Southern Pines

Photos courtesy of Kat Netzler/The Chronicle of the Horse and Sam Poole

This past weekend wrapped up our winter eventing season down south with the Southern Pines II horse trials in North Carolina. I rode three horses in the advanced: my usual rides, Benwald and Remington, and a catch-ride called Isabella II, (pictured below right, photo courtesy of Kat Netzler/The Chronicle of the Horse) who is usually ridden by Susie Beale but Susie was undergoing knee surgery, so I was fortunate to get the ride this weekend to keep her going, since Susie is planning to take the mare to Kentucky.

Remi won the dressage and Isabella was third. Benwald had a fantastic test but the judge was a little unjust, I thought; I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind some of the scores. He got 4's on the medium to extended trot and the horse didn't do anything wrong - for a four I'd think he's be tossing his head or really acting up. He was tied for seventeenth after dressage.

It was quite unusual to go eventing with no rain, considering the past couple of events, but conditions were perfect this weekend. The cross-country courses were tough and beautiful, probably the toughest Remi has seen so far. I didn't go flat-out with any of the horses, I just gave them good comfortable rides. It was a good preparation for Remi and Benwald, who are both doing the three-star at New Jersey in May.

In the show jumping Benwald had one rail but jumped around well, finishing seventh overall. Remi has been jumping well, but he lost his concentration and had three rails down, also finishing seventh in his divsion. Isabella was fifth in the same division with the round of the day; she was amazing, just really turned herself inside out to get over all the fences without touching a rail.

Belmont II won the intermediate B division with a 37.3. I had hardly sat on him since Fair Hill last fall. His owner Kate Dichey has been doing the training on him and brought him down in time for me to ride him the day before the event. She's done a fantastic job and he won quite comfortably.

Shatzi, my homebred mare, is just going intermediate and it was a real sizable test for her. It confirmed to me that she is a four-star horse in the making, but in the end she had a heart-breaking rail that cost her second place, to finish third overall with 49.3.

Minotaure du Passoir finished second overall in the prelim with an outstanding effort and a score of 36.9. In training I rode Vidalia, who has been placing consistently at the top at this level and finished fourth with a 29.

For complete final results click here.

Also during this event was a fantastic retirement ceremony for Will Faudree's partner Antigua. They had a pretty moving ceremony for him. He's been a wonderful horse for Will, and I've known Antigua since he was competing in Australia. He's been phenomenal and to watch Will, who's a friend of mine, retire his horse was very moving.

I'm driving the horses I rode at Southern Pines back to Pennsylvania, then heading right back to Aiken for another truckload. Next weekend I'm teaching a clinic in Maryland with Kate Chadderton, and then in April I'm riding a bunch of horses at The Fork CIC in Norwood, North Carolina.

-Boyd

Min Wins at Sporting Days

It was a great weekend at Sporting Days Farm in Aiken, South Carolina. I rode six horses and was happy with all of them. The weather was nicer than at Pine Top a couple weeks ago, but not by much - it was a sloppy weekend but all the horses rose to the challenge.

Minotaure du Passoir led from "go to whoa" in the Open Preliminary A division, finishing on his dressage score of 30.4. It was the best he's ever gone, so I was pretty happy with his performance. I talked to his owner and she wants to keep him at prelim for a while and aim for a CCI*, maybe at Bromont this summer.

Also in Open Prelim A I rode a horse called Macintosh (pictured, right) for the first time. He came from Ohio for training and I rode him a bit cautiously on cross-country since it was our first competition together and I didn't know him well, so we had a few times faults, but I was happy with how we went around the course. His owner Ashley Johnson (pictured above, with Macintosh) sent him here to be sold and he's a quiet, easy going guy.

In the open training I rode Annie Jones's Young Man and Nina Gardner's Forgotten Emblem. They were both first timers at training level and they are both impressive young horses. They're still green but they have a lot of ability and talent and I think they are both good horses for the future. Young Man finished fourth on OT-A on 28.5 and Forgotten Emblem finished third on 34.1 in OT-B.

In Open Novice A I rode Bruce Duchoissois' Model Cadet in his first eventing start and he had a fantastic dressage test, scoring 24.5, which put him in the lead, but unfortunately dropped a rail in the show jumping and finished second.

In Open Novice B I rode AFW Ami Fidele, a horse I've been training. It was my first competition with him and he was fantastic and won the division. with 29.5.

For complete results click here.

Today I'm teaching a clinic at Carolina Cadier's in Athens, Georgia and tomorrow I'm looking forward to having a jumping lesson on Remi with Captain Phillips as a prep for running advanced at Southern Pines. We're heading up there on Wednesday and I'll be riding about ten horses over the weekend.

-Boyd

Jeff's Success at Wellington Classic

In addition to Prosecco's successful and well-publicized showing last weekend at the Wellington Classic Dressage Challenge II show, Silva and Jeff the Chef won the Young Horse Prix St. Georges on Sunday.

She says, "I am very excited because we have been working so hard and it finally came together. Jeff did a great test with no mistakes. There were three judges and one judge gave us 71%, one judge gave us 70%, and one judge gave us only 66%. But with a final score of 68% we still won the very competitive class!"

Silva continues, "Sea Lord also did a great test. He went in the Fourth Level Test 3 and for the first time he did not feel as green in the canter. We scored 68% and finished second!

"Caitlin and her new mare, Gabriella Rossellini, did very well for their first show together. They scored almost 64.47% and finished sixth."

A New Horse for Caitlin

Silva's working student Caitlin Silliman has just purchased an exciting new young horse named Gabriella Rossellini (photos, above, by Amber Heintzberger). Having sold her experienced Young Riders horse Twain, Caitlin felt that it was time for a young horse.

A Dutch Warmblood by Gambol out of a Dutch mare, Gabriella Rossellini is seven years old and was purchased from Alex Robertson in Ocala, FL. She is schooling fourth level dressage and does her flying changes, and has competed in one novice horse trials, which she won.

Silva says, "I'm obviously very excited about her because she's such a good mover. Simone Kann was also impressed with her jumping - they let Caitlin take her on trial for two weeks, which is almost unheard of these days. We also took her to Marcia Kulak's, who liked her too, so we're hoping Boyd approves, since he hasn't seen her yet! We also took her to the show and rode her around. If she does not work out as an event horse she's good enough that Caitlin can sell her as a dressage horse or a jumper, but it looks like she loves eventing."

Caitlin, who is 18, still has three years to compete as a Young Rider, but she knows she has her work cut out for her before she considers trying to compete at the NAJYRC again. "When we tried her she was wild!" Caitlin says. "She nearly bucked Silva off, but we knew she could move and she jumped really well."

"I'm excited to have a young horse," continues Caitlin. "She knows a lot of dressage already. In addition to lessons with Silva, I'm working with Marcia Kulak while I'm down here and I'm excited to work with Boyd at home, too. We'll probably do novice at Plantation Field as our first event."

Silva and Prosecco Featured on DressageDaily.com

After winning the FEI Prix St. Georges at the Wellington Classic Dressage Show, Silva and Prosecco were featured on DressageDaily.com. For the whole story, click here.

"It's really exciting, and I appreciate the support," said Silva, who was also sure to thank her coach, Oded Shimoni. "I've had so much help from Oded and I also want him to know how much I appreciate all he's done."

Photo of Silva and Prosecco Copyright www.phelpsphotos.com

Working Hard in Florida

Lillian Heard, Silva Martin, Caitlin Silliman and Brody the dog enjoying the sunshine at Stillpoint Farm in Wellington, Florida. Amber Heintzberger photo

Palm Beach Dressage Derby

The Palm Beach Derby went really well for all the horses. On Thursday Jeff placed third (64.4) in the Developing Horses class. First place scored 64.8 and second scored 64.6 so it was very close, and a little frustrating because I made two mistakes in the canter and probably would have won otherwise, but Jeff was very good.

On Friday Prosecco was awesome in our first Prix St. Georges together. His trot work was beautiful and his canter was good. I was still worried about his changes, and the four-time changes were so good that I got excited and made a mistake in the three-time changes. He placed second on 69%, just behind Betsy Steiner with 70%. I am going to keep showing him in the open classes for now and probably enter the CDI at Raleigh, NC in June.

Jeff did a different PSG on Friday and was good in the trot but got tired in the canter, so he got just a bit flat. He scored 62%.

Ballatale went in Fourth level test 1 which was a warmup for Fourth level 2 and got 61.3, then scored 63.8 on Saturday in 4th-2, which is a qualifying score for Devon. It's exciting that he's qualified. He's really easy to ride, not an Olympic horse but very obedient - he's a really good guy who tries hard and rarely makes a mistake.

Sea Lord (pictured above and right, Amber Heintzberger photos), scored 65.5 in the same test and placed 5th; he was a little tense, and got strong in the canter. Today in 4th-3 he was so much better! He placed second out of 13 horses. He's already qualified for Devon and I am going to compete him at Fourth level again next weekend. For him it was a big step up from Third to Fourth level - for some horses it's not a big step, but for him it was - so I am going to keep him there a while and then do the Developing Horse classes. I'm not in a hurry with him and he needs to get physically stronger.

My student Lillian Heard did 2nd level and did really well. Last weekend she scored 68% and this weekend 61%. None of the judges know her since she's an eventer and her scores don't really matter because she's getting ready to go intermediate in eventing and her horse has improved so much. She's also working on her jumping with Katie Monahan-Prudent and plans to enter the Plantation Field horse trials when we get home, which will be her first event of the year.

Caitlin (pictured left, hard at work; Amber Heintzberger photo), had to sit this show out because Waimea has an ulcer in her eye and we don't want to take any chances with it until it's healed. Caitlin is looking forward to possibly having a new horse soon though!

I am catching a flight to Pennsylvania today to teach a two-day clinic so hopefully I will not be stuck up there in the snow!

-Silva