Macintosh sold!

It was a sad day at the farm yesterday for me to see Macintosh head off to his new home in Connecticut. The 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding was sold to an up-and-coming jumping rider. Even though I have only had him for a month or two, he has been a pleasure to have in the barn and I hope all goes well for him. His ex-owner, Ashley Johnston, from Ohio, was extremely happy to have her horse sold as she has just found out that she is pregnant.

-Boyd

Plantation Field

Photo of 'Forotten Emblem', owned by Nina Gardner, compliments of Dr. Steve Burkowitz

I was back home in Pennsylvania on the weekend competing at the local Plantation Field Horse Trials where I rode five horses in total in the training and prelim divisions.

It was my first ride of the year on Melissa Studenberg's mare 'Aberjoy'. She was great, finishing 4th in the prelim. I hope to compete her in a couple of months at the Bromont Three-Day Event in Quebec, Canada. The rest of the weekend was spent riding some of the up and coming training horses, that all ran well.

Next weekend is a big one for me, with four horses entered in the advanced at Fair Hill: 'Remington' and 'Benwald', and then two new rides called 'Rock on Rose' and 'In The Beat', both owned by none other than Bruce Davidson. I am also riding a bunch of other horses in the intermediate, prelim and novice.

Until then, all the best!

-Boyd

The Fork CIC***

The Boyd Martin Fan Club

Photos by Amber Heintzberger

It was a glorious day for champagne show jumping at The Fork in beautiful North Carolina. Minotaure du Passoir held on to his lead in preliminary with a clear round. There were a lot of rails down in the class and it was a big, technical course. I switched to a hackamore for today and it kept him nicely balanced and better to the fences. After this big win it puts him into the lead on the Nutrena/USEA preliminary leaderboard for 2009. I’d like to move him up to intermediate eventually but his owner, Amy Lindgren, has her sights set on the CCI* at
Bromont in Quebec this summer, so that is our goal for now.

Shatzi (pictured right) had a fantastic show jumping round in the intermediate, clear and in the time. Mark Donovan built a really testing course, but she handled it well and moved up a couple of places to finish second. I’m planning to take her to the two-star at the next event at Fair Hill, in a couple of weeks, and then on to the CCI** at Jersey Fresh in May. She’s feeling better and better on cross-country; I didn’t push her flat-out yesterday, I just kept a nice rhythm; I’m saving that for the two-star.

In the three-star Benwald, (left), owned by Anne Hennessey, had a rough round in cross-country, losing both of his front shoes. He got pretty wound up and ran out at a corner, and with his missing shoes he was jumping quite poorly, but he had a respectable round in the show jumping today. He’s getting better in that phase. It was a bit of a disappointment overall this weekend, so I think we’re going to have to rethink his spring three-day plans and try to get him more established, then aim for the two-star at Bromont in June instead of Jersey Fresh in May.

Ron and Densey Juvonen’s Remington XXV (pictured left) was very impressive this weekend. He had a reasonable dressage, with a couple of small errors, then on cross-country he went all the direct routes . It was his first three-star so I was cautious about going too fast, I just wanted to ride accurately, and I probably could have gone a little faster.

He jumped really well today. Since he jumped poorly at Southern Pines a couple of weeks ago I have been working quite hard over the past two weeks on his show jumping, and Phillip changed the way I ride him a bit, getting him more uphill, and he came up with a clear round today.

I was also proud of my student, Molly Rosin, who moved out from California and has been training with me for the past year. She and her horse Charly had a brilliant round in the advanced – he’s a great little horse and they are aiming for Bromont. She rode very well this weekend.

-Boyd

Minotaure du Passoir Maintains Lead at The Fork

All four of Boyd's horses had a successful cross-country day at The Fork CIC*** in Norwood, North Carolina. Remington XXV, pictured above, (all photos by Amber Heintzberger), was a superstar and jumped clean around the CIC*** cross-country course and is currently standing 18th.



Benwald jumped clear and a conservative round added 35.6 time faults, so he is currently in 43rd place in the CIC***. Boyd's Aussie homebred mare Shatzi W jumped clear around the intermediate course with 5.6 time faults and is now in 4th place. Continuing in the good form that he has shown all spring, Minotaure du Passoir, pictured below, maintains his lead in preliminary division C with 31.9 penalties. Feeling good on his last ride of the day, Boyd gives his fans in the VIP tent the thumbs-up as he cruises through the water complex!



For complete results click here.

Minotaure du Passoir Takes the Early Lead at The Fork

Boyd is riding four horses this weekend at The Fork CIC*** and horse trials in Norwood, NC. Minotaure du Passoir (pictured, photo by Amber Heintzberger) is off to a great start, leading his division of preliminary with 31.9. Shatzi W scored 33.8 to stand in second place in Intermediate-B. In the CIC*** Remington XXV is sitting 18th and Benwald is tied for 31st out of 60 starters. Yesterday torrential rains turned the venue into a sea of mud but strong winds dried things out today and the footing is in good shape heading into tomorrow's cross-country. For complete results visit this link.

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