Boyd Martin and Neville Bardos on course at Kentucky in 2011. Photo by Leslie Wylie.
Olympian Boyd Martin has had a longtime love affair with off-the-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs). “I have to say Thoroughbreds have changed my life. Growing up in Australia, Thoroughbreds were pretty much all I had. The whole reason I came to America was because of a horse named Ying Yang Yo, and shortly after him there was Neville Bardos. Two failed racehorses who ended up being CCI5* champions. They started off as a bit of a headache, but ended up giving me a great reason to get on a cargo plane and head to America.”
Recently, Boyd has been training a recent addition to his string, Remi, from his winter base at Stable View in Aiken, South Carolina. Remi, racing name “Gold Czar,” is a 6 year old Thoroughbred by Medaglia D’Oro. Boyd found Remi while teaching the Cheshire Fox Hunting Club. He was originally sourced and started by Boyd’s friend, Remi (sound familiar?), and was serving as the hunt master’s horse out in the field.
“What I loved about the horse was basically his look. He’s a nice, tall, rangy horse– uphill type. To me, he’s beautiful,” said Boyd.
The eventing community is very fortunate that Boyd is so active on social media. Boyd shared how he prepped Remi for his first recognized event at Sporting Days Farm in February in a series of super educational videos on Instagram. Watching the series is like a mini clinic you can audit right from your living room as Boyd goes about transforming Remi from an ex-racehorse/ex-fox hunter into an event horse.
Boyd’s goal for tackling the February event at Sporting Days with Remi was simply to finish the event and give him a good experience. Despite Boyd’s well-known ultra-competitive nature, this time success wouldn’t come in the form of a blue ribbon. Rather, Boyd just wanted Remi to end the event with confidence. After watching the whole series and stalking Boyd’s stories, I pulled out six main takeaways that I’m going to put into action with my own OTTB.
Fair warning: We may as well call this piece, “Why the OTTB is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread,” as Boyd and Remi really make turning an ex-racehorse into an eventer look easy.
1. First Fences: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
According to OTTB Master Boyd, it’s tough to get these horses to understand that not everything needs to be done in a flat out gallop. To achieve that goal, there’s a consistent theme throughout the series: Contrary to what Remi might think, slow and steady really does win the race.
At first, Boyd starts by jumping Remi over a small log at a trot. If Remi picks up a canter after the fence, Boyd brings him back to a trot in a straight line, turns, and repeats the process the other way. This pattern seems to really help prevent Remi from getting too carried away, and it has the added benefit of being the same pattern Remi did in the show jumping ring the day before. While he didn’t explicitly state it, I’m thinking Boyd is using the same pattern to help Remi gain his confidence in the unfamiliar environment of the cross country field.
2. Baby’s First Water Jump: Patience is Key
According to Remi, there are dragons in the water jump at Stable View, although Boyd loves the way the fence is set up, with its two different pools of water and an island in the middle. True to Boyd’s philosophy of slow and steady, Boyd alternated between allowing Remi to look at the water (where he proceeded to eat some sand) before keeping his feet moving and encouraging him forward. According to Boyd, “If you can just get their toe in the water the first time, then you’re away.”
My biggest takeaway from this part of the series was that an undramatic ride pays dividends. There was no pony-style kicking, whip snapping, or growling. Instead, Boyd merely said, “You’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to be prepared to stand there all day.”
3. Introducing Ditches: Take a Tip from Heath
Boyd chose the smallest ditch on Stable View’s extensive cross country course for Remi’s first time. He used a tip he said he learned from Heath Ryan back in Australia, where you walk the horse along the edge of the ditch on both sides. According to Boyd, it better allows the horse to understand where he’s taking off and where he’s landing.
Keep your reins long and approach it at a trot. Be prepared for your horse to stop short or leap awkwardly over it. Remi, like a good OTTB, couldn’t have cared less. After tackling it successfully from both sides, Boyd approached a novice ditch which he cleared successfully the first time, only to stop the second. After Remi stopped short, Boyd had him jump it from a standstill to prevent teaching him to become a chronic stopper.
Approaching it at a trot was key to Boyd’s strategy. “The good thing about doing it from a trot is that they’re jumping it from a place of understanding, not due to momentum and aggression.”
4. Banks: What Goes Up, Must Come Down
When it comes to introducing banks, Boyd recommends starting by going up the bank, not down. Not only does this make it easier for the horse to understand the concept of banks, it’s also harder to commit the cardinal sin of getting left behind and yanking on your green OTTB’s mouth. Grab mane on the way up so you don’t get left behind. When you start going down the banks, keep your reins long and sit back.
As always, the slow approach is the best approach. Here Boyd is taking a non-aggressive approach by walking the banks and allowing Remi to figure it out on his own. There is no kicking forward and Remi doesn’t launch himself off the bank, as other green horses might do. As Boyd notes, he does have fox hunting experience, which may be helping him out here. On the other hand, as Boyd says, “Thoroughbreds are pretty willing animals that want to please. If you point them at it, they’ll most likely have a crack at it.”
5. Even Olympians Get Lost
Finally, the end of the series brings us to the result of all of Boyd’s hard work and preparation: The Sporting Days event. Here we get to join Boyd in his ride around cross country with Remi thanks to his GoPro Helmet Cam.
Now, I’m not 100 percent convinced that Boyd walked this course before riding it. However, he is an Olympian and it’s a Beginner Novice track he could probably do in his sleep. I couldn’t help but laugh as he asks the volunteer the optimum time as he’s in the start box and at one point says, “S**t, I went the wrong way here, buddy.”
Clearly, Boyd’s preparation at Stable View paid off. Remi was an absolute champ, or “legend” as Boyd says, for his first recognized horse trial even trotting into the water on the first try. Despite creating his own course– just a bit– at one point Boyd and Remi were a minute under the time. As Boyd said at the end of his ride, “Once he got the hang of it, I was just trying to slow him down the whole way. Next time I’ll start 30 seconds late.”
Boyd’s Bonus Tip: Don’t let your horse eat grass while you’re riding. “It’s a terrible habit.”
Remi, however, is allowed because, “He’s a Champion.” At the end of February, Remi ran Beginner Novice at the February event at Sporting Days Farm and Novice at the Jumping Branch Horse Trial. At both events, he finished on his dressage score. It sounds like he earned that grass after all.
#goeventing
