Rembrandt is For Sale!

Sadly, our awesome working student, Devon Seery, is going on to pursue her higher education in the fall.  Her wonderful Dutch Warmblood, Rembradt, will remain in competition with Silva until he is sold.   This is a fabulous horse for a competitive AA or Young Rider, so don't miss out!!

NAME: Rembrandt
SEX: Gelding
COLOR: Bay
HEIGHT: 16.1h
DATE OF BIRTH: April 4 2002
COUNTRY OF BIRTH: Denmark
SIRE: Loudini
DAM: Regitze Birk
BREED: Danish WB
BREEDER: Pia Graugaard-Jensen
OWNER: Devon Seery

Rembrandt is large bodied 16.1h, 2002 Registered Danish Warm blood Gelding. Since being imported from Denmark he has made his mark as a dressage horse in the USA with his young rider earning the 2012 BLM First level Championship and GAIG Training level Championship. He is currently being trained and competed by Silva Martin in Aiken SC and FL for the remainder of winter. He is competing at 3rd level and will be moving up to fourth shortly, consistently scoring in the high 60s. This horse is quiet, uncomplicated and packed with personality. He is great for the AA or young Rider and he is always happy to work. This one is too good to pass up!

See his full sales listing here.

Inquiries, please contact Silva by phone 610 806 2721

Aiken Update: Training Sessions, Full Gallop and Pine Top

Simba (in the window) Watches the Team Training Session at Bridle Creek
Photo by Hoof Pix

Eventing definitely started to wind up this past week in Aiken, SC. All week, our farm hosted the USEF training sessions which were taught by Captain Mark Phillips. Mark taught dressage and jumping lessons for four days which saw the highest quality event horses and riders strut their stuff at Ilene Boorman's Bridle Creek Farm. The lessons were watched every day not only by eventing enthusiasts in Aiken, but also by super groom Lindsey Taylor's cat, Simba. He truly enjoyed watching Mark's dressage lessons while perched at his window and agreed a lot with what Mark had to say.

Boyd on Ballyneety at Full Gallop. Denise Lahey photo

On Wednesday Caitlin and I took a group of younger horses out for a run at Full Gallop Horse Trials. Without doubt, the star of the day was George and Gretchen Wintersteen's Ballyneety. Bally was hand picked by George and Gretchen in Ireland last year and he looks very impressive. We all enjoyed his first win on American soil.

Training

• Looks Like Fernhill, owned and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, TE - missed jump
• Ricochet EDF, owned by Lisa Samoylenko and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 15th

Novice

• SBF Balboa, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin and ridden by Boyd Martin, 4th
• Bacardi, owned by Sandy Issler and ridden by Caitlin Silliman, 12th
• Waranga, owned by Amy Lindgren and ridden by Boyd Martin, 15th
• Freedom's Pride, owned by Biz Carey and ridden by Boyd Martin, 14th
• SBF Cortez, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin and ridden by Boyd Martin, 12th
• Ballyneety, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen and ridden by Boyd Martin, 1st

Boyd on Cold Harbour at Pine Top
Laurie Cameron photo

The weekend saw us make our first pilgrimage to Georgia. I believe the cross-country courses at Pine Top are some of the best that we see down south. The piece of property that they are laid out on boasts encouraging, open, galloping courses. It was the first event that we took some of our greener, higher level horses to. Dana Diemer's Cold Harbor, started the season in glory dancing around John Williams' track, winning the Open Intermediate. Another new exciting prospect would have to be Katie Walker's Wakefield, who backed up his win at Sporting Days with another win at Novice this weekend. This English gelding oozes with class.

Boyd on Crackerjack at Pine Top
Laurie Cameron photo

The results from Pine Top were:

Open Intermediate

• Cold Harbor, owned by Manny and Dana Diemer, 1st
• Merging, owned by Laurie Cameron, 14th
• Crackerjack, owned by Colin Davidson and Lucy Boynton, 13th

Intermediate Rider

• Emily van Gemeren riding Berkley II, owned by Elenor Smith, 10th
  

Open Preliminary

• Poetic Justice, owned by Gale Thayer, 10th
• Steady Eddie, owned by George and Gretchen Wintersteen, Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin,14th

Training Horse

• Brewster, owned by Katie Walker, 14th

Open Training

• Polaris, owned by Ann Nawn and ridden by Sara Gumbiner, 13th

Open Novice

• Wakefield, owned by Katie Walker, 1st

Emily van Gemeren and Berkley II at Pine Top
Laurie Cameron photo

A special shout out must go to Sara Gumbiner, whom is the only remaining Windurra rider (other than myself) who has not been technically eliminated at an event this year for missing a jump. Keep up the good work Sara!

-Boyd

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