Fitch's Corner Clinic on Memorial Day Weekend

Fitch's Corner Horse Trials will celebrate its 20th Anniversary July 19-20-21 $20,000 in Prize Money USEA Area 1 Championships Expanded Fitch's Market Fun social events and more...   Save the Date for the Boyd and Silva Martin Clinic on Memorial Day Weekend: May 25-26-27 Auditors are welcome! Read more about the clinic here. Be sure to visit our BRAND NEW website www.fitchscorner.com for more details

Boyd's Video Favorites: Steven Bradbury's Gold Medal Story

Steven Bradbury was the first ever Australian to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.  He did it with such style, he was a true legend in Australian sporting history. I have always wanted to call a horse Bradbury, after this moment.

-Boyd

More Photos from The Fork CIC

Thanks to owner Denise Lahey for sharing these great images from The Fork CIC in North Carolina:

Trading Aces

Trading  Aces

Trading Aces

Trading Aces

Caitlin and Remington XXV

Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie

Steady Eddie

Windurra Young Horses in Great Form for Cross-Country at The Fork

It was a great day of eventing at The Fork Farm today, with the Advanced, CIC*** and CIC** cross-country taking place on Sunday according to the new FEI format. Tremaine Cooper's challenging course set the bar high for the advanced horses, who shared many of the same fences as the CIC*** horses.  With clear skies and temperatures around 70 degrees, and the footing back in good shape after Thursday's deluge, the stage was set for competitors and spectators to have a fine day out.

Trading Aces

Boyd says:

I had six very exciting young horses at The Fork this weekend. All six are very green at the level they are competing. I feel like I’m in a year of really building my eventing stock and it’s a very exciting time. To be sure I don’t have a really experienced horse in the string at the moment which means I’m working on giving these horses confidence and exposure to a lot of atmosphere at places like The Fork.

My 3* horse Trading Aces had his final outing before Rolex Kentucky. I feel like he’s really starting to hit form; he was brilliant in all three phases and his fitness seems to be getting stronger and on target for our goal of Kentucky in three weeks.

Crackerjack

I had two advanced first-timers, Master Frisky and Crackerjack. I must say it was one hell of a course to try them at this new level; both boys felt very green but showed true heart and class in getting around without and jumping penalties. We’re giving them some mileage and will look at doing another advanced somewhere soon in order to get them qualified for a couple of three-star events somewhere this year. 

Master Frisky

I had three Intermediate horses: FYI, Steady Eddie and New Cadet, all Thoroughbreds who all have a huge amount of talent. It was the second Intermediate start of their careers and they all showed plenty of quality in this event and gained a lot of experience. There were some testing questions on the course.The three Intermediate horses are now qualified for the CIC** at Fair Hill and beyond that we’ll look at a CCI** at either Jersey or Bromont

My apprentice rider Caitlin Silliman rode well in the 3* and 2* with Catch a Star and Remington XXV. Catch a Star is on track for her and Caitlin’s Rolex Kentucky debut and had a confidence-building round. Unfortunately at the end of a brilliant round that had them in the lead, Caitlin jumped the wrong last fence with Remi (advanced instead of 2*), disqualifying them from the event. 

 For complete results visit www.evententries.com

Saturday at The Fork CIC***

Otis Dressage

Coach Michael Barisone

 Results so far:

CIC***

7th -- Trading Aces

Adv. A

4th T -- Crackerjack

21st - Master Frisky

Int. A

6th T -- Steady Eddie

Int. B

9th - T -- FYI

11th -- New Cadet

Complete Results

The Fork CIC***

Team Windurra weathered the first day of competition at The Fork CIC in North Carolina in good form, with Caitlin and Remington XXV leading the CIC2*. Boyd and Crackerjack are sitting 7th in Advanced Test A, with Master Frisky tied for 9th in the same division. Steady Eddie is tied for 4th in Intermediate-A. The skies are clearing and it looks to be a good weekend of eventing - check in later for more updates from the heart of the action! Remember that the CIC3* will be run with cross-country on SUNDAY, with riders running in reverse order of standing.

Coverage from the USEA http://www.useventing.com/news/adequan-usea-gold-cup-pro-tour-series-cic3-takes-fork-storm

EventingNation.com http://eventingnation.com/home/jessicas-cic-dressage-update-from-the-fork.html

Live Scores http://www.evententries.com/livescoring/15233.html

This photo of a drenched Phillip Dutton, from EN, says it all

Pancho Villa's Arrival

I married well...

I'm very proud to announce that Pancho Villa arrived after a grueling four-day trek from Louisiana to Pennsylvania. He showed up at midnight on Monday evening, which was only a few hours prior to Lindso, Caitlin, Beau and me departing for The Fork Horse Trials in North Carolina.

After two days of hacking, Silva decided to have a ride on the new horse. (Unfortunately, the English/German translation for Pancho was mistaken for "Banjo", as you will see on the YouTube video). 

This must be one of the first times Silva has reported back to me saying I have selected a horse that has real talent for the dressage. The video above is Pancho's first dressage ride in probably over a week. As you can see, he went straight to work.

I'm very excited to get home from The Fork to get started with this very new, talented, AMERICAN-BRED Advanced Selle Francais gelding.

Boyd