Boyd Martin gallops to victory with Miks Master C. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
We know that truly anything can happen in sports on any given day. Really, that’s one thing that makes sports just so incredibly great. No matter how much of a sure thing something can be, it’s never over until it’s actually over. We saw that scenario play out in real life today at the finale of the $200,000 US Equestrian Open of Eventing Final at Morven Park.
Will Coleman and Off the Record entered the Grand Prix arena, where a challenging track set by Chris Barnard awaited, as the final pair to compete. They held the overnight lead, still on their dressage score of 25.1. It wasn’t that “Timmy” and Will had a perfect show jumping record. Really, they’ve had a heartbreaker of a rail several times in the past. But they came in touted as 77% chance winners by EquiRatings, and they’ve enjoyed a whole slew of wins, including at CHIO Aachen. Will spends a lot of time in the show jumping arena himself, and eventual winner Boyd Martin described the course today as more similar to a jump-off than anything else with a very tight time allowed, so those skills would certainly come into play.
Will Coleman and Off the Record. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
We held our breath as the pair navigated their way around.
But it wasn’t meant to be for Will and Off the Record (owned by the Off the Record Syndicate), who lowered the B element of the final combination at fence 11, which was enough to drop them below Boyd Martin and Miks Master C (owned by Ocala Horse Properties, Debbie Palmer and Rachael Carter) into second on a score of 29.1.
Will still earns a good chunk of the $200,000+ prize fund for his efforts this weekend, but the title this year now belongs to Boyd and Miks Master C, a horse who came to him through the unfortunate circumstance of Liz’s severe injury at the American Eventing Championships last summer. In the wake of the accident, which left Liz with a traumatic brain injury, and while she’s making excellent progress in her recovery, it quickly became apparent that her top horses would need to move on. Several of those — her Paris horse, Cooley Nutcracker, Shanroe Cooley and Miks Master C — went into Boyd’s program.
Fortunately, Boyd and Liz shared many support crew members including jumping coach Peter Wylde and former U.S. coach Erik Duvander, and of course Boyd had been alongside Liz for many a competition when she had the horses. So while it’s certainly taken some time to get the horses acclimated to a different program and style (“I still don’t quite feel like they’re my horses yet,” Boyd said today), two top-five finishes for Boyd this weekend shows that the road ahead is bright.
“I’ve always admired the horse,” Boyd said of Miks Master C, who also won the MARS Equestrian American Bred Trophy as the top-placed U.S.-bred horse. Laurie Cameron brought “Mikki” into the world via her breeding program in New Jersey. “When Liz was bought the horse, I was extremely jealous, because he’s my type of horse. He’s by a stallion called Mighty Magic, and he one of those horses that moves like a warmblood but thinks like a Thoroughbred — a true three-day event type for me. He’s got an amazing gallop, the right amount of crazy, huge grit, a beautiful mover in the dressage — just a resilient horse. He’s tough and one of these horses that when you go into the competition ring, he jumps higher, or moves a bit bigger.”
Boyd Martin and Miks Master C. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Boyd kept his preparation light for this event. Mikki isn’t short on experience at this stage of his career, so the preparation wasn’t so much about training as it was cementing partnership and rebuilding strength and fitness as the horse came back from an injury picked up last year. “I was banking basically on Liz’s training and his experience that Liz put into him over the years,” Boyd continued. “I got this feeling that I just had to try and give him a good ride, and he’d zip around.”
Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Someone newer to the eventing scene this weekend asked me if the competitors got along, or if it was cutthroat, Formula 1 style amongst the athletes. I think I’d now use Boyd’s admission that this win comes as a somewhat bittersweet one as he watched his good friend and fellow competitor Will Coleman lose out on the victory.
“To be honest, it’s a bit of an awkward way to win,” Boyd said. “Will Coleman’s horse, Timmy, is a legend. We’ve been on teams together through the World Championships and the Olympic Games. So it’s sort of mixed feelings. I didn’t actually see his rail come down, and it’s sort of hard to know how to react sometimes when you’ve sort of won by default. So I think it’s a legend horse, Off the Record. He’s been going strong for years, and I suppose Miks Master C is similar — they’re veterans of the sport.”
Will Coleman and Very Dignified. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Boyd and Will make up the entire final top four. Will’s first ride, the Very Dignified Group’s Very Dignified jumped a stellar double clear to move from sixth into third, finishing on her dressage score of 35.4. This mare is just 10 this year — you’ll want to keep a firm eye on this one, as we may just have the next Coleman superstar in the making on our hands here. In other heartening news for Will, Diabolo — a horse from Australia that Will’s quite keen on but picked up an injury that he’s slowly been coming back from — enjoyed a nice canter around the CCI2* division this weekend, and we hear he’s hopefully going to make a full comeback and compete at Kentucky next spring.
Boyd Martin and Shanroe Cooley. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Boyd’s other ride, Dallas LLC’s Shanroe Cooley, also jumped a double clear to move from eighth into fourth on a final score of 35.9. In total, just four riders managed double clears. Canada’s Jessica Phoenix secured the first one of the day with the 17 years young Fluorescent Adolescent — a big accomplishment for this splashy mare, who’s not jumped a clear in a Long format since she was at the 3* level. Jessie and “Lacey” wound up seventh and well into the money after starting the weekend in 22nd.
Jessica Phoenix and Fluorescent Adolescent. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Lucienne Bellissimo and Kitsch Couture HPK — another real one to watch, as Lucienne is confident she can get the mare’s dressage scores down into the 20s in the coming year or two — wound up fifth for their efforts this week, lowering one rail at the last fence (a heartbreaker!!) but nonetheless cementing this talented type as a horse for the future. She’s now got two 4*-L competitions under her belt, and we’ll be eager to see what’s to come for this partnership.
And so wraps up a great weekend of sport and a full season for the inaugural US Equestrian Open of Eventing. This new venture, the brainchild of David O’Connor’s born in 2023 and brought to the US Equestrian board for consideration, has opened up a new avenue for eventing riders to earn prize money in a sport that’s quite literally starving for it. It’s also been put out with the goal of increasing the reach of equestrian sports (remember, there is an Open competition for show jumping as well as dressage, too) outside of our small world.
Lucienne Bellissimo and Kitsch Couture HPK. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
On my way to pick up an afternoon cup of joe, I rang up David, who was — ever the jet-setter — on his way to Geneva before turning back around to come to the Maryland 5 Star to help longtime student Mia Farley in the CCI5* with Phelps.
“It was a great launch, that’s for sure,” David told me. “Really, the series, when we were putting together a presentation, was a lot off of what happens in golf and tennis and bringing that thought process into horse sports. That was all a part of the process, and then the team in the USEF really kind of worked on it and tweaked it. They were great.”
“It’s a big step for the Federation to do it,” he continued. “It’s about promoting horse sports — not just promoting eventing or promoting jumping or promoting dressage, but about promoting horse sports and getting it out into a wider audience. And I think it’s achieving those goals in our launches.”
“It’s extremely rewarding,” he said when I asked how fulfilled he was feeling to see his idea brought to fruition this year. “And also from a team point of view, how everybody from a USEF team group that has put a lot of effort into it, details, et cetera with the Morven Park team. So it’s a great, it’s very collaborative stuff — that’s the fun thing that we do.”
The US Equestrian Open has at least three years on its starting contract, so we’ll see this series run again in 2026 and 2027, if not beyond. David said the US Equestrian team will debrief in the next couple of weeks as they look ahead to finishing the series with the Final of the Dressage US Open at Thermal in mid-November. It’s an exciting time, and I truly hope we get more media attention from our fellow outlets within the horse world (though there certainly was presence and coverage here at the event, particularly from the USEA), as well as increased reach outside of our airwaves and into the general public in the seasons to come.
Lastly, I just wanted to close this report with a nod to Liz Halliday. It’s been strange to not have her at these shows with us. We’d ordinarily have written several stories at this point in the year about her successes — she may have even been our US Open champion this weekend.
Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
I shot off a text to Chris Desino of Ocala Horse Properties, and part owner of the horses Boyd now has in his program. Was Liz watching this weekend? What was her reaction?
“She’s thrilled!” Chris wrote back. I hope she was watching. And while I have to think it’s bittersweet for her to watch her horses moving on with other riders, I hope she feels good about where they are and the hands they are in.
“I’d like to thank the owners of Miks Master C,” Boyd said in the prizegiving ceremony. “This horse was so close to going to the Olympic Games, and they’ve experienced the highs and lows of the sport. Lastly, I’d like to give a shoutout to Liz, who did all the work on this magnificent horse, and I hope you’re watching Liz. This is for you.”
One final closing note, which I’ll have much more on after Maryland: another former Liz ride, Cooley Quicksilver, was recently sold to young rider Lola Lonesky, who just completed her very first FEI with “Monster” this weekend at Morven Park, finishing in fifth on their dressage score for a true banner weekend. In so many ways, it feels like a win for Liz, who inspires us every day to keep fighting.
Go Eventing.
The Monster Squad. Photo via Mia Farley.
To catch up with our content from a whirlwind week at Morven Park, click here to bookmark our Ultimate Guide.
Lastly for all of our competitors this weekend, while we had the incredible Shannon Brinkman shooting our photos here on EN, you can find ALL of the photos you want and then some from the crack team at Erin Gilmore Photography, your official moment capturers this weekend. Be sure to keep an eye on Erin Gilmore’s website for galleries for all competitors available to purchase.
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