Eventing
Boyd and Silva Martin of West Grove, Pennsylvania are off to a strong start with their horses this season. Gearing up for the Rolex Kentucky three-day event in April, Boyd and one of his Olympic hopefuls, Neville Bardos, placed second in the Advanced, test C at the Pine Top Spring Advanced horse trials held February 29-March 2 in Thomson, Georgia.
Both Neville Bardos, an eight-year-old chestnut Australian gelding (Mahaya x Zambia) owned by Martin, and Ying Yang Yo, a 13-year-old Australian Thoroughbred (Mr. Investor x Magical Gift), owned by Martin in partnership with Faye Woolf, are long listed for the Australian eventing team that will compete at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong this summer.
“It was Neville’s first horse trials since Fair Hill last fall and it was a pretty strong field,” said Boyd. “It was the first time I’d done the “C” test with him, which is equivalent to the four-star dressage test with half-pass and flying changes, and he was a little green but seemed to handle it, and it gave me things to work on with him. He was the best he’s been in show jumping, he’s feeling a little more mature, and on cross-country he was really honest.”
With total focus on his goals, Boyd said, “I didn’t push him hard so we had six time faults, but all my efforts and thoughts right now are being put into that one weekend in Kentucky in April. All these smaller events are leading up to that, so I don’t want to ‘overcook’ the horses. It was great to see that Neville hasn’t forgotten anything over the winter, he feels like he’s come out of it well.”
Riding Minotaure du Passoir, owned by Amy Lindgren, Boyd also finished ninth overall in the Open Preliminary. Two weeks ago the same horse won his division of Open Preliminary at the Pine Top Winter II horse trials.
Ying Yang Yo, who has more experience than Neville Bardos, will come out at Southern Pines on Easter weekend. Neville Bardos will compete again at Red Hills in Florida, then both horses will compete in the CIC*** at The Fork (NC) before heading to Kentucky for the four-star, where the Olympic Selectors will be paying close attention to their performances.
Boyd and Silva, who relocated to the US from Australia last year shortly after their marriage, is based out of Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pennsylvania. They are spending the winter apart so that Boyd can base his event horses out Dutton’s Aiken, South Carolina farm while Silva, a German dressage rider, can base her horses in Wellington, Florida in the heart of the dressage action, where she is training with Israeli dressage rider Oded Shimoni.
Silva recently sold her Grand Prix horse Theopolis Thisla as well as Polly Mitchell’s Prix St. Georges horse Weltschatz and is now focusing on a promising group of young horses.
At the Wellington Spring Challenge, February 16-17, 2008, Silva consistently scored in the seventies with three different horses. She won Training Level, Test 2 riding Meg Williams’ FS Tiger Lily (Furst Picolo out of a Donnerhall mare) with 73.04%, and last weekend won at Training Level with 77%. She will compete in her first Test for Five-year-old horses this coming weekend.
FS Tiger Lily was Silva’s partner in winning the championship for four-year-old horses at the prestigious Dressage at Devon in 2007, and Silva plans to take to the mare to the CDI Raleigh with hopes of qualifying for the World Breeders Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany this summer.
Silva is also competing her own Jeff the Chef (Jive Magic out of a Salute mare), who placed third in the Championship for Six-year-old horses at Devon last year. He scored 71% in Third Level at the Wellington Spring Challenge, and DT Lidcombe, a homebred gelding, placed second in Training Level with 73%. Silva will also ride student Cayla Kitayama’s horse Felix in Fourth Level at the CDI at the end of March.
“I’ve been working with Oded every day and it’s good to have someone on the ground,” said Silva. “Wellington is not the real world, there is lots of money involved and lots of beautiful horses. Everyone who has a name in dressage is here. My working student Ashley and I have nine horses to take care of, so we are working hard.”
A highly sought-after instructor, Silva plans to return to Pennsylvania at the end of March with her horses and then will turn her attention to helping Boyd and a couple of other eventing students, Jan Byyny and Cayla Kitayama, prepare for the Rolex Kentucky CCI****.
Boyd and Silva are sponsored by Devoucoux Saddlery and Bit of Britain.
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