United States Eventing Association

Seventh Place Finish at Pau for Boyd and Remington XXV

Boyd Martin shares his experiences competing at Pau CCI4* with Remington XXV. Read more adventures on Boyd’s blog!

Well, it didn't quite go how I had planned...but as Ned Kelly says, "Such is life".

Remington pulled up well yesterday after the cross-country and looked super sound in the trot up today. I felt that his energy and spirits were well, considering he had given me 110% the day before around a very tough day of cross country.

I worked Remi lightly after the jog, as I usually do, and jumped a few fences and he felt great. I walked the course and felt pretty confident, as the horse has been jumping very well in the events leading up to this one. The sun was shining and the birds were singing as I watched the first third of the field jump. I then headed out to the warm-up ring to warm up my man.

As I was warming up the heavens opened and it started absolutely pouring with rain. I think both Remi and I were dreaming of tropical weather and perfect footing and lost our rhythm a little bit in our warm up.

When it was our turn we went into the ring and took our time to try and get settled. We went around and jumped 75% of the course pretty well, and 25% pretty average. I am not quite sure what went amiss, though I feel I could have ridden him a lot better; he was a bit tired, the pouring rain and the umbrellas backed him off a bit...whatever, we had four rails down. As I said before: such is life! We ended up in 7th place in our first European 4-star.

Obviously I am pretty heartbroken. Not only for me, but the horse, the owners and everyone else who thought he had a shot at winning Pau. I feel like I have learned a lot from the event, and realized that we as American riders are not that far off the pace of these Euro Rock Stars. A top ten finish in a four star is okay. As for the rails in show jumping, I always remember my mate Scotty Keach telling me, "Half the world is fighting over a bowl of rice today mate, and you're upset about knocking a few rails down..."