Maryland 5*

[Dr_Doolittle]

Cooley Chromatic (Caden in the barn) is owned and ridden by a former student of mine - Sara Shulman

I started her in eventing and gave her a solid foundation from the ages of 14,15 to 18, and she was always an incredible young woman with a phenomenal work ethic (humble and self-motivated, even as a teenager) and was a joy to work with. She moved on from her first pony (a 14’2" hand talented and spicy little Connemara/QH mare named Mystic.)

After Mystic topped out a Training, Sara found a TB who had competed through Prelim (since she was already down at school at UVA, I went with her dad to the PPE and gave Snip my stamp of approval after helping negotiate the price), and after doing a summer stint as a WS for Britta Johnston, Sara started working with Kim Severson when she was down at school in Charlottesville.

She moved Snip up to OI the following year and did well – then sold him on and found a “prospect” overseas in Caden.

He was only 4 when she tried him, and only about 15’3" - as a full WB, he of course grew! And grew. And filled out! Oy. She is only 5 feet tall, but she rides him beautifully and effectively. He is bred to the nines for dressage and jumpers, and though she has struggled with getting the time at Intermediate, his fitness is improving; he is also been a horse who has a habit of pulling one rail, but was fabulous and clear today!

She has worked very, very hard; he was quite a handful when younger; could be “fractious” in SJ warm-up and occasionally stood up on his hind legs. Luckily, she is incredibly gritty and determined and a very talented rider – I’m hoping she goes all the way with this horse! (Apparently David O’Connor once made an offer on him, but she was not interested in selling )

When I congratulated her on her third at Bromont, she texted me back: “now we just have to tackle those red flags!” I texted back: “You both got this”

She is now working with Jan Bynny and has been there for a couple of years soaking up all of Jan’s great wisdom, as well as riding several of her horses along with training sales horses. It’s positively thrilling to have her come in a close second to Sharon, and actually beat her former coach and trainer, Kim! I’m sure she’s over the moon.

To say that I’m proud of her would be the understatement of the year.

This special team will be something to watch for the future. Go get 'em, Sara!

[Jealoushe]

oh this so lovely! Thank you for sharing her story and congratulate her for us on an amazing job!

[FrittSkritt]

@FitToBeTied

If he was unconscious then that means he had a concussion. That would mean Boyd, his team, the event officials and the medical professionals on site made a bad decision to allow him to continue.

He’s on his way to Pau now. Of course there’s no concussion protocol in FEI like other sports… you only get one brain, but I guess some people ignored that memo.

[Bonnie2]

Boyd is quite familiar with TBI. Every time he looks at his wife or thinks of his friend Phillip Dutton’s daughter. He is also a professional with obligations to owners, employees, family, and the bank. We all get to make our own decisions and live with the consequences.

[Djones]

@Bonnie2

Boyd is quite familiar with TBI. Every time he looks at his wife or thinks of his friend Phillip Dutton’s daughter. He is also a professional with obligations to owners, employees, family, and the bank. We all get to make our own decisions and live with the consequences.

yep. I am hopeful he at least takes a few days to rest his brain and let his capable help ride and work horses through Wed or so. It’s a hard life.

[Gardenhorse]

@Bonnie2

Boyd is quite familiar with TBI. Every time he looks at his wife or thinks of his friend Phillip Dutton’s daughter. He is also a professional with obligations to owners, employees, family, and the bank. We all get to make our own decisions and live with the consequences.

If I were an owner, I would not want him riding my horse around a 5* with a concussion.

[Live_Wire]

He had the wind knocked out of him, he was not knocked unconscious. He was thoroughly evaluated (multiple times) before continuing on.

It’s really difficult to read through some of these comments because they’re just so ignorant. I don’t mean for that to sound so aggressive, but I don’t know how else to put it.

Link to FEI Concussion Policy:

FEI Concussion Policy

[FitToBeTied]

@Live_Wire

He had the wind knocked out of him, he was not knocked unconscious. He was thoroughly evaluated (multiple times) before continuing on.

You were part of the medical team then?

[Jealoushe]

what’s ignorant? A lot of comments are just discussing the what ifs because we don’t truly know what happened.

The fact is he was injured then rode another horse who fell at the 3rd or 4th fence.

I think it’s fair to question things especially with people like Dressage Hub raking our sport over the coals right now.

[StormyDay]

@FitToBeTied

@Jealoushe

if he did lose consciousness he shouldn’t have been allowed to continue.

If he was unconscious then that means he had a concussion. That would mean Boyd, his team, the event officials and the medical professionals on site made a bad decision to allow him to continue.

I’m obviously not him so I can’t say exactly what happened. But I often loose consciousness for a few seconds if I ride hard and then suddenly stop. I have to remind myself to not jump off after a long show jumping round to walk my horse to cool him out because I’ll end up on my butt in the dirt. My low blood pressure gets confused and out I go.
The sitting down (because the world is going dark) after walking off is classic low blood pressure fainting for me.

[phoenixrises]

not related to the horses or course at all. It was very very annoying that you HAD to go through the shopping in both directions, sometimes you just wanted the food truck out further, and I just stopped opting to head that way because I didn’t want to fight through the shopping.

I won’t harp on the lines between 3* and 5* XC, it was rough, and many many of the trucks were just not prepared to handle that number of people. We talked about bringing sandwiches and I’m really annoyed we didn’t.

The there were no water filling stations, I’m pretty sure they had some last year (maybe it was the year before??). With the long lines for food getting water became almost impossible for a bit.

I should note this is the first year I didn’t buy a tailgating spot. I found I spent more time out on the course so thought it was a wasted $800 (plus food) but after this year, I’ll be purchasing again.

[awaywego]

@phoenixrises

not related to the horses or course at all. It was very very annoying that you HAD to go through the shopping in both directions, sometimes you just wanted the food truck out further, and I just stopped opting to head that way because I didn’t want to fight through the shopping.

Agree. For me at least, it had the opposite of what I assume was the desired effect of getting more people to the new second row of vendors. It was so crowded at points that I just wanted OUT of there. I think there were more food vendors last year because the lines were really long again this year, like they were the year(s) before.

I was actually supposed to meet up with a former coworker who lives nearby but knows nothing about horses. I was really curious to get her persective on the event, but I was relieved that it didn’t work out for her to come after all because I really did not think Saturday was a great day from a spectator perspective.

[phoenixrises]

I really did enjoy the 3*. Walked the whole course and thoroughly enjoyed everyting. After that. No, if I hadn’t been with some great friends I would have left after about the 4th dnf. We were up in the uppersawmill water and saw a total of 10 horses for the 5*.

[jcraig10]

I get having to be funneled thru the vendors (you want to keep them happy!), but they need to make the walkway wider. If one person stopped, it held everyone else up trying to get by. For someone like me who is not a shopper, it was a bit annoying. You can make me walk thru there 100 times and I’m still not going to buy anything…

[tabula_rashah]

Yeah, the way they funneled you through the vendors was awful. I get making you go past the vendors, I really do. But it was so narrow and there were so many people in there, even if I had wanted to, there was no room to get into the vendors. It was completely claustrophobic and there were constantly people brushing against you (shudder)

[Live_Wire]

@FitToBeTied I was not. Were you? Were you there when he came back to the barn? I trust the medical professionals are well qualified to make the determination that he was fit to continue on. That is their job.

@Jealoushe ignorance is speculating he had a concussion and the medical professionals/TD/GJ did not follow a protocol that actually does exist… Or the people suggesting riders aren’t conditioning their horses?

[StormyDay]

They definitely had water filling stations last year. I believe it was sponsored and the first few hundred people also got a free water bottle too.

[Djones]

@NeedsAdvil

We saw Boyd walking around after fall #1 near the warm up area and he was limping pretty good and seemed to be trying to walk it off. I heard from a volunteer that he lost consciousness after that fall but recovered well. I was surprised they let him continue. Then I saw the 2nd fall from behind at a distance and it appeared rotational but we quickly saw Commando up and trotting around and appeared to be sound.

This is where the allegations of Boyd losing consciousness came from. This is a game of telephone from the start. I do not say that to zing @NeedsAdvil at all, not one bit- but from the start we don’t know that this is accurate.

[Jealoushe]

Yes which I thought the conversation was more of a “if he lost consciousness” more than a “he did…”. I don’t think anyone is judging or criticizing.

I think it’s an important conversation we have, doesn’t have to necessarily involved Boyd but it would also be nice to know for interests sake on what the protocol is for return to the saddle if a rider hits their head.

[Marigold]

@Willesdon

I thought it to be a good five star course, from watching online (which certainly is never the same as walking a live event). 5* is supposed to be the ultimate test. Times past, horses would do one competition at this level and that was the pinnacle of their career. Now we have horses winning multiple 5* which says a lot about vet care, nutrition, course design etc - all the unseen things, as well as relentless hard work, that underpin a great cross country run. I suggest that the lack of runners indicates a worrying lack of depth in American and Canadian Eventing: there are just not enough riders able to run at this level. Without the European-based riders it would have been a non-event. There were plenty of runners in the 3*.

I agree with all of this (as a North American). The international entries were comparable with Kentucky in terms of quantity, and frankly it was a higher quality international field than I’ve seen in the US for a long time - very exciting.

It was the North Americans who stayed away. Perhaps rightly, knowing their horses and given the day, but if we ever want to learn to compete with the best of the best we need to learn to ride these courses. We said we wanted another 5* so that we could do that. Now we need to actually show up and learn.