Boyd Martin and Tsetserleg. Photo by Erin Gilmore Photography.
Anyone who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks could learn a thing or two from the sport of eventing. It’s a sport where every inch, every tenth of a penalty or a second counts, and it’s also a sport where the pursuit of improvement is never ending.
As we wound our way down to the final group of horses to see in the full field of competitors vying for the $60,000 USEA Adequan Advanced Final at the American Eventing Championships in Lexington, KY, we had a solid group of horses established in the early top three. We knew Boyd Martin and the Turner family’s Tsetserleg were threats to lay down a competitive score, but with Caroline Pamukcu and King’s Especiale (Connect – Cha Cha Special, by Vittorio) sitting on a 25.9, it would be a challenge for the 17-year-old 5* and championship veteran to usurp them.
But then the first score from judge at C, Peter Gray, dropped in — a 73.9 percentage. The second score from judge at B Helen Brettell came in — a 78.2. This gave Boyd and “Thomas” a 24.0 and their best dressage mark dating all the way back to 2022 for the overnight lead in the division.
“The king is back!” Boyd said in his post-ride debrief.
For all of the practice and repetition that goes into producing these horses, Boyd notes that he’s laid off the pressure in the dressage training at home with Tsetserleg (Windfall – Thabana, by Buddenbrock). Yes, Boyd benefits from the tutelage of his wife and Grand Prix dressage rider Silva Martin in this phase (in fact, as Boyd puts it, “we had a big camp at our farm in Pennsylvania [last week] so I have to say big thanks to Peter Wylde and Silva Martin and Anna Buffini, who, in between lessons, helped school all of the horses for the AEC. So I’m a bit embarrassed to say a lot of the great results we’re having this weekend was a reflection of not my training — we had, you know, Grand Prix dressage riders and Olympic gold medal show jumpers all helping me out through the camp, getting this group of horses ready.”), but the sweet sauce with this horse has been simplicity.
“Talking to some of my mentors now, it’s a matter of keeping him sweet, you know, and not not drilling him in the dressage every day like he did when he was younger, and learning all the movements,” Boyd elaborated. “He probably does half the amount of dressage work that he used to do, just because he knows his stuff, and to keep his body fresh and his mind happy, he more just does lots of hacking and conditioning work, and then he just schools on the flat a couple times a week.”
Tsetserleg will take a crack at the Maryland 5 Star — actually his first trip to the newest 5* on the calendar, having missed it last year to go to Burghley instead — this October, using this as a polish prep for a horse who’s got a CV longer than most of ours in terms of experience at the top level.
“He’s just a gladiator,” Boyd described. “To me, I’ve always promised myself that as soon as he started feeling a bit aged, between me and the Turner family, we already made a deal that as soon as he starts feeling old, we call it quits. But at the moment, he’s looking like a million dollars. He feels young and fresh. And I mean, to be honest, in my career, I’ve never had a horse that’s been so sound, so touch wood.”
Stablemate Commando 3 (Connor 48 – R-Adelgunde, by Amigo xx), who was Boyd’s direct reserve horse in Paris but did not need to get called into the action, is also aiming at the MARS Maryland 5 Star, which will be his 5* debut. “Connor”, who is owned by Yankee Creek Ranch LLC, earned a 28.0 to sit in equal fifth with Will Coleman and Diabolo. “I was pleased with Connor,” he said. “He’s had a bit of a whirlwind trip. He went to France and trained there and hung out there and then flew back. I sort of had him five-star fit for the Olympics. So it’s been a unusual sort of training preparation for Connor, just because [we] gave him a little bit of time off after he got home. But he’s [done] all the preparation and all the gallops for a five-star, just because we wanted him ready for a backup, and then we sort of tapered him off, and gave him two weeks off, and then just gently brought him back in. So he’s not quite where we had him when we had him prepared for the Olympics. For sure, by Maryland, I believe he’ll be in the low 20s for the dressage.”
Caroline Pamukcu and King’s Especiale. Photo by Erin Gilmore Photography.
Boyd’s Paris teammate, Caroline Pamukcu, secured a near personal best with King’s Especiale (and truly, it is a personal best if you look at Advanced competition — “King” has scored lower on the flat, but not since he was competing at the Preliminary level) with her 25.9 to hold second after dressage. Despite his towering 18-hand size, Caroline says the 9-year-old KWPN gelding is very aware of his body, which has helped her build his strength to hold all of the moving parts together.
“He’s a once in a lifetime horse,” Caroline said, crediting her team, including assistant rider Mason Reidy, at home for keeping her horses ticking along while she traveled to Paris for the Olympics. “He’s an amazing mover, and the biggest thing with him is that I just had to ride him decent. He should always be winning the dressage, and it’s just making sure that I do a good job, because he’s got all the pieces. He just cares so much, like he cares too much. He gives you 200% even on the ground; if you just touch him on one of his legs with, like, your pinky, he’ll pick the leg right up. He is so responsive. And he just has so much heart. He’s very, very, very special creature.”
Caroline’s planning to take the foot off the gas a bit this fall, having had a big year of growth and results to this point. Her horses are predominantly under 10, and she plans to focus more on polishing each individual phase rather than pushing for more Long formats to close the season.
“I think I’m going to really buckle down this fall and winter, and work on my show jumping and pure dressage,” she said. “Looking forward to doing the best I can and training myself and them for the WEG in two years. I got to improve myself after the Olympics, you know, it just shows me how if I want to be world number one, and win an individual medal, I’ve got a lot to learn. So I’m going to spend the fall really focusing.”
Sharon White and Claus 63. Photo by Erin Gilmore Photography.
Sharon White says she’s been focusing on reliability with her 5* partner, Claus 63 (Catoo – Tina II, by Levisto), who currently sits third in the Advanced on a score of 27.4. She got to put this practice to the test during her pre-ride, which she abbreviated due to the intense heat conditions but this meant she was out for a ride while cross country was going on for other levels.
“Usually I’d have a canter and jump some jumps to take the edge off but it’s 18 million degrees today, so I just did some dressage and cross country was going on which could have been really over stimulating for him,” Sharon said. “I thought ‘this will be very interesting’, and we worked on the focus, getting him to be there for me if I was there for him.”
Sharon was particularly pleased with the consistency in her scores from both judges, earning a 72.7 from Peter Gray at C and a 72.5 from Helen Brettell at E. Indeed, while many scores saw a decent spread between the judges, Sharon was nearly the most consistent in terms of how each judge saw her test. It’s something we may not always think about as riders — and truly each judge has a different vantage point of each movement so some differences are to be expected — but it’s good perspective and something we can all aim to achieve. The consistency shows steadiness, and validates the correctness of a movement when it’s scored similarly by judges seated in different positions. “We’ve been working on reliability – not some of the time, all of the time,” Sharon said. “Which is not easy, by the way, it takes a lot of focus. You have to look to yourself first – I have to be reliable too, which means I have to be focused all the time and it’s a lot of effort.”
“And he’s getting older,” Sharon said, speaking to the fact that Claus is gaining more poise and strength as his career progresses. “What people need to realize is that it just takes so long to produce these horses, so you just have to be so patient and I’m hoping that it’s working for me now. And he’s only 12 still!”
Sharon’s fall plans are a bit up in the air depending on how this weekend goes. In terms of Jay Hambly’s cross country course tomorrow, she says it’s certainly up to championship standard. “There are some really interesting questions, not necessarily a specific striding so it’s just proper cross country riding so hopefully I can go out and do that. That is my plan.”
Michael Nolan and Carrabeg Hulla Balou. Photo by Erin Gilmore Photography.
Irish rider Michael Nolan held onto a top three spot for much of the day before Boyd’s test pushed him down into fourth with the 9-year-old Carrabeg Hulla Balou (Balou du Rouet – Vella Flavour, by Ballinvella), who is owned by Susan Martin, after earning a 27.8. This horse is greener to this level, having done four Advanced and two Advanced/Intermediate competitions prior to this, but he stepped up the plate to shave 6.5 penalties off his Advanced average to date of 34.3. This, Michael says, comes from strength development and the partnership he’s established with “Louie”, who he’s had since he was an unbroken three-year-old. And even with this score, which matches a downward trend started at Millbrook earlier this month, where he scored a 28, Michael knows there is more to come.
“He’s a nice horse. He’s pretty good on the flat, and he can get a little tense in the ring,” Michael said, noting that there will be more atmosphere to contend with as he continues to compete at the Advanced and 4* level. “He’s probably a year away from a big test, I’d like to be able to ride him more aggressively for the movements, but he’s not ready yet.”
The biggest change in moving a horse up to Advanced, Michael says, is the change in frame and balance in this phase. “At three-star, you can have them a bit deeper and lower, and now [at Advanced and four-star] he has to really stand on his own feet and come up more. But he’s straighfoward enough, it’s just strength for balance and the changes and getting enough bigger competitions done.”
Michael relocated to the U.S. from his home country of Ireland about 10 years ago after first coming over for a visit, situating himself with Robin Walker and splitting time between Florida and Michigan. For him, the opportunity basing in the U.S. presented was enough to persuade him to uproot and establish himself here as he works toward his goals of eventually representing Ireland in team competition. “My dad told me, ‘you can always come back!’ when I wanted to move,” Michael laughed. “And now here we are.”
Will Coleman and Diabolo. Photo by Erin Gilmore Photography.
It’s been a rollercoaster of a year for Will Coleman, who you know by now was originally slated to compete for the U.S. in Paris with the Diabolo Group’s Diabolo (Diarado – Roulett M, by Aljano 2) but after a series of increasingly unfortunate events would wind up not starting the competition. It’s a lot of mental gymnastics to regroup from a disappointment such as that, and Will carries his disappointment with class and has expressed gratitude that his horses (Diabolo and Off the Record both traveled to Paris) were sound leaving Europe. Now, he’s focusing on his fall goals which include a 5* debut for “Dab” at the MARS Maryland 5 Star followed by a first trip to Les 5 Etoiles de Pau in France the week after Maryland with Off the Record (“Timmy”).
“I guess it was a lot to deal with mentally, but we just regrouped, got the horses home and then we sort of had targeted Maryland anyway for Dab,” Will said. “Even if he had done Paris, I think he would have gone on to Maryland, so it was just more of a re-route having not done Paris. I think I’ll give Pau a try with Timmy. I’ve never done it, and I think he could suit him. He’s a lot more seasoned and I considered bringing him [this weekend] and saw the weather and thought he could stay home and not have to deal with the heat.”
Will scored a 28.0 with Diabolo to sit in equal fifth with Boyd Martin and Commando 3, a couple of bobbles holding him back from scoring higher. Will remains pragmatic despite the frustration of mistakes. “Maybe a bit of rust,” he said. “He hasn’t been out since June and it’s not the easiest place — he’s a hotter horse and there are 1000 horses here so it’s just really busy. I didn’t come here with expectations of trying to do anything amazing. I had a feeling we’d been knocking off a few cobwebs. I’m really pleased with how he’s going overall. His changes have been really amazing. He was early behind on both changes — I thought I nailed them but then I watched the video. But we should be able to clean that up. We’re building towards Maryland so there’s plenty of things to be happy about.”
It’s very much all to play for tomorrow on cross country, which kicks off for the Advanced pairs at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday. Nearly the entire field is separated by one runout or refusal’s worth of penalties, and the time at this venue (the optimum time for the Advanced is 6:27) can also be challenging to catch. Cross country courses available for previewing thanks to CrossCountryApp here or embedded below.
I’ll be adding in links to the USEA’s awesome coverage of the other divisions from today here as they become available, so be sure to check back or visit useventing.com for much more from #AEC2024. Go eventing.
USEA Coverage Links
Modified Riders Get the First Shot at Cross Country
USEA American Eventing Championships: [Website] [Schedule] [Live Stream] [Timing & Scoring] [Volunteer] [Official Photographer] [XC Courses]
EN’s remote coverage of #AEC2024 is brought to you by Ride Equisafe, who is on site in the vendor fair at the Horse Park this week to help you with all of your safety equipment needs! You can also shop online (and contact them for bespoke recommendations) here.
