Lindsey Taylor, who is Boyd Martin’s head groom, recently wrote a great recap of Burghley for the Area IV newsletter. Lindsey and the good folks at Area IV felt like the national and international eventing community might enjoy reading it and we are very grateful that they have given us permission to republish it here. Thanks for writing this Lindsey and thank you for reading.
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From Lindsey:
“It looks like we’re headed to Burghley Linds,” Boyd said to me as we packed the trailer for home after the weekend at Millbrook Horse Trials. Neville had just completed the advanced horse trials division in spectacular form, which was only his second competition back after being rescued from a devastating barn fire on May 31st. Those words from Boyd stirred butterflies of excitement in my stomach. The previous months had been tragically depressing; we lost six horses and our barn to a fire in May, Boyd lost his father unexpectedly in a cycling accident in June, followed by the loss of his father-in-law two weeks later to illness. Times were tough, and it didn’t seem like things could get much worse. We were more than ready for a bit of hope.
In the weeks following the fire, Neville was locked in intensive care at The University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. He had inhaled a lot of smoke which caused concern about the health of his throat and lungs. His survival was in question, and the concern of whether he would ever compete again seemed irrelevant. When Boyd mentioned to the doctors that this horse had a shot at the Olympics next year, they looked right back at him and said “not a chance”.
But, always the optimist, Boyd refused to let anyone tell him no. I’m not going to say that I didn’t have my doubts. Normal preparations for a CCI 4* three day event normally require three months. From the time that Nev got the OK to go back to work from the vets, we had eight weeks until Burghley. He went back to work slowly, but as he responded positively to increasing demands, the feeling of hope at our farm got stronger and stronger by the day. The vets at New Bolton were astounded by Neville’s progress and labeled his health as nothing less than a miracle. He was put on the fast-track program to Burghley, galloping every five days to acheive the level of fitness required to compete successfully at the toughest 4* event in the world. His health was closely monitored, and he received daily oxygen treatments at the Fair Hill Hyperbaric Chamber, which greatly improved the health of his lungs and the condition of the burns on his skin. With the work ethic of a champion and the spirit of a fighter, Neville seemed to say “Let me have a chance at Burghley, trust me, I can do this!”
Fast forward to the week of Burghley. Because this was my first international trip with a horse, I could share so many stories about my efforts in packing, navigating the train system in a foreign city, the sheer excitement of staying at Mark Todd’s farm and watching him jump school a horse outside of Neville’s stall window, and so on and so forth. But, I was asked to write about my favorite moment at Burghley, so I will try to keep this short and to the point.
Neville put in a stellar dressage test on Thursday. He can be quite a wild horse, but the whole week at Burghley, he was settled and focused. He seemed to know what he was there for. But despite Neville’s focused attitude, when I walked the course with Boyd on Friday, I couldn’t help but start to get nervous. The fences were mammouth in size from beginning to end of the 11 minute, 20 second course, and the terrain was daunting. Fence 21 was a huge ditch and brush that is said to be the biggest cross country fence in the world. The ditch was so wide that a dually truck could be driven through it with the doors open. Most competitors, when walking the course, didn’t even walk up to it, just looked at it from a distance, then walked around it to continue their course walk, as if they didn’t want to dwell on its sheer monstrosity.
The morning of cross country day arrived and as usual, there was that jittery feeling among riders, family members and grooms in the barn. I took Nev for a long hand graze to try to help us both of us calm our nerves, then got to work in setting up our space in the vet box and laying out all of Neville’s tack and Boyd’s clothing in our tack room. I didn’t want to be frantically searching for some crucial piece of equipment at the last minute before our 12:56 pm ride time. The first rider went out at 11:00 am. I tried to watch some of the first riders on the TV screen in the dining tent, but after watching a couple of sticky fences, I decided watching was making me too nervous and I headed back to the barn to sit outside of Neville’s stall until it was time to start getting him ready. Who knew that being a groom could be so nerve-wracking?
In warm up, although Nev looked strong, he was jumping well. Soon, the minute count-down began and Boyd and Nev raced out of the start box. I hurried to add ice to our buckets of water in the vet box, then ran to the tent to watch the TV screens. The tent was packed full of people! I had to settle for standing on my tiptoes, watching the TV through the window of the tent, trying to see past the crowds inside. My stomach nearly dropped at every fence that I watched Nev jump on the screen. I wanted so badly for this to go well. I do have to say that watching Boyd and Neville’s round on the Internet (www.burghley.tv) later was a much more enjoyable experience than watching it live, after I knew that the end result turned out ok.
Neville was so full of running up until the very end of the course; he came through the finish flags seeming to ask if he could go do it all again. That little horse was made for this, and it was clear that he was loving his job. I got Nev wrangled into his halter and Silva, Boyd’s wife, and several USET members began sponging and scraping to begin the cool-down process. Nev recovered in record time. After a couple of minutes, I got Neville to stand still long enough for the team farrier to take out his studs. As I was standing there holding Neville, Silva looked straight at me and said, “He wasn’t even suppossed to be here Lindsey” as she held back tears of much needed excitement, happiness, and hope for the future. I would have to say that this was the defining moment of my experience at Burghley. Seabiscuit was a little racehorse that brought hope to a nation in despair, and Neville, in similar fashion, has brought hope to a community and family in despair. As I sat in Neville’s stall on Saturday night, he nudged me as he munched on his hay as if to say, “See? I told you I could do it”.
The support that our small community felt after the fire from the larger US equestrian community was unbelievable, and I only hope that Neville’s success at Burghley can be his and our way of saying thank you to all who have donated supplies, time, and words of encouragement in the past few months. As I sit here on the plane going home, I can’t help but smile at the result of the weekend and think about how lucky I am to be a part of it.