Belmont II Syndicate Opportunity

The Belmont II Syndicate

The Belmont II Syndicate is an opportunity for eventing enthusiasts to take part at the elite level of the sport, at a fraction of the cost of sole ownership. The plan is to syndicate the horse Belmont II with Boyd Martin as the rider, with the goal of representing the United States at the 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky next September.

With this goal in mind, Belmont II will be competing extensively throughout the United States and possibly abroad in the 2009/2010 season.

Because the goal to compete as a member of the US team, the syndicate will not focus upon making a profit, or the sale of this valuable horse, unless circumstances warrant. We are offering a percentage of ownership, at $9,000 per share, and then asking members to contribute to the horse’s running costs, including veterinary and farrier care, feed, entry fees, transportation, etc. at a rate of $200 per owner per month.

In return, we are offering part-ownership of a very talented and valuable competition horse, VIP hospitality at top-level competitions, and close involvement with a small, dedicated professional team, as we strive to compete at the very highest levels of the sport.

About The Horse

Belmont II is a 1995, US-bred bay Dutch Warmblood/Thoroughbred cross gelding. He is talented in all three phases of eventing. Currently owned by Kate Ditchey, he came to Boyd to be sold. Boyd generally only rides the horse at competitions, with Kate training him the rest of the time, and Boyd’s record with Belmont so far is outstanding:

2008

• Fifth place in the Fair Hill CCI*** (MD)

2009

• First place advanced horse trials at Southern Pines (NC)
• Second place advanced horse trials at Fair Hill (MD)
• First place Jersey Fresh CIC*** (NJ)

Click here to see a video of Belmont II competing at the 2009 Jersey Fresh CIC***.
Competition record, including scores, available at the USEA website.

With a more consistent training program their results can only get better. In preparation for the World Equestrian Games, Boyd hopes to compete Belmont II at the 2009 Burghley CCI**** (UK) or the 2010 Rolex Kentucky three-day event.

The US selectors have made it clear to Boyd that a horse for sale on the open market is not eligible for national squad listing. The purchase of Belmont by syndicate means that there would be a very good chance that he would be placed straight onto the B list, which is basically the long list for next year’s WEG. His performances and results at the 2009 Jersey Fresh CIC*** and 2008 Fair Hill CCI*** outclass the majority of the horses already on the B list.


Basic Syndicate Agreement

We want to keep the rules of the syndicate simple. There will be a written agreement between the owners. To summarize the basic elements:

1. The syndicate is being created to combine a group of like-minded people who share a love of three-day eventing.

2. Boyd Martin will be the rider. The focus is on enabling the partnership of horse and rider to compete at the very highest levels of world class sport. I, Boyd Martin, will be responsible for the training and competition schedule of the syndicated horse.

3. This is a non-profit focused syndicate, motivated to develop horses to progress to the highest level of competition. The horses may only be sold if Boyd believes it is warranted.

4. Prize money will be divided equally amongst the syndicate members and be used to subsidize the running costs of the horse. Subsequent savings will reduce the monthly contribution.

5. The horse is currently for sale for $90,000. Ten shares are available at $9,000 per share, and running costs will be $200 per month per share. An individual may purchase more than one share. Monthly fees are tax-deductible through the American Horse Trials Foundation.

For further information, please feel free to contact Boyd at boydmartin007@hotmail.com or (610) 806-2381.

Photos copyright Amber Heintzberger and are not to be reproduced without permission.

Boyd Named to USEF Eventing High Performance List

It's great timing for Boyd to have received the thumbs-up to compete for the USA, because he and Remington XXV have been named to the USEF Eventing High Performance Training "B" List.

Horse and rider combinations on the lists may participate in training sessions with USEF Eventing Coach Capt. Mark Phillips. Training sessions will be held in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and California; dates to be determined. Some horse/rider combinations will receive grants for European competition and training. Grant amounts will be finalized in late July.

A List

• Stephen Bradley, 47, of Leesburg, Va., on Brandenburg’s Joshua, a 14-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Southern Edition Farm
• Jan Byyny, 41, of Purcellville, Va., on Waterfront, a 14-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Richard Byyny
• Will Coleman, 25, of Gordonsville, Va., on Twizzel, a 13-year-old Westphalian gelding owned by Tivoli Farm
• Buck Davidson, 32, of Ocala, Fla., on My Boy Bobby, a 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Carl & Cassandra Segal
• Phillip Dutton, 45, of West Grove, Pa., with Connaught, a 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Bruce Duchossois
• Phillip Dutton on Truluck, a 12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Shannon Stimson and Ann Jones
• Phillip Dutton on Woodburn, a 13-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding owned by Acorn Hill Farm
• Becky Holder, 39, of Mendota Heights, Minn., on Courageous Comet, a 13-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Tom Holder
• Gina Miles, 35, of Atascadero, Calif., on McKinlaigh, a 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Thomas Schulz and Laura Coats
• Amy Tryon, 38, of Duvall, Wash., on Leyland, a 9-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Elisabeth Nicholson

B List

• Jennie Brannigan, 21, of West Grove, Pa., with Cooper, an 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by the rider
• Jan Byyny on Syd Kent, an 11-year-old New Zealand Thoroughbred gelding owned by JC Chester
• Buck Davidson on Ballynoe Castle RM, a 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Carl & Cassandra Segal
• Mara Dean, 35, of Round Hill, Va., on High Patriot, an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by the rider
• Sara Dierks, 29, of Berryville, Va., on Somerset, a 13-year-old English Thoroughbred gelding owned by Edith and Sean Rameika and Ocala Horse Properties
• Will Faudree, 27, of Hoffman, N.C., on Pawlow, a 10-year-old Irish Thoroughbred gelding owned by Jennifer Mosing
• Lauren Kieffer, 21, of Middleburg, Va., on Snooze Alarm, a 12-year-old Anglo-Arabian gelding owned by the rider
• Tiffani Loudon-Meetze, 32, of Winnsboro, S.C., on Above ‘N’ Beyond, a 14-year-old Canadian Thoroughbred gelding owned by the rider
• Boyd Martin, 29, of West Grove, Pa., on Remington, a 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding owned by Henley House Stables
• Karen O’Connor, 50, of The Plains, Va., on Mandiba, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse owned by Joan Goswell
• Michael Pollard, 28, of Chatsworth, Ga., on Icarus, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Nathalie Pollard
• Missy Ransehousen, 39, of Unionville, Pa., on Critical Decision, a 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Jessica Ransehousen
• Kim Severson, 35, of Scottsville, Va., on Tipperary Liadhnan, a 12-year-old Irish Draught Sport Horse gelding owned by the Friends of Kim Severson
• Jolie Sexson, 27, of Martinez, Calif., on Killian O’Connor, an 11-year-old Selle Francais-Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Tracy Bowman
• Allison Springer, 34, of Marshall, Va., on Arthur, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the rider
• Allison Springer on Destination Known, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by the rider
• Jennifer Wooten-DaFoe, 30, of Ramona, Calif., on The Good Witch, a 13-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare owned by Daisy and Donn Tognazzini

Developing Riders

• Emily Beshear, 31, of Somerset, Va., on Here’s To You, a 9-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Brickland Farm LLC
• Madeline Blackman, 18, of Ringoes, N.J., on Gordonstown, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by the rider
• Tiana Coudray, 20, of Ojai, Calif., on Ringwood Magister, an 8-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding owned by Jatial Inc.
• Sinead Halpin, 27, of Middleburg, Va., on Manoir de Carneville, a 9-year-old Selle Francais gelding owned by the rider
• Alexis Helffrich, 27, Pleasanton, Calif., on Leyasta, a 10-year-old Selle Francais mare owned by Sarah Vernlund
• Andrea Leatherman, 23, of Chatsworth, S.C., on Mensa G, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by the rider
• Heather Morris, 29, of Lewisville, Texas, on Slate River, an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding owned by Allison Freeman
• Heather Morris on First Mark, an 11-year-old Thoroughbred gelding owned by Lynne Partridge
• Molly Rosin, 29, of Baltimore, Md., on Havarah’s Charly, an 11-year-old Hungarian Warmblood gelding owned by the Minyan Syndicate
• Kate Samuels, 20, of Charlottesville, Va., on Nyls du Terroir, an 8-year-old Selle Francais gelding owned by the rider
• Karen Shull, 19, of Bryan, Texas, on Just My Style, a 12-year-old gelding owned by the rider

It's Official!

Breaking news:
The paperwork hurdles have finally been cleared and the FEI has stated that Boyd can officially represent the United States in international equestrian competition!

Videos of Boyd and Horses at Jersey Fresh

There are three videos of Boyd at the Barnmice Website, courtesy of Patricia at Ecogold:

Boyd and Belmont

Boyd and Rock On Roses

Boyd and Remington XXV

Media Coverage of Jersey Fresh

Check out the following media coverage of the Jersey Fresh Three-Day Event, at which Boyd and Belmont won the CIC***:



Photo above by Anthony Trollope for the US Eventing Association

The US Eventing Association

The Star-Ledger (Photo at right by Nancy Jaffer for the Star-Ledger)

Nancy Jaffer's Post Card on Equisearch

The Chronicle of the Horse

And on the Twitter feed at HorseRadio

Belmont Wins CIC*** at Jersey Fresh!

Jersey Fresh was a complete success - I was very happy today because I rode four horses, a few that I don’t know well and they all jumped clear today. Belmont won the CIC***, Rock on Rose came fourth in the same division, Shatzi W was third in the CCI** and Remington XXV was sixth in the CCI***.

All of the horses seemed to jump quite well; I thought it was quite a big course but also a flowing course. Usually you have a few horses that have a train wreck - especially with cross country the day before, it can rattle the green horses especially and it shows up in the show jumping, but we saw good horses and good riders today.

Belmont is half Dutch Warmblood, half Thoroughbred and he’s a fantastic jumping horse. The main goal bringing him here was to get a good result for his sale. I’d love to work out a way of keeping the ride on him because I think he’s got a genuine chance of making the WEG team next year. I’m trying to do the best by his owner, Kate Dichey, and trying to sell him while at the same time trying to find someone to help me keep the ride on him.

I need to find someone with some spare money here to throw at the dream of making the US team. It’s one of those things where you need to find someone who shares the dream – in this recession it’s really hard ot find someone with the money to spare. I think that’s one of the contributing factors that’s holding back having 25 horses qualified compared to maybe ten.

Rock on Rose ran fourth in the CIC*** - that's a very new ride for me and I felt the pressure with big Brucey walking the course with me today but she jumped really well.

Remington put in one of his best-ever show jumping rounds. The show jumpingin the past has been his weaker link out of the three phases, but I was very satisfied with how hard he tried. The big thing with Remi is that he’s now qualified for a four-star. My guess is we’ll do a three-star somewhere in the fall and then bat him up for Rolex next year and hopefully have him in contention for the WEG.

I was also third in the two-star on my homebred mare Shatzi W. Shatzi put in a phenomenal effort this weekend. She’s really proved that she’s a high level horse. She’s always show jumped clear and gone clear cross-country and it was good to see her dressage score getting lower with every outing. My plan is to give her a little holiday, then bring her out and start doing some advanced horse trials and maybe look at doing the three-star at Fair Hill with her this fall.

She's one of three that I own here in the US - I also own Neville Bardos and just flew over Fair Fiona who arrived just a couple days ago and I’m excited about her. I think you need a few good horses, it’s a tough sport and there are so many things that can go wrong.

Fair Fiona just set foot in Pennsylvania after a very long trek – we flew her to Los Angeles, then I was lucky to get her on a shipping van for $1600 bucks with a truckload going to Jersey. The trip started with 14 hours Sydney to Melbourne by truck, then a 14-hour flight Melbourne to LA, 3 days quarantine and then a 3-day truck trip across the land, so she was happy to see a paddock again! I gave her a week off to recover. Nobody’s sat on her since Sydney in 2006 – she’s had a couple babies. I’m going to throw the tack on her tomorrow and just walk her to start out. Competition-wise I will just do some preliminary horse trials thorugh the rest of this year because it’ll take a bit of time to adjust to this atmosphere.

For complete results from Jersey Fresh click here.

In other news Maddie Blackman is going to come work for Silva and I and we’re excited about having her there.

-Boyd

Belmont Takes the CIC*** Lead after Cross-Country at Jersey Fresh

Photos copyright Amber Heintzberger 2009
Not for reproduction without permission

I’m leading the CIC3* on Belmont (pictured above), in fifth on Rock on Rose in the CIC***, Remi is 6th or 7th in the CCI3* and Shatzi is tied for bronze in the CCI2*. With horses in all three divisions, the courses all took different paths, so it was quite a handful focusing on which course I was on and giving it the best ride.

I rode three Warmbloods and one Thoroughbred today. The ground was a bit sticky and that labored Shatzi and Remi especially – I felt them getting tired about halfway around. I had them fit enough, but the ground sucked them down. Remington is still pretty green – I found it a bit hard to get a rhythm on him because it was a stopping and starting type course on the CCI***.

Belmont did well at Fair Hill and I was eager to ride him at Kentucky, but Kate is trying to get pregnant and married and wants some cash so she asked me to take him to a few horse trials and try to sell him which is why we’re here instead.

I’m still riding for Australia here… I’ve actually been knocked about by the FEI with my nationality. One of the rules is you have to live here for two years, and they had some questions about my tax returns. I think they’re trying to make it a bit tougher to switch nationalities. My mum was born in Springfield, IL and I have dual citizenship. Sara Ike was trying to get it through and I’m hoping by Bromont I’ll be riding for the Stars and Stripes.

Recently I’ve sort of broken away from working for Phillip and now Silva and I are renting the 16-stall upper barn from him; we’ve got a deal where he’s training me and I ride some of his horses when he’s away in exchange for the help. Sometimes it can be awkward when you break away from working for someone - there can be a weird feeling - but we’ve been golden.

Today I rode Rock on Rose wearing Bruce’s colors from the 1978 World Games – his helmet cover and body protector. I’ve been riding a few of his horses and it’s been great fun. I got the rides when a good mate of mine, James Allston, from England was riding the horses and decided to move along, so I got the big call-up from Bruce which was a fantastic honor. It’s been good….and terrifying! He yells at me a bit and puts the jumps up pretty high, but it’s been good. He was chasing me the whole way around cross-country on a golf cart today – I think I heard him yelling a few times.

Sadly Phillip had a fall with Bailey Wick, (pictured at right) and lost the horse today. I think it was an unfortunate thing for Phillip where he got to the fence a bit wrong – nine times out of ten you get away with it but today things didn’t go his way. It was an unfortunate moment, and Bailey Wick was a wonderful horse. I was lucky enough to compete him while Phillip was away last summer and he was a really class horse. I think we’re in a sport where you’re riding a horse at high speeds at a fixed object, and these things are bound to happen occasionally; if you looked at the horse’s history it deserved to be here, it wasn’t as if the horse or rider wasn’t up to the level, it’s just one of those moments in the sport that is dreaded, just one of those things.

-Boyd

More photos coming soon!