One thing about Boyd is the horses stay in his program or end up in capable homes. While their upper level careers may be over, many of those horses are or were kicking around BN/N/T with his students.
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alright fill me in where the comma should be lol
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Bothā¦
Kelly Prather talked about selling Blackfoot Mystery on a Podcast, and how she paid off her parents mortgage, bought a trailer, and bought two 3 or 4 years olds from Ireland with the money. It was believed by a lot of people that that horse could have been a big big time 5* horse.
Yes very true!
Ray is competing with one of their employees, she does my barn and house sitting. Just won a division of training at Seneca.
āOscarā aka Trading Aces, was sold to an Eq rider and then subsequently died of a cardiac event (per Chronicle coverage) Iām not gonna forget him. I caught him loose in a field by my barn one day. LOL. With tack. Almost didnāt give him back. Ha ha ha.
Blackfoot Mystery he posted about recently. Heās down in Texas with his owner. I can see he got a Bemer treatment in April on FB when you search his name.
Otis went back to Windurra in 2020. Evented with one of their worker/student then. Nothing seen on USEA since.
Pancho Villa has been competing with his owner at training level since 2020. (Possibly longer, my limited membership only shows so much. )
Em
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Your hubby captured his eyes perfectly. I only āmetā Blackfoot Mystery once, and very fleetingly, but I remember being struck by his eyes. Same goes for Loughan Glen (sp?).
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Thank you! Thatās really his trademark, the eyes 
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There arenāt many horses that hold up season after season at the very upper levels. Boyd is in a unique and very lucky position where he doesnāt need to bandaid them back together repeatedly, because he has many horses at that level. If it is too hard on them, as noted by someone else, he just moves them down the levels with his working students or their owners. Riders with only one or two upper level horses donāt have the luxury to move on to the next in their string, and many times go to great lengths to keep them going.
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that portrait is just so movingā¦it really does capture his character and his eyesā¦
just beautiful
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There are four horses that have done Badminton seven times. It isnāt that unusual to have top horses running over several seasons.
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I honestly donāt think itās all that different than warhorses on the track. There are a select few who run well into 8, 9, 10+ yo years and stay super sound, while the vast majority of them are done between 3 and 5. Iāve seen up close and personal the legs of one of those olympic-medal-winning āone-horse wondersā with a long upper-level and it was frankly kind of disturbing that it was doing anything other than standing around eating grass, nevermind still running around Rolex.
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You would be hard pressed in 2022 to find an active North America-based horse who has done Kentucky 7 times. Off the top of my head I came up with two who have gone 6 times: Vandiver (now retired from 5*) and Honor Me.
I very well could be overlooking someone.
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Daniela Moguel and Cecelia?
I think she has kept that horse competitive at the 5* level for many years.
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FEI database says four Kentucky 5 
appearances then she ran the 4 this year.
But yes she has been going a long time.
See how tough it is to find one? Iām sure we can find them, especially if we broaden to search to include recently retired horses of the past few years. But itās not like there are enough to be affecting the selection of our WEG team.
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Iād be curious to see what the average owner spends to maintain a 5* horse at that level in UK vs US. I worked for a 5* rider with an older horse who competed at KY a number of times and it cost a small fortune to keep the horse sound and happy. It would have paid for a nice young horse with 5* potential, for sure, so I can definitely understand why many people donāt run KY 7 times. Itās probably worth it if you have team/ top 20 hopes, if you have a younger horse you are hoping to develop into a team/top 20 horse, or if you are new to the level and want the experience. Otherwise I think it would be hard to justify, especially if you are spending someone elseās money.
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In the case of riders like Boyd Martin, heās probably also now in the position where he can be picky about which horses he persists with at 5* level. He is now at the point in his career he doesnāt have to ride anything that will make it over the xc, but can be more selective and just keep riding those he thinks have team/medal potential. If a horse could be 5* horse but isnāt ever going to make time and has average dressage, itās not going to get him what he wants so heās better off moving it on and investing his time in what could get him a medal. Other riders donāt have that luxury, or even necessarily the same riding goals, for them any horse thatās a reliable 5* horse is good enough for them to keep the ride.
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I donāt know the cost of competition and horse care in the UK, so I canāt speak to that.
But logistically, it has to be so much easier. The entire UK is about the size of Area 2, yet with more than three times the number of competitions.
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Yes, I know his horses get moved down to lower levels once theyāre done, as any good horseman would do. My observation is that heās had a lot of horses at the UL that have not lasted as long as some other ridersā have. That has nothing to do with the quality of his program or riding, but itās reflective of the team environment we have have today - big string, more owner involvement/pressure, and a lot more runs. The latter is also due to the 12 month long schedules horses are now under, since weāre no longer relying on the horses that can eek through dressage and make it up on XC - all 3 phases have to be rock solid. And not every horse is built to withstand all that, especially the WB types (Otis, Shamwari, Trading Aces) who had already had many miles under their belt.
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Personally, I think 12 months of continuous competition with no break is tough on horses. They certainly benefit from time off at grass, when small niggles have time to heal and their minds have time to rest. But it is obviously up to the owners/riders/sponsors to create a programme that suits the individual horse. Europe has the advantage of a multi-month winter break.
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