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!

Dressage Update From the Jersey Fresh Three-Day Event

Boyd is riding four horses in three divisions at the Jersey Fresh Three-Day Event. After dressage Remington XXV is placed 6th in the CCI*** (51.2) out of 30 starters; Belmont is 8th in the CIC*** (57.7) out of 20 starters; Rock on Roses is 10th in the CIC*** (58.3); and Shatzi W (pictured above, Amber Heintzberger photo), is 8th in the CCI** (53.0) out of 36 starters. Stay tuned for updates following tomorrow's exciting cross-country phase!

For complete results and event information visit the official website of the Horse Park of New Jersey.

Great Blog from ThreeDaysThreeWays!

Get to know Boyd just a bit better in this humorous blog interview with Three Days Three Ways!

Jeff the Chef Wins His First Intermediare 1!

Caitlin and I showed at Morven Park today and yesterday. Jeff was a star!! On Saturday he won the Prix St. Georges with 72 percent and today he did his first Intermediaire 1 and won it with 75 percent!!! I am so excited, not just because Jeff won but because he really felt like an FEI horse. He finally feels strong enough; he has always been a very powerful horse but now he is powerful and collected. I just feel like I have a great partnership with him and I can't wait until he goes Grand Prix!

Caitlin had a fantastic weekend with her new mare, Gabriella Rossellini (photo at right). They won the Second Level Test 1 on Saturday and then won the Second Level Test 2 today.

I also rode Ballatale (photo at left) in Fourth, Test 2 on Saturday and he scored 63.8 and finished third on Sunday. He went great and finished second in the Fourth Level, Test 3 with 67.8.

It was a great weekend!

-Silva