Trading Aces Leads After Dressage at Millbrook Horse Trials

It was good to be back on the big horses once again, with four competing in the advanced at Millbrook Horse Trials in NY. Oscar put in a great test to lead the division; I think Silva's dressage training and showing with him has been especially helpful. He was focused and in front of the leg even though it was slashing rain during our test. This is our first event since Rolex Kentucky and my ankle surgery, and we are both excited to be back eventing together. The plan is for him to march around the advanced here and make sure he is bursting with confidence before we head up to Richland Park.

Photo Kate Samuels. Read Kate's coverage from yesterday at EventingNation.com 

 Pancho put in his standard performance - he's such a well trained and talented horse but we are still getting to know one another and build a partnership. Crackers and New Cadet both put in good tests; they are both still green at this level, and I'd say it'll be about six months before they are flawless.

Crackerjack (Photo EventingNation.com)

My ankle is feeling about 70% at this point - it hurts and I only have limited mobility, but I'm hoping it'll hold up through the weekend. I'm not on meds anymore, and when Lindsey is going down the line icing and wrapping the horses in the evening I'm there with them, icing and wrapping my ankle.

My four youngsters are doing dressage today: Eddie, Shadow, Cortez and Bally. I feel that they are a promising group of horses and I'm really looking forward to how they develop for the future.

Cross-country should be fun. After the rain the footing looks to be in good shape. I haven't seen a big course like this in a few month but I'm sure I'll get the feeling back quickly.  

-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