to all of Thomas’ grooming needs, my assistant rider Caitlin Silliman who rode Thomas while I was in Holland for Boekelo, and to my lovely wife Silva who has played a huge role in getting my personal best dressage score of all time.

Boyd and Cold Harbor
Photo Copyright Amber Heintzberger 2011

In the CCI** Cold Harbor went in and jumped magnificently today; Manny and Dana Diemer’s Canadian Sport Horse is improving with every start and is showing promise for next year’s three-stars. Unfortunately he had to second to last fence down which dropped him from 12th to 15th place which is still pleasing considering there were more than 60 starters in the division. A big Cheers to Manny and Dana for placing a couple of great horses with us this year. They are wonderful owners that are an honor to ride for.

-Boyd