Bosley and Conner Take Over the Top Spot in CCI3*-L at MARS Maryland 5 Star
Elkton, Md.—Oct. 17— A new leader emerged on Friday morning in the CCI3*-L at the MARS Maryland 5 Star as Isabelle Bosley and Karen Martin’s Oldenburg gelding Conner (Casiro 3 x Monique) earned a 24.8 in the first phase of the competition to surpass overnight leading pair Olivia Dutton and Jewelent.
“I was thrilled with him,” said a smiling Bosley. “I have had this horse for a couple of years now, and he has always been a bit of a hot head, but he really stayed with me, and I felt like I could push for a little bit more with all of the marks. He was the best he’s felt in the ring, so he really leveled up for me. I am just so proud of how much he has matured over these years. He came out and did everything right today.”
Bosley, who is a Maryland native, has been on the grounds of Fair Hill for as long as she can remember.
“It’s pretty special,” she said of leading the field after the conclusion of dressage. “I’ve been coming since before I can remember with my parents with the racehorsesm and I actually rode some steeplechases here at one point in my life when I thought I wanted to be a jockey. It’s pretty fun to be here for the eventing and have it all tie together. This is such a special place.”
She has had the now 8-year-old in the barn for three years now thanks to a relationship with a very special owner.
“The woman who owns him, Karen Martin, she also owns and bred the other mare that I am riding in the three-star, Paper Doll,” she shared. “She is just a really incredible woman and super supportive. After some time, I didn't really have any proper horses, and she just one day called me and said, ‘We need to get you a real horse. You need something that is going to take you to the top.’ ”
Bosley started her horse hunt and found Conner as a green 5-year-old and has taken her time producing the young-minded gelding.
“He was very green; he had just came over, and he had never gone to any shows so I felt like I was getting a fresh foal,” she reflected. “He is a little tricky and sensitive, so I took my time with him, and he’s kind of been a quiet, dark horse. I didn't even get him to an event until the middle of his 6-year-old year. I just kept taking my time—I think I trotted fences with him for six months because he just wanted to run at everything. Slowly he’s just grown up more and more, and now all of a sudden he’s just blossomed into this big person, which is so funny because in the barn he still acts like a little foal.”
Bosley competed in the three-star at the MARS Maryland 5 Star once previously in 2023 where she retired on course, so she is excited about the opportunity to tack a crack at it again.
“I've only ridden here one other time, and I think I got to fence five, so it wasn't very successful,” she said with a laugh. “But I have walked these courses and been around the venue even when I'm not competing, and I'm really excited for how the course looks. I think it's very long and a lot of terrain to it, but I think it's tough but fair. It’ll be a really good test and I just want to make it a good experience for him.”
Also earning one of the top-three spots in the three-star leaderboard was Alyssa Phillips aboard the 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding Rockett 19 (Rock Forever x Dery A Mona), whom the rider co-owns with Julie Phillips. Their score of 25.5 placed them just behind Bosley and ahead of overnight leader Dutton who now goes into the cross-country tomorrow in third.
Phillips’ partnership with Rockett is still fairly new, and she was more than impressed with how the gelding handled the brisk temperatures early this morning and the atmosphere of the competition.
“I bought him in January, and so each show out I'm learning more and more about him,” she noted. “This would be the biggest atmosphere that I've seen with him, and given the fact that it was 41 degrees, and he was freshly clipped, I was really proud of him. He's just such a naturally stunning horse—I just need to show him off correctly. He's just a dream to ride. I'm really excited for the rest of the weekend, and I'm really proud of how we went today.”
Even though it’s still a fairly new partnership, Phillips said that she and Rockett hit it off right from the start.
“He's such a sweet horse in the barn, he's like a dog,” she said. “He loves his mini pony Munchkin. You just look at him and think he's a pretty plain bay gelding, but he loves to show off. So I think when he came here, he knew he was at a big show. He's just looking around, taking it all in, but I could tell today he was happy for me to let him show off.”
All of the CCI3*-L competitors will get their chance to take a spin around the cross-country tomorrow starting at 9:00 a.m.
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