Boyd Martin and Trading Aces Cap Great Day for Team USA

Boyd Martin and Trading Aces

I wish I could say the weather here at Boekelo had improved by the time Boyd Martin and Trading Aces started their test, but they faced the same rainy, chilly weather we’ve seen all day. Oscar had a great warmup with David O’Connor and Silva Martin, and I thought his changes — which they schooled quite a bit — looked very good. Boyd and the rest of the team seemed very pleased with the warm up, and he and Oscar had what I thought was a very good test to score 46, which puts them in 28th place overnight. I expected the test to hit the low 40s, and there was some disparity across the judges’ marks, but there are still a lot of positives to take away from the test. Silva told me earlier in the week that Oscar has struggled to stay settled in big atmospheres like this, and I thought he handled it like a seasoned pro.

At the end of dressage, our little team of three Americans is holding its own in the Grolsch Nations Cup standings in sixth place on a total score of 145.2, just four penalty points behind Australia. The rest of the team standings remain unchanged from this morning’s report; Germany leads with a score of 123.4, Great Britain holds second place on 128.6 and Sweden is in third place on 131.4. Considering how much rain the cross-country course has soaked up today — and with more rain predicted in the forecast overnight — cross-country day is going to be a slippery mess. Boyd said he expects the course to be quite sloppy by the time he and Oscar go out at the very end of the day, and after seeing how muddy the grounds just outside the galloping lanes looked this afternoon, I imagine he’s right.

The live stream went in and out today, so I’m not sure how many of you were able to follow along at home. As is EN tradition, I’m currently battling some internet issues, so the videos of Boyd’s test and my interview with him after his ride will be coming to you just as soon as they’re uploaded. In the meantime, be sure to visit my YouTube channel to see some of the dressage tests from the past two days, including four of the riders currently in the top 10 and all the tests for Team USA. With just three riders on our American team, we don’t have a drop score, so clear rounds are going to be critical tomorrow. Now is the time to kick on! Thanks so much for following along with my Boekelo coverage, and stay tuned for much more.

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