Aiken Season off to a Good Start

L-R: Lindsey Taylor, Emily van Gemeren, Doug Neilson, and Caitlin Silliman

Our 2012 event season began with a busy day at Full Gallop Farm horse trials with a total of eleven horses competing. The courses were great, with good questions for a first time out, and all the horses ran very well. Some of the upper level horses came out for their first run of the season and all ran nice and slow around the Preliminary. The sales horses all went very well and are a great group of competitors. Poetic Justice, or “Poppy”, had a great go in the Training, placing second with a fast cross-country round, Ricochet {“Chetti”} jumped well in the Novice, and Bacardi won his first ever event! The young horses went well too, and look to be horses for the future. After a great dressage test, I unfortunately cantered right past fence 7 in the show jumping, but I'm happy despite the resulting TE because of how well my horse Berkley was going up until I went off course. Luckily for me, I was allowed to run cross-country anyways and so I had a good, slow round to prepare for my next few events. Both Boyd and Caitlin were happy with their days as well! Lindsey kept everyone very organized back at the trailers and we even had time to sit down every now and then!

Steady Eddie at Full Gallop

Full Gallop Farm Horse Trials

Preliminary

Boyd: Lucy Boynton’s Crackerjack 5th, Laurie Cameron’s Merging 6th

Emily: Berkley TE

Training

Boyd: Gale Thayer’s Poetic Justice 2nd, George and Gretchen Wintersteen and Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin’s Steady Eddie 4th

Caitlin: Looks Like Fernhill 11th

Novice

Boyd: Gretchen and George Wintersteen’s Ballyneety 4th, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin’s SBF Balboa 9th

Caitlin: Lisa Samoylenko’s Rhicochet EDF 9th

Beginner Novice

Caitlin: Sandy Issler’s Bacardi 1st, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin’s SBF Cortez 4th

Just three days later, Boyd and Sara took six horses to Sporting Days horse trials. All of these young horses preformed very well for their first time out this year, with top placings among the levels. Sara rode Ann Rawle’s sales horse Ladylovesdiamonds {“Jewels”} in a big division of Beginner Novice and she placed third, beating many good horses and riders.

Sporting Days Farm Horse Trials

Training

Boyd: Katie Walker’s Brewster 2nd, Anne Hennessey’s New Cadet 5th

Sara: Ann Rawle's Polaris 11th

Novice

Boyd: Bonnie Stedt’s Quinn Himself 1st, Katie Walker’s Wakefield 1st

Beginner Novice

Sara: Ann Rawle's Ladylovesdiamonds 3rd

This coming Wednesday Caitlin and Boyd are headed back to Full Gallop, and then this weekend we go to Pine Top- from here on out we are sure to be very busy!

-Emily van Gemeren

High Performance Training Session Schedule - Aiken

The following schedule is for the USEF High Performance Eventing training session taking place at Bridle Creek in Aiken over the next few days:

Monday, Feb. 6th

800 Boyd/
845 Jennie/ No Objection
930 Boyd/
1015 Meghan/ Pirate
1100 Boyd/
1145 Doug/ Running Order
1230 LUNCH
1300 Will F/ Pawlow
1345 Kendyl/Ever So Lucky
1430 Lizzie/ Coal Creek

Tuesday, Feb 7th
0800 Boyd/
0845 Will F./ Pawlow
0930 Boyd/
1015 Will C./ Twizzel
1100 Boyd/
1145 Susan/ Wolf
1230 LUNCH
1300 Megan/ Pirate
1345 Lynn/ Donner
1430 Kristin/Ballylaffin Bracken
1515 Alex/ Fernhill Cubalawn

Wednesday, Feb 8th
EXTREMELY TENTATIVE until times released for Full Gallop
800 Will C/ Twizzel
845 Jennie/No Objection
930 Doug/Running Order
1015 Susan/ Wolf
1100 Kendyl/ Ever So Lucky
1145 LUNCH
1215 Alex/Fernhill Cubalawn
1300 Lynn/ Donner
1345 Lizzie/ Coal Creek
1430 Becky/Can’t Fire Me

Thursday, Feb 9th
800 Becky/ Cant Fire Me
845 Boyd/
930 Will F./ Pawlow
1015 Boyd/
1100 Will C/ Twizzel
1145 Boyd/
1230 Lunch
1300 Kristin/ Ballylaffin Bracken

Developing Riders Clinic with Debbie McDonald

I rode Stately in the Developing Riders clinic with Debbie McDonald in Wellington, Florida yesterday and this morning. I had two great lessons with Debbie: Stately was amazing, as always. We worked mostly on the basics and Debbie gave us some good exercises.
She agrees that Stately not only has the physical ability but also has the right head for it. She could not believe how smart he is. All the things we worked on on the first day were no issue the next.

Debbie says that it is very important for us to keep working on the basics and Stately's strength . He is so smart that he will learn anything very fast and when he gets strong enough he is going to be amazing.
The best thing about Debbie's lessons is that she is not trying to change too much. Michael and I have a good program for Stately and she just kept it pretty much the same. She says Stately looks great and we are on the right track!

Of course Faye came to watch us go and to be the groom! Thank you Faye! If anybody is looking for a groom, she is amazing! But unfortunately for the rest of you, between being a groom for Eliza and me she is pretty busy!

Stately, my mum, ( who is visiting), and I are now on our way back to Aiken.

Silva

For Sale: Freedom's Pride

NAME: Freedom's Pride

SEX: Mare

COLOUR: Bay

HEIGHT: 16.3hh

DATE OF BIRTH: 1/1/05

SIRE: Freedom Z

BREED: Hanoverian / Irish cross

BREEDER: Acorn Hill Farm, VA

PLACE OF BIRTH: USA

OWNER: Biz Carey

'Libby' is a super classy mare who oozes talent and ability. She is bred to perfection with a blend of Hanoverian, Irish sport horse and Thoroughbred.

She has beautiful correct movement for the dressage, and a super scopey, bold, careful jump. This is a horse with a great future.

Please call Boyd for more info 610-806-2381

Silva's Wellington Classic Sunshine Challenge Report

Photo of Silva and Duvent courtesy Cindy Lawler

We had a good weekend in at the WCSC. It was very hot and humid, but I guess we should not complain since it's better than the cold and the snow!Rosa Cha won both her third level classes with over 70%. She loves to show off and turns it up every time we go to a show. She loves to be braided and groomed and I swear she winks at the spectators and judges as she goes around the ring!
The girls and I decided that if Rosa was a person she would be doing beauty pageants for sure.

Hidden Promise was great again this weekend. He is such a great horse to have at the shows: low maintenance in every way! Promise showed third level for his second time this weekend; yesterday he placed second in a huge class with 67%.

Jeff did great in the Prix St George. He is such an impressive, powerful horse and the judges love him. We finished third in a big, competitive field with 69%.

Duvent performed a very nice test on Friday in the Prix St George. This show is very electric and there is a lot going on. Duvent needs more time and needs to see more places like this; he is going to be great once he gets more confident. We scored 65% and finished seventh.

Party Boy was very excited about the surroundings at this amazing place. I am sure he has never seen anything like it before. He was nervous but handled himself pretty well in the training level tests; we finished second on Friday with a 66% and fourth on Sunday.
Poor Markie came down with cellulitis on Thursday. His leg is huge and very painful. He is doing much better already but Kymmy and Markie unfortunately did not get to show. (Check out the photo of Kymmy and Markie at Gas station - Kymmy had to get him of the trailer a few times to let him walk around a little for his big leg.)

I would like to thank my girls for doing such a great job this weekend! We also had Kymmy's parents, CarolAnn and Scott, helping out a lot. Thank you for a fun weekend!

Silva

Friday Evening Party and Saturday Schedule

Two days in to the Bettina Hoy clinic we all had a great time at the reception held this evening at held at the home of Neville Bardos syndicate members George and Gretchen Wintersteen. A good time was had by all of the riders, grooms, owners and clinic supporters. We're all looking forward to our lessons tomorrow.

-Boyd

Here's the schedule:

Jan Byyny 8:00
Jan Byyny 8:45
Allison Springer 9:15
Kevin Keane 10:00
Erin Sylvester 10:45
Sara Gumbiner 11:30
Boyd Martin 1:00 (Nev)
Boyd Martin 1:45 (Otis)
Boyd Martin 2:30 (Thomas)
Jessica Hampf 3:15

Bettina Hoy Clinic Friday Schedule

Allison Springer on Arthur Taking Instruction from Bettina Hoy

Schedule for Friday, January 27

8:00 Emily Van Gemeren & Berkeley
8:45 Will Coleman & Twizzel
9:30 Kevin Keane & Fernhill Flutter
10:15 Jan Byyny & Why Not
11:00 Jan Byyny & Syd Kent
11:45 Jessica Hampf & High Society
12:30 Lunch
1:15 Allison Springer & Arthur
2:00 Boyd & Remi
2:45 Boyd & Neville
3:15 Boyd & Otis