Southern Pines Horse Trials II Comments from Boyd

Boyd rode seven horses at the Southern Pines Horse Trials II this past weekend. Here's an update:

I rode seven horses ranging from my Kentucky hopefuls Neville Bardos and Rock on Rose in the advanced down to two prelim horses Minotaure du Passoir and King Dingaling and Muggle, Charla and Ringwood Murphy in the training at Southern Pines this past weekend.

Unfortunately Remington was a late scratch from the event after he pulled up stiff and sore after his final jump school leading up to his run at Southern Pines. It looks like he might have a twist or a sprain and so the Juvonens and I are playing it safe at the moment and so we decided not to run him until he’s a hundred per cent fit.

It wasn’t my greatest weekend with my advanced horses: both Neville and Lusty have been training great at home and are very fit and fired up for Kentucky next month. Unfortunately Lusty got fired up for dressage and had moments where the tension got the best of her, but there were some dazzling moments where she scored 8’s and 9’s. I think as we get closer to KY she should settle down and relax. The rest of her weekend was faultless: she went beautifully around cross-country and had a sensational show jumping round.

Neville put in a good dressage test, nice and relaxed, and is putting in better and better work with every outing. I took him slow around the cross-country to look after him and I was probably a little bit casual towards the end of the course and stumbled going up a bank-one-stride arrowhead fence. He landed in a heap so I opted not to present him at part B of the complex because I didn’t want to risk a bad jump, so I gathered him up and re-presented him and jumped the combination perfectly on the second attempt. It was pretty heartbreaking to have only the second or third cross-country penalty of his life but deep down I’m not too concerned since I didn’t actually attempt the fence, even though on paper he there are 20 penalties.

I thought Neville put in an okay show jumping round, but he got a little excited and carried away towards the end of the round. I know this horse inside out though and I’m sure at The Fork we’ll see the best of him again.

All the young horses performed fantastic: the highlight was Ron and Densey Juvonen’s Charla, who won the training from go to whoa. The two prelim horses were faultless as well with King Dingaling coming third and Min second. King Dingaling is owned by Luke and Sarah Allen and is usually owned by my compatriot Sally McKechnie Lofting; I’ve got the job of riding him while Sally is pregnant with her first child and she’ll take the ride back after she punches out Junior Lofting.

It was a great event, one of the best Southern Pines advanced events that I’ve competed at, and much of that was thanks to the sponsorship by PRO, the Professional Riders Organization, a group of riders banded together with a mission to improve prize money and services to owners, with the ultimate goal of professionalism in our sport in this country.

I’m back in PA for a couple of weeks and it’s great to be home here in Unionville. All the horses traveled very well. The super green horses are heading to a schooling show this weekend, the advanced horses are going to The Fork in two weeks, and the rest of them are going to a horse trials at Plantation Field in three weeks.

-Boyd

Southern Pines Horse Trials II

Boyd and Rock On Rose

Follow the links below for videos of Boyd and his horses competing at the Southern Pines Horse Trials II this past weekend in North Carolina:

Rock on Rose

Neville Bardos

Minotaur du Passoir

Ringwood Murphy

King Dingaling

Charla

Muggle

For complete results click here.

Bonus: More advanced action!

Dressage Schooling Show

Mary Grace from "Practical Dressage and Eventing" had a dressage schooling show at her place in Cochranville, PA today. I took Andy and Kristen Sparks' young event horse Rose and my four-year-old mare Rosa Cha W for their first time out and I am so proud of the two baby girls! Both horses handled the day very, very well. We had no dramas whatsoever and both went on the trailer like they had been doing it for years.

I was a little worried about the arena because it is a Coverall arena and it was a very windy and rainy day. The arena side were flapping and it was very loud inside because the rain, but both horses did not care at all!


Rose did two beautiful tests which puts the pressure on Boyd now since he is going to ride her in her first event at Plantation next month!



Rosa also did great. She is still a real baby and needs to grow into herself but I am very excited about her.

I also took Denise Rothko's Wie vom anderen Stern, or "Willie", for our first show together. Willie is a very good horse but gets nervous at shows. I am going to take him to a lot of places in the next few months to get him used to going out and about. I rode him in the second level and he did pretty good considering the spooky arena.

-Silva

Sea Lord Schooling Piaffe

Sea Lord finally is figuring out his piaffe. We still have a lot of work to do but I am so happy that he is starting to get the right idea. He is an amazing horse who learns very, very fast and he is so talented, especially in the trot and the passage. Everything that is big and forward he finds very easy and enjoys a lot.

He has a little trouble collecting for piaffe, which is quite normal for a Thoroughbred since they are built to push out behind for speed and not like a warmblood to push under for collection. He also really struggled with the coordination of his legs in the piaffe: for the longest time he could not work out where to put his legs. You can still see it in some of the piaffe steps but I can feel that he is so close to doing it perfectly! I am so exited, this is a big step in our career together!

-Silva

Ecogold Photo Tour of Boyd's Winter Facilities in Aiken

Check out sponsor Ecogold's website
for a photo tour of
Boyd's winter facilities at
Bridle Creek in Aiken, South Carolina!

Summer Breeze's Eventing Debut

It was a glorious weekend for both myself and Anne Hennessey to see her new eventing sensation, Summer Breeze, experience her first eventing competition at Sporting Days Farm in the open novice division. Anne, who is also the owner of Benwald, imported this mare from Australia late last year and I worked with her for about six weeks in November and then Anne gave her a holiday in Southern Pines over Christmas and the New Year. I've been gently working away with her in Aiken teaching her dressage and jumping and Sporting Days was her first official competition: she did not disappoint.


Her character was similar to an angel from the heavens! She was quite enjoying all the other horses hanging around and she looked like she was heading to the dressage at Rolex wearing her fancy Devoucoux competition bridle and Ecogold dressage pad. She was foot perfect in her dressage test and was clear show jumping and cross-country to finish with a top result of sixth place. I must admit she was pretty green in the jumping phases, coming back to trot in front of a few fences and traveled something like an eel, going left and right, but never felt like she didn't want to go. I also think Summer Breeze broke the all time record for eating the most carrots in a 24-hour period thanks to Anne!

I rode seven other horses at Sporting Days with great successes on all of them, many of them moving up to training level for the first time. There are photos of these horses at www.Hoofclix.com. For complete results click here.

-Boyd

Video and Update about Windsong and Silva

Caitlin, Silva and Windy in the snow

Caitlin and I are sooooooo ready for the sun to come out!! We are thinking we could have not picked a worse winter to stay home in PA. It is cold, cold and cold every day and it does not look like the snow is ever going to melt. But we are tough girls and what doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

The other thing is that we are getting lonely at True Prospect Farm. When everybody is at home in the summer we complain about the craziness of that place but we have to say, we are missing our crazy eventers a lot.

That said, we are having a great time training the wonderful horses that we have here at home. We are very lucky to have such a good group of horses - they are fantastic!

I am particularly exited about a new four-year old mare who's name is Windsong. Windy is owned by Phoebe and Chuck Devove and is a beautiful and very talented young mare.

I am very lucky that Phoebe and Chuck decided that I would be a good match for Windy; she is the sweetest little mare with the best temperament. Phoebe had Windy broken in a few weeks before she sent her to me for training and showing, so when she arrived she was all business from day one. With her great personality and ridebility she really is such a joy to have in our barn.

I am excited to have Windy, Phoebe and Chuck in my team for this season! Windy and I are going to our first show this April at Morven Park.

Here is a video of Windy after only a few weeks of training :