Summer Breeze Sold

"Summer Breeze" set foot in her new home today. The 4-year-old mare by Staccatto was purchased by Anne Hennessey late last month. Anne is no stranger to owning top level event horses, as she also owns the Irish Advanced eventer "Benwald" that I have had great success on over the past two years.

I bred "Summer Breeze" in Australia. Her mother is Batwoman, (the same mother as "Shatzi W"), whom is an Australian Thoroughbred that I competed to advanced level. Her father, Staccatto, is a half Dutch Warmblood, half Thoroughbred stallion that has competed up to 4-star level in Australia with Prue and Craig Barrett. So Summer is the perfect mix of three quarters Thoroughbred, one quarter warmblood.

She looks in great condition considering she has been traveling for the past eight days. I wish Anne the best of luck with the little angel!

Boyd

Fendi W is Offered for Sale

Boyd & Silva have decided to put Fendi W on the market.  This lovely young horse is owned by Windurra USA LLC. He is a German Warmblood gelding whose Dam, Felicity, was imported to Australia from Germany. Felicity is by the winner of the three-year-old stallions classification at the Federal Championships in Verden Germany, "Wolkenstein II". Wolkenstein II is the most successful son of one of the all time greatest dressage stallions, Weltmeyer.

Although he is very quiet and behaves like a pet at most times, Fendi W is a very impressive mover and promising dressage prospect. Fendi W made his debut in competition at the end of August and entered the material class at Dressage at Devon, 2008.  He also competed at DAD this year and placed 4th in his breed class.

View his video from DAD 2009 & to view all of his sales information, please click here!

Devon Recap

Photo of Silva riding Sea Lord with owner Shannon Stimson

Sea Lord did especially well at Dressage at Devon: he is a real competitor and very reliable, always the same in the show ring as he is in the warm-up ring. The second day is when you really need a Thoroughbred and Sea Lord's bloodlines paid off when the ring got muddy from the rain and he was tired, but he was still fantastic and placed second and third in Fourth level.

Jeff had a disappointing weekend. I guess he gets nervous in the big atmosphere because it was the same as at Saugerties. If he'd go like he does in the warm-up it would be awesome. I'm planning to do the I-2 with him at Morven and then move him up to Grand Prix next year. The problems in the show ring are not about what he knows; he's got the movements down, he just gets too worked up. I saw the scoreboard after the trot work and we were scoring 71% but it all went downhill after that. It's always disappointing when your best horse has a terrible show.

Concorde still needs to be more supple and forward but he is very reliable and placed ninth in 4th level 2 on Saturday and third on Sunday. He was doing Third level only two months ago so he has come a long way and it's very exciting.

All three of these horses are going to the BLM's in a couple of weeks and then they'll have a break until next year. I decided yesterday that I am not going to go to Florida for the winter. I looked at the calendar and there are not that many big shows, except for the CDI, and I have so many horses here at home, so I may as well stay at home and save some money.

In the breeds show at Devon Fendi was fourth and Uma was third. I was pleased with both of them. Fendi is still for sale and a video is posted on YouTube: click here to check it out.

Silva

Double Exposure Sold!

Photo from Plantation Field International Horse Trials courtesy of Charish Campbell

'Moe', who has been at the barn training for the past couple of months, has been sold to a Young Rider from the Midwest. The highlight of my brief competition career with Moe was winning the Senneca Valley Preliminary, and the low was falling off him at Plantation Fields International. He is a top class young horse who was possibly the best jumper we had in the barn. I have high hopes for his future, and really think he might be a horse that will make it to advanced. I wish the new owners the best of luck with him!!

Boyd

Photos courtesy of Laurie Cameron

America's most historical dressage show started on Thursday with Silva riding two young horses.

In the four-year-old gelding and stallion class Silva rode Fendi W. Fendi is a horse we bred in Australia that we imported last year. He went in and put in a good performance, finishing 4th. He is a top little horse that has got great movement and a good work ethic. The plan is to sell him this year.

In the five-year-old class Silva rode Laurie Cameron's 'Uma'. This mare is a real stunner! I only broke her in two months ago, but she looked liked an experienced campaigner. She has a wonderful trot, and an explosive canter. She finished in 3rd place. Now, I am no dressage judge, but I felt she was easily the best horse in the class. Poor judging!

Silva's biggest test of the weekend is today with Jeff in the Prix St. Georges. She rides in the main arena a 2 pm. The horse looks in good form, and is going the best he has ever gone.

-Boyd

Dressage at Devon Preview

Shannon, groom, and Silva Martin, September 2009.

It's that time of year again: Dressage at Devon! Tomorrow I'm taking two young horses to the show. Uma is owned by Laurie Cameron and is a big, grey five-year-old mare. I love her: she's a beautiful mover. She had a foal and was broken in late, and because she has come so far I am going to take her in a materiale class.

I am very excited to say that Fendi is back in action. He cut his leg in the paddock so I chucked him out and let him get over the trip from Australia - some horses take a long time to acclimate and he was one of them. He's back and I have high hopes for him. He's also still for sale.

Jeff will compete in the CDI in the small tour and hopefully he will appreciate the arena more than he did in Saugerties! I've been working really hard with Jessica Ransehousen to turn him from a 20-hand horse into a 16-hand horse in the arena. He'll show Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Sealord will be showing Fourth level. He's been doing really well in the PDG but I felt he was still a bit green to do that level at this show. In fourth level he feels confident now. He should be great - and he may be the only Thoroughbred competing here. I'll bet he's the only ex-racehorse!

Concorde, owned by Jeff Anderson, has gone up the levels so fast and has been winning at Prix St. Georges. He is also doing Fourth level at Devon. He's a really good competition horse and is even better at shows than at home.

Wish me luck!

-Silva

Sunday at Plantation Field

Densey and Ron Juvonen, Silva and Boyd Martin. Photo by Amber Heintzberger

Minotaure du Passoir did fantastic this weekend - we jumped clear and he's looking like he might be prelim horse of the year for 2009, which has been a goal of Amy's and mine. He's got a couple more events on the calendar and I'm really pleased with him.

Remi (pictured at right) had one of his best dressage performances yet with a 45 and was as fast as he's gone around a three-star cross-country course yet. He show jumped well - they had a downhill combination with two verticals which is kind of his bogey so we had a couple rails but I'm pleased with him.

Shatzi has been going advanced but I just put her back to intermediate because she's a bit green and has been overjumping, so I will let her chill out the rest of the season.

Rock on Rose should have won her division but I had trouble getting her in the start box yesterday, which cost us about 30 seconds.

Neville's back in business and will do advanced at Morven.

Otherwise I rode sales horses in the prelim - Double Exposure has been going well but unfortunately I came into the coffin a bit quick and came off the side. Figaro is proving himself and I think I'll do a couple more prelims with him but my guess is he'll get sold in the next couple of weeks.

-Boyd