Boyd and Neville's First Week in England

Boyd and Mark Todd

My first three days here in England have been great . Neville appears to have traveled well and is full of life. Julian Stiller's Headley Stud is the perfect place to train leading up to the big event at Burghley next week: a beautiful indoor, gallops, horse walkers, and of course the great Mark Todd, make it an entreating day for my first taste of England.

Boyd, Paul Tapner (Aus),
Chris Burton (Aus, borrowing my jacket because it was cold) and Jocko Paget (NZL)

Jules was nice enough to invite a few of my old mates from Australia around for a BBQ on Wednesday night. It was great to see Tappers, Burto and Jocko again. Last year we all got to ride at the WEG against each other. We all grew up eventing in Australia years and years ago and eventing has taken us all to a different country to live, two of us have changed nationalities, but we are all pretty much the same group of blokes.

With Will Coleman at a dressage show

I have be working hard at Nev's dressage every day and he looks to be going pretty well. Yesterday Jules, Coleman and I went to a dressage day to run through the four star test a few times. We got there and it was great to see Will Faudree, Sinead Halpin and Jess Phoenix doing the same thing. Unfortunately for me, I realized that my dressage is not quite on par with everyone else's at the moment. It was a good learning experience, to see that I have to work on a lot of the little things in the test.
I am spending a lot of time bonding with Nev. Lindsey, my groom, arrives next week, so I have been hard at work hand walking, stall cleaning, grooming, grazing and attending to all of the other needs of Bardos.
-Boyd

Nev Ships Well to the Mother Country

Nev and Tucker, Jess Phoenix (Canuck eventing super mum) and I had a long, strung out night on Sunday as we made our venture across the pond. After a few mechanical problems with the plane at Newark, our FedEx flight finally took off about 4 am Monday morning.




The flight took about 6 hours, and the pilots were great guys, allowing us into the cockpit to check out the scenery as we flew over London.



I am lucky enough to be staying with Julian Stiller at her magnificent farm at Headley Stud. I arrived with Nev about 7pm in the evening, where I was welcomed by a very nice group of Poms. Nev looked fresh as a daisy as he jumped off the truck.

I am staying with Will Coleman and Jules in her house at the barn. Coleman knocked up a beautiful dish of rice and chicken for our first US team bonding session dinner. The plan is to go for a run with Will in the morning, then start gently working away at the dressage with my man Nev.

Boyd