The Journey to WEG has Begun

The first leg of our journey to France has begun! At 4:00 this morning, we departed from training camp at Gladstone headed for JFK airport. The team flying with the horses includes myself, Emma (Phillip's Groom), Susan Johns (Team Veterinarian) and Richard Picken (Professional Flying Groom).

We are scheduled to depart with the eight squad horses and alternates at 10:00 am today, and will land in Liege, Belgium where we will meet the other grooms. We will ship to Chantilly late tonight, where we will be based in France until we head to the WEG venue in Normandy.

Shammy and Oscar are doing very well, they are both great travellers and have flown before, so the trip should go very smoothly for them. 

We will keep you posted on our travel and training as the trip progresses!

Lindsey 

Training Camp at Gladstone

For the past couple of days Shamwari and myself have joined the rest of Team USA at the famous Gladstone USET Foundation Headquarters in New Jersey. We worked on our dressage with David, fine-tuning some of the movements in the four-star tests, and went over videos from the last outing at Great Meadows with the coaches, trying to pick up places to improve here and there.

The vets have been carefully going over the horses, making sure they’re all in tip-top shape before they ship out of JFK airport on Friday morning.

Shamwari and his teammates will be flying on the cargo flight that lands in Brussels and from there they will truck down into the US training camp in Chantilly, France. I plan to meet the horses there Sunday morning so I can get stuck in to the training for the final weeks leading up to the WEG. Silva is heading over a week after my arrival to help me with the dressage. 

Shamwari is in fantastic condition and I feel like I have him much fitter than I did at Luhmuehlen, thanks to the gallops up Nelson’s Hill and many laps at the Maui Meadows swimming pool. Overall I’m feeling confident in our preparations, heading overseas knowing we’re in great shape for the big performance. 

-Boyd

Fair Hill International August Horse Trials

Photo of Brewster copyright Lisa Thomas

Crackerjack was a superstar as usual, and looks ready for a rock solid fall season, finishing 3rd in the Intermediate. 

Brewster and William Street had their final run at prelim and I’m confident about both of them taking the next step up to Intermediate in a couple of weeks.

In the training I had two homebreds that I co-own with Amy Lindgren. Ray Price was 3^rd and Wallaroo was second in the Open Training.

In the novice SBF Eowyn put in a great round; she is for sale and I’ll be looking to move her up to training pretty soon.

Caitlin Silliman was also out there riding some of the younger Windurra horses that we have in training and had great finishes on all of her rides, especially Gipsy King who won the Open Novice.

Results: (Horses ridden by Boyd Martin unless otherwise indicated)

OI-B

3rd - Crackerjack, owned by Colin Davidson

OP-A

10th - William Street, owned by Daryl, Layfield-Insley

OP-B
4th - Brewster, owned by Katie and Cuyler Walker

OT - D

3rd - Ray Price, owned by Boyd Martin and Amy Lindgren

OT-F

 2nd - Wallaroo, owned by Boyd Martin and Amy Lindgren

10th - Goldthorn Diamond Imprint, owned by Stephen Blauner (Caitlin)

1st - ON-A - Gipsy King, owned by Gloria Callan and Anne Hennessey (Caitlin)

ON - B

7th - Barry, owned by Boyd Martin (Caitlin)

ON-D 

5th - SBF Eowyn, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin

10th - Cumbre, owned by Tatiana Bernstein (Caitlin)