Happy Birthday Boyd

What a wonderful evening we had celebrating Boyd's birthday last night. Even though Boyd is in France on his birthday, we had a birthday cake!!

Michaela Stern, Kat's mom, made us THE best burgers with gourmet sides and of course gourmet desert .

It was seriously probably the best food I have ever had.

THANK YOU, Michaela!!

We had our BBQ at our gazebo by the dressage ring and almost the whole Windurra team came. It was a stunning evening out there! Happy Birthday Boyd!

I am off to cheer him on tomorrow.

-Silva

Galloping in Chantilly

The boys are looking in great form here in Chantilly France. We were lucky enough to do our gallop today on the race track in town in front of the palace. Both horses worked well over a two mile gallop. 

Over the next few days we shall be fine tuning our dressage, along with a couple of jump sessions. I believe we are shipping to Normandy on Monday. 

The team is getting along well, and in high spirits.

Boyd Martin

CDCTA Dressage 2014

We were showing at CDCTA show Glenwood Park in Middleburg, VA over the weekend. It was a great facility and and the show was run incredibly well; I’m definitely going to go back.

I rode Benefactor RRS and Danka Schoene RRS and I also had Pamela Murphy on Rio Royale RRS and Amy Heron on Constantina RRS, all bred by Melinda Holland and Larry Smith.

We stayed with Melinda and Larry and it was a great weekend because they have a beautiful place, they cooked amazing food and we got to see all their new babies. They took wonderful care of us and it was a great weekend.

All the horses did really well. Pamela rode like a star this weekend and won Training 2 and 3 with 71%. Amy also did really well, she had a couple of costly mistakes in both tests but I’m proud of her for carrying on and finishing.

My horses were both perfect, Benny won both Second test 3 classes with 69% and Danka scored 68% both days in Training level -- though I’m not sure how he placed because we left before the class was finished.

Of course they are very good horses for me because they’re quiet and listen to me 100%. I think with Benny I have to push for more at the championship, and I will when we get there. Danka is more of a baby and had some green mistakes but that’s okay, it’s all about getting him out and seeing new things, and it was a good experience for both of them.

I'll be heading to France this Friday to help Boyd in his preparations for the WEG! 

-Silva

For Sale: SBF Eowyn

Wynnie at Fair Hill. GRC Photo

Eowyn, or "Wynnie", is a talented five-year-old mare with excellent breeding who has had a brilliant start to her Eventing career. Wynnie just competed at the Fair Hill Horse Trials in the Novice Horse division finishing on her dressage score of 31. She is offered at a great price and will be moving up to Training at her next event in a few weeks. Wynnie is the sister to SBF Cortez who just placed 2nd in his second Intermediate competition at the Millbrook Horse Trials (NY) two weeks ago.

 

 She is the ideal horse for an amateur or young rider looking to be extremely competitive in whatever event they enter. Wynnie is a lovely, soft mover and is extremely rideable and trainable for the dressage consistently receiving in the 20’s and low 30’s in dressage; she received a 25.8 at her first event. She is a scopey, careful jumper with a lovely gallop that only needs to be ridden in the softest of snaffles.

GRC Photo

Wynnie is by Dutch super-sire Riverman ISF out of an American Thoroughbred, Jer’s Princess. Riverman carries blood from many of the important jumping breeds of Europe including Voltaire, Furioso, and Nimmerdor all great progenitors of modern jumper breeding. This is a great opportunity to purchase a very special horse that will bring you up the levels of eventing. Rarely is a horse of this quality offered for sale. Please call Caitlin Silliman 610-316-7318 while Boyd is traveling to the WEG.

.

The Journey to WEG has Begun

The first leg of our journey to France has begun! At 4:00 this morning, we departed from training camp at Gladstone headed for JFK airport. The team flying with the horses includes myself, Emma (Phillip's Groom), Susan Johns (Team Veterinarian) and Richard Picken (Professional Flying Groom).

We are scheduled to depart with the eight squad horses and alternates at 10:00 am today, and will land in Liege, Belgium where we will meet the other grooms. We will ship to Chantilly late tonight, where we will be based in France until we head to the WEG venue in Normandy.

Shammy and Oscar are doing very well, they are both great travellers and have flown before, so the trip should go very smoothly for them. 

We will keep you posted on our travel and training as the trip progresses!

Lindsey 

Training Camp at Gladstone

For the past couple of days Shamwari and myself have joined the rest of Team USA at the famous Gladstone USET Foundation Headquarters in New Jersey. We worked on our dressage with David, fine-tuning some of the movements in the four-star tests, and went over videos from the last outing at Great Meadows with the coaches, trying to pick up places to improve here and there.

The vets have been carefully going over the horses, making sure they’re all in tip-top shape before they ship out of JFK airport on Friday morning.

Shamwari and his teammates will be flying on the cargo flight that lands in Brussels and from there they will truck down into the US training camp in Chantilly, France. I plan to meet the horses there Sunday morning so I can get stuck in to the training for the final weeks leading up to the WEG. Silva is heading over a week after my arrival to help me with the dressage. 

Shamwari is in fantastic condition and I feel like I have him much fitter than I did at Luhmuehlen, thanks to the gallops up Nelson’s Hill and many laps at the Maui Meadows swimming pool. Overall I’m feeling confident in our preparations, heading overseas knowing we’re in great shape for the big performance. 

-Boyd

Fair Hill International August Horse Trials

Photo of Brewster copyright Lisa Thomas

Crackerjack was a superstar as usual, and looks ready for a rock solid fall season, finishing 3rd in the Intermediate. 

Brewster and William Street had their final run at prelim and I’m confident about both of them taking the next step up to Intermediate in a couple of weeks.

In the training I had two homebreds that I co-own with Amy Lindgren. Ray Price was 3^rd and Wallaroo was second in the Open Training.

In the novice SBF Eowyn put in a great round; she is for sale and I’ll be looking to move her up to training pretty soon.

Caitlin Silliman was also out there riding some of the younger Windurra horses that we have in training and had great finishes on all of her rides, especially Gipsy King who won the Open Novice.

Results: (Horses ridden by Boyd Martin unless otherwise indicated)

OI-B

3rd - Crackerjack, owned by Colin Davidson

OP-A

10th - William Street, owned by Daryl, Layfield-Insley

OP-B
4th - Brewster, owned by Katie and Cuyler Walker

OT - D

3rd - Ray Price, owned by Boyd Martin and Amy Lindgren

OT-F

 2nd - Wallaroo, owned by Boyd Martin and Amy Lindgren

10th - Goldthorn Diamond Imprint, owned by Stephen Blauner (Caitlin)

1st - ON-A - Gipsy King, owned by Gloria Callan and Anne Hennessey (Caitlin)

ON - B

7th - Barry, owned by Boyd Martin (Caitlin)

ON-D 

5th - SBF Eowyn, owned by Denise Lahey and Pierre Colin

10th - Cumbre, owned by Tatiana Bernstein (Caitlin)