Wasabi Rosa Reserve Champion at BLM Finals

We're off to a good start at the BLM Championships in Lexington, Virginia. First off, I've been riding in my new saddle from L'Apogee Saddlery, who just agreed to sponsor me, and it's really comfortable!

On Friday Wasabi Rosa, (pictured above, Amber Heintzberger photo), owned by Nina Gardner, won the warm-up class for the Training championships with 72% and was reserve champion in the final with 73%. It was very close - the winner had 73.6%! There about 45 really nice horses, a lot of stallions, which can be hard to beat. It really was a selection of the best horses in the country and she did very well against the competition.

We drove down on Wednesday and I rode them all on Thursday. Wasabi needed some time to get used to the place; on Thursday she was wild and excited, but once we braided her she settled in, it's amazing how she knows her job. Her classes were held in the indoor Coliseum and even though she can be spooky sometimes she did not spook, she was just a little more "up", which was good.

I also rode the three Third Level horses in their warm-up class, which was outdoors. All the footing is very good. Ballatale, the Irish gelding owned by Sarah Sanz, scored 69%, which is a great score for him, and placed 5th. He jigged a little in the walk but the other parts were good.

Shannon Stimson's big Thoroughbred gelding Sea Lord scored 73% and placed second. He was like a ballerina, he was excellent!

Waimea, Margaret Marano's mare, was good, but I think she needed one more day here - she wasn't spooky and she didn't make mistakes, she just wasn't quite herself. She scored 68% and placed 5th which is still a good score but I hope she scores better in the final.

As far as atmosphere, yesterday there was not much activity, but I think today there will be a bit more. Today I'll ride the three horses in the Third Level final and Jeff will do the Fourth level warm-up.


-Silva

Preparations for the BLM Dressage Championships

This coming weekend is the Colonel Bengt Ljungquist Memorial Championships at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Virginia. I’m taking six horses, and they are all very good competitors.

Wasabi Rosa (Dutch by Jazz out of a Farrington mare), Nina Gardner’s horse is doing the Training level championships and is going really well. She’s going better than before Bucks County, and she was champion there. I checked the draw and she’s got a lot of competition in this class, which is good and not good – she’ll have to go really well. There are a lot of good horses entered, a lot of imported horses – for some reason training level is packed with really nice horses - but she is going well, which is exciting.

DP Lidcombe (by Luebeck out of a Thoroughbred mare), Janet Mudge’s horse, is doing First level. He hasn’t been to a show since the PVDA show which was in June. He some time off because he had a little cut on his leg but now he’s back in business and feels good. I hope he’ll do really well; the judges like to look at this horse, and it’ll be nice for Janet since she’s over here watching from Australia.

I have three horses in the Third level. The first is Ballatale, (Irish Sport Horse), Sarah Sanz’s horse. I teach Sarah on him every week and about a week before the competition he comes to me. I never know what to do with the horse because he’s just so easy to ride!

Waimea, (Canadian Warmblood by Wallenstein), Margo Marano’s mare, is doing Third level as well. She competed in Fourth level at Bucks County for the first time but I moved her back to Third for the championships. Since she’s been doing Fourth level, the stuff at Third is real easy for her and she feels great.

Sea Lord, (American Thoroughbred by Sea Hero), (pictured above, Amber Heintzberger photo), owned by Shannon Stimson, is the next in Third level. He’s one of my favorite horses and I’m very excited about him because he’s so spectacular; he always feels even better in the ring than in the warm-up. I haven’t competed him in a while because he kind of got used to doing the Third level test. The last show I did with him was Saugerties, in New York, where he won both classes. I gave him a break because he’s a Thoroughbred and very smart and was starting to know the tests better than I do, which is not very helpful!

Our Windurra horse, Jeff the Chef, (By Jive Magic out of a Salut mare), is doing Fourth level. He is coming from his really good performance at Devon, so hopefully he’ll go just as well or maybe even better. I have high hopes for him even against tough competition, so hopefully he’ll do well and then move up to Prix St. Georges.

It will be a busy week with six horses but I am taking Caitlin and Lucy to help me and I have a really good feeling about it. I’ve had a nice preparation; when you come from a show like Devon it feels like everything is going well. The Virginia Horse Center is a nice facility and there’s not one horse that I’m taking that I don’t feel is going really well.


-Silva

Final Day of Fair Hill

Remington XXV,(pictured right, Amber Heintzberger photo), trotted up perfectly first thing this morning – the horse was full of high spirits and had a sparkle in his eye and I knew he was ready for a show jumping performance that would be remembered. It was a tough, demanding track but the former dressage queen from Germany pinned his ears back and put in a foot-perfect round. Unfortunately the majority of horses ahead of him did too, so we held our fifth placing. I couldn’t be happier with this horse, he proved himself to be top class. I was really happy for the owners, Ron and Densey Juvonen – they have supported Silva and I and Remington this last year and a half and it’s developed into a great friendship and partnership, with a great result this weekend.

Che Kairo (pictured left, Amber Heintzberger photo), jumped reasonably well in the three-star; he was a little bit flat and tired from yesterday. He started around well but then towards the last line of the course he started to feel the pace of the weekend and had a couple of lazy rails. This was a fantastic effort for the horse, which has now qualified for the four-star level and the 2010 World Equestrian Games. The Ecuadorian owner Ronald Zabala is half considering keeping him as his backup horse for next year. There are also a few interested parties for his sale.

Belmont II (pictured right, Amber Heintzberger photos), jumped fantastic in the first two thirds of the course and then got a little bit rattled towards the end. Unfortunately I feel I could have ridden him a little bit better down the last line where we picked up a few rails. At the end of the day he finished in sixth place out of 53 starters in an international three-star three-day event, competing against Olympic and World Champions. There has been some interest in his sale from some overseas buyers and it will be interesting to see where that progresses.

All in all, it was a reasonably successful Fair Hill International three-day event, not only for myself but for a lot of the people that Silva and I are involved with. I feel like everyone who is related to a similar training program stepped up and put in a respectable performance. It was heartbreaking to watch Molly Rosin just nick a rail in the two-star, which cost her a win. She’s a great girl riding a top horse and I’m sure we’ll see more stunning performances to come in the future.

-Boyd

Click here for results from the event!

Left to Right: Jennie Brannigan, Rebecca Braitling and Silva Martin, photo courtesy of Amber Heintzberger

Three Solid Cross-Country Rounds at Fair Hil

Boyd:

I started the day fantastically- Remy (pictured right, Amber Heintzberger photo) was the first on the course and blasted around cross-country, only two seconds over the time. He's now in fifth place. It was a real test for him but he really proved himself over a lot of accuracy questions and the tough terrain. They had quite a few problems today, but I think that there were a lot of green horses and riders for the levels.


Che Kairo (pictured left, Amber Heintzberger photo)was a big ride, I had the weight of Ecuador on my shoulders! He had a really courageous round and moved up a few places, from 40th to 20th jumping clean and with only .8 time faults.


Belmont (pictured right, Amber Heintzberger photo) made the three-star feel easy, he's an experienced horse and he jumped everything out of stride, clean and in the time. I think this performance will really assist his sale.


Dr. Kevin Keane went over all the horses and they are in good condition for tomorrow.

Belmont II Breaks Into the Top Ten at Fair Hill

Boyd and Belmont II, owned by Kate Dichey, compete in the CCI*** at Fair Hill. Amber Heintzberger photo

Boyd:

Today I had Belmont II in the three-star. I gave him a light workout first thing in the morning and he felt pretty good so I was confident. He warmed up well before the test and Silva told me to go for it in the ring. He gets tense sometimes with atmosphere, but he went in and I felt like I got the best test that I've had with him so far.

He was just a little tense in the walk, but it was the best score we've had and it's exciting that it was in an FEI test and that he made the top ten with such good rides from the competition. I thought in both the two-star and the three-star the judges got a little more generous as the day went on, but luckily I rode in the afternoon!

Thinking about tomorrow, in the two-star the biggest thing is making sure I have enough fuel left in the tank with Remington.

In the three-star Kairo's a little green and I don't know him well so I will have to take my time at the jumps that ask accuracy questions. Belmont is big and strong so I'll have to take care with him at the end of the course, in case he gets stronger as we go along.

Remington is first on course at 8:30am so I'm looking forward to getting out early and getting a good ride while the others sit back in the barn getting nervous! Actually it's an advantage to watch a few go, but it's part of the sport that what you get is what you get.

Silva's students did well today, so I'll hand it over to her to talk about them....

Silva:

Molly [Rosin] was awesome yesterday, she had a little scare in the shoulder-in left when the loudspeaker started crackling and Charly spooked, but she pulled herself together and rode a beautiful test.

Ryan [Wood]had beautiful trot work and the canter got a bit long, but the horse has naturally fantastic movement and obviously he did well in spite of the canter.

Cayla's ride was fantastic - the horse didn't look as big as he does sometimes, which makes Cayla look like a peanut up there. She really pulled him together well. She got a 66 from two judges and a 61 from one judge so the scores were off and I think she should have scored higher, which is disappointing.

Julia Steinberg and Mr. Big had a lovely test and scored their best score ever.

Steph Boyer got the flying changes, and I thought she should have scored better too. I guess I'm a little biased, because I see the horses every day so I saw how much they have improved, while the judges only see what's in front of them!

Remington XXV Top 5 in CCI** at Fair Hill International

Photo of Boyd on Remington XXV warming up under Silva's watchful eye. Amber Heintzberger photo.


Boyd’s commentary from Fair Hill:

Remington XXV (in fifth place in the CCI** with 50.3), put in the test of his lifetime. We had a couple little mistakes but he was as good as I’ve ever had him. He struggles with the walk, and the first half-pirouette in the walk he got tense and thought I wanted him to canter, so we had a little bobble there. It was the best score I’ve had with him at an FEI event and I could not have asked for more.

Che Kairo’s (20th place in the CCI*** with 66.7), trot work was basically spot on but he got a little tired and strung out in the canter. The thing that hurt the most is that I fumbled both changes, but he’s a bit green in the changes and I think that with a bit more training they’ll be good.

Looking at the cross-country course I think it’s challenging. The course is up a mountain and then down a mountain. Remington can jump anything but has never run this distance before. Being a warmblood, I plan to look at how he’s going after a bit and gauge how he’s feeling. If he feels good I’ll get on with it, but if he’s getting tired I’ll just get him home. He’s been galloping hills and doing lot trots so I feel like he’s as fit as he could be.

Che Kairo is an Argentinean Thoroughbred and he’s a tough horse and a naturally good galloper. Because it was a late decision to bring him to the event he missed some early gallops so again I will have to see where he is on the course and bring him home carefully if I have to.

The new two-star course looks brilliant – it’s the first year they are running a two-star and it shares a few fences with the three-star. The jumps are pretty tough and technical but the hardest thing is where they are placed on the terrain. The trickiest part for Remington will be that he’s a bit green on cross-country so I will have to try to show him the jumps a bit.

Silva’s and my student Molly Rosin is leading the two-star and she made a very good effort and had a great test. Her horse is in fantastic form. I’ve jumped him a few times myself and he’s awesome, a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I’m riding Belmont in the three-star. He’s rockin’ and rollin’; I worked him twice today and he looked fantastic. He started feeling a little flat this afternoon, so I’ll take him for an easy walk tomorrow morning. Of course then I risk him having too much energy in the afternoon, so it’ll be the art of walking the tightrope tomorrow.

Silva performed the early-morning test ride on Shannon Stimson's Sea Lord, aka Big Bird, and showed the eventers how it's done!

Bellaney's Destiny Withdrawn from Fair Hill

A message from Boyd:

"The horses were all checked out at home this morning and unfortunately Bellaney's Destiny (pictured above, photo by Amber Heintzberger) will be a late withdrawal because of a bruise on the heel of one of his forefeet. The vet he should be a hundred per cent sound in a few days, but the first veterinary inspection is tomorrow and we want to play it safe and let him heal completely.

"The other three horses were checked out this morning as well and given the go, so I did a jump school with the each of them with Phillip, then drove them over to the event and gave them each a light ride around the competition site. They've all settled in well and we're looking forward to the event getting under way tomorrow. Silva will be doing the test ride Thursday morning at about 7:30am, then I'll be riding early in the two-star lineup so I should be in the ring shortly after Silva."