Visitors from Millbrook

We had a surprise visit a couple of days ago from Millbrook fox hunters Billy Platt and Tom Duggan. They decided it’s a bit too chilly up in NY and came down to Aiken to check out the hunting here in South Carolina. It was great for Billy to see Otis train – he and his wife Candace Browning Platt are members of the Otis Barbotiere Syndicate and took the opportunity to come watch his horse jump. It was the first time he had seen the gelding and was impressed by the Flying Frenchman’s style.

-Boyd

New Jump from Devoucoux

Big thanks to our sponsor Devoucoux for sponsoring a new cross-country jump at Bridle Creek. Eric Bull from ETB Construction built an awesome, prelim-sized oxer that fits in nicely – it’s a great galloping fence and I took the opportunity to give it a try on Gail Thayer’s Poetic Justice (above). Thanks to Eric for snapping these photos.
-Boyd

Healing Horses with Debora LeMay

Caption: Debora leMay working her magic on Neville Bardos

While in Aiken we are lucky to have the services of Debora leMay just around the corner. She uses infrared energy to help alleviate soreness in a noninvasive and drug-free way. She uses her specialized instrument to scan her patient and mark sore points with chalk, then zaps them with infrared. The next day they are going great! At a cost of only $75, I would highly recommend her to anyone who wants that competitive edge, or a happier horse.

Debora became interested in alternative, non-invasive therapies in the late 70's with the advent of laser, then infrared technology. Known around both Thoroughbred and Standardbred race tracks as the "laser lady," she enjoyed helping horses in NJ and the tri-state area. Retiring to Maine in 1990 to raise children and recover from health problems, she always had a stall available for the occasional ship-in to be healed.

Lately Debora has returned full time to the joy-filled business of helping horses be the best they can be with new technology that can actually find every sore spot on a horse and miraculously improved photon therapy to quickly help those areas heal. Infrared therapy has been proven to help with pain, in a legal and non-invasive way.

Debora is in Aiken until April 1st, and will be traveling to major events and making farm calls throughout the 2012 eventing season. She can be reached by phone at 207.542. 8624 or by email: healinghorse@live.com.
Her website is www.Non-InvasiveEquineTherapy.com

Dressage Horses Heading Back to Pennsylvania

Our Convoy Heading North

The Aiken season has come to an end. It went really fast! The weather was beautiful, especially in January. We were lucky to be at Fernanda Kellogg and Kirk Henckels' new farm , Fox Frolic, and we had a really good time with them. The place is still under construction but next year it’s going to be like the Taj Mahal! We’re all looking forward to going back next year.

The horses had a great season and all of the girls did, too - everybody did well and we are all looking forward to going home. I have some planning to do, but I think our next show will be at Morven Park in April.

We have four new young horses from Australia who have had a long rest while we’ve been away, and I’m excited to get started with them. They’re just turning four – there are two event horses and two dressage horses.

I’ll be going back to Barbara Weinbrecht's in Earleville, Maryland on March 14th and March 31st to teach a couple of clinics – if you want to ride, contact Barbara. I’ll work on dates for April as well.

-Silva

Pine Top and Sporting Days Results

The past week has been a busy one: on February 24 we headed down to Pine Top Farm in Thompson, GA for the Spring Advanced Horse Trials and the following weekend over to Sporting Days Farm in Aiken for the March Horse Trials. While the weather at Pine Top was a bit rainy the horses had a great outing.

Ron and Densey Juvonen's Remington XXV stole the show, winning Open Intermediate 1 on his dressage score. We are also excited for working student Emily van Gemeren and Berkley II, who completed their first advanced with a clean cross-country ride. All the horses had solid showings, and unfortunately Faye Woolf's Ying Yang Yo was eliminated after missing a jump on cross-country. Read the rest of the results below.

Advanced Open-1
Berkley II, owned by Elenor Smith and ridden by Emily van Gemeren, 21st

Open Intermediate-1
Remington XXV, owned by Ron and Densey Juvonen and ridden by Boyd Martin, 1st

Open Intermediate-2
Crackerjack, owned by Lucy Boynton and ridden by Boyd Martin, 5th
Merging, owned by Laurie Cameron and ridden by Boyd Martin, 11th
Otis Barbotiere, owned by the Otis Barbotiere Syndicate and ridden by Boyd Martin, 12th

Open Preliminary-1
Poetic Justice, owned by Gail Thayer and ridden by Boyd Martin, 11th
Steady Eddie, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin and ridden by Boyd Martin, 15th
Ying Yang Yo, owned by Faye Woolf and ridden by Boyd Martin, TE

We headed over to Sporting Days last weekend hoping for better weather but weren't so lucky. While the predicted tornadoes did hold off, we still got quite a bit of rain on Saturday, though it didn't dampen our spirits! We are very excited about Bonnie Stedt's Quinn Himself, who won the Training Horse-B division.

All of the training horses did well this weekend: Katie Walker's Brewster and Wakefield both finished second in their respective Training Horse divisions with Boyd, and Caitlin Silliman won Training Horse C with George and Gretchen Wintersteen's Ballyneety. We were glad to be joined by Ron and Densey Juvonen's granddaughter Camilla Grover and Corona (pictured above), who placed 4th in the Junior Beginner Novice division. The Juvonen's new horse, HH Lancaster, did his first event with Boyd this weekend and finished 6th in the Open Beginner Novice. Lancaster hails from Canada and is a talented new prospect that we are excited to have in the barn.

Intermediate/Preliminary
Arundel, owned and ridden by Abbie Golden, 5th

Preliminary Horse-A
New Cadet, owned by Anne Hennessey and ridden by Boyd Martin, 9th

Training Horse-A
Brewster, owned by Katie Walker and ridden by Boyd Martin, 2nd Polaris, owned by Ann Nawn and ridden by Sara Gumbiner, 6th

Training Horse-B
Quinn Himself, owned by Bonnie Stedt and ridden by Boyd Martin, 1st Bacardi, owned by Sandy Issler and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 7th

Training Horse-C
Ballyneety, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 1st
Wakefield, owned by Katie Walker and ridden by Boyd Martin, 2nd

Open Novice-A
Freedom's Pride, owned by Biz Carey and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 7th

Open Novice-B
Warranga, owned by Amy Lindgren and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 8th

Beginner Novice Horse-B
HH Lancaster, owned by Ron and Densey Juvonen and ridden by Boyd Martin, 6th

Junior Beginner Novice
Corona, ridden by Camilla Grover, 4th

This weekend we head over to Full Gallop for their March horse trials - Silva is heading home to Pennsylvania on Wednesday and our days in Aiken are quickly drawing to a close. Check back for more updates soon!

-Boyd

A huge thanks to Abbie Golden for helping to put this together!