United States Eventing Association

Soaked, but Not Shaken: Boyd Martin Flies the Flag for the U.S. at Defender Kentucky in Second

Lexington, Ky.—April 25—Boyd Martin and the 12-year-old Holsteiner gelding Commando 3 were the last pair to go in the Defender Kentucky CCI5*-L field on Friday afternoon and were warmly greeted to the bluegrass with an impressive downpour that outshined anything the other horse and rider pairs had to combat throughout the day. But that didn’t stop this pair from putting their best foot forward and impressing the judges enough to earn them a score of 26.0, just 0.2 points ahead of second-place pair Tom McEwen (GBR) and Brookfield Quality.

That score couldn’t catch Thursday’s leader, Germany’s Michael Jung, who set a Kentucky five-star record on 18.6 with fischerChipmunk FRH, but makes Martin the top U.S. competitor heading into tomorrow’s cross-country. He also leads the Defender/USEF CCI5*-L Eventing National Championship.

“[The rain] helped me actually; I think it sort of put his head down a bit further,” joked Martin. “I was sort of glancing up at the skies in the warmup and thinking, ‘This isn’t looking good,’ but it’s a sport where there are some things you have no control over, and it was like a Louisiana typhoon. I just tried to stay in the moment, and Commando 3 is a champion; he just stayed focused, but he can be a bit spooky. Maybe it distracted him a bit, but he did a good job with me, and I was very pleased with how he went.”

Martin has three entries in this year’s five-star, all of which delivered sub-30 performances in the dressage phase. He goes into cross-country not only in second on Commando 3 (Connor 48 x R-Adelgunde), who is owned by the Yankee Creek Ranch, LLC, but also in sixth on Luke 140 and 11th on Fedarman B.

“I think this is the best group of five-star horses I've had,” he noted. “We’re working very, very hard with their dressage, and they're just quality horses. To have three horses in the 20s— it’s just been a huge amount of work, not just from me but my wife [Silva Martin] who rides them when I am away a lot. It's just sort of a relief to deliver good tests. You know, you always sort of stay up late at night wondering if something's gonna go wrong. They all had parts that could’ve been better, but generally speaking, I was just relieved that it wasn't disastrous.”

FEI World no. 1 eventing rider McEwen is hot on Boyd’s heels with Piggy March’s former ride Brookfield Quality, who McEwen took over the ride from in 2023 and finished in third at the five-star at Pau (France) with last year.

“‘Norris’ is an awesome horse,” shared McEwen. “He tries as hard as he can. He's actually a super, super-loving little fellow. I am delighted with my test today—he was absolutely fantastic. He was nice and smooth, really listening to me. He made a couple of little mistakes, but you know what, we’re here or there. We are not too far away from Miki [Michael Jung], but still close enough at the same time.”

He is looking forward to taking the 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding (OBOS Quality 004 x Bay Quality Cavalier), owned by John and Chloe Perry and Alison Swinburn, across the Kentucky bluegrass tomorrow.

“There is plenty to do, but it is very fair for the horses,” he said. “It’s a positive track. It's a typical track from Derek [di Grazia]— they catch plenty of people out for plenty of different reasons, and you have to be right on your A-game.”

Their preparation leading up to their trip to the States is unlike the other horses in McEwen’s program, but he’s happy to do what works for Norris when it results in days like today.

“‘He competes at the lower levels before he goes to a big competition, so he was at Burnham Market [England] a couple of weeks ago in the Open Novice [Preliminary equivalent] there, and he has had a couple of gallops and a few jump schools and is hopefully ready to rock and roll.”

Just fractions of a point behind McEwen is German young rider Libussa Lübbeke, who is here competing on a homebred which makes her first trip to Kentucky even more special.

“We were thinking about [making the trip to Kentucky] at the end of last year, and I did the Luhmühlen five-star, and I felt like this was the best partner for me to try my first time at Kentucky. We are doing our best, and she’s unique and trying her heart out for me.”

Lübbeke’s parents, Martin and Annelie Lübbeke, bred and own Caramia 34 (Floretta x Fabriano), and her brother, Fritz Ludwig Lübbeke, campaigned the now 15-year-old Holsteiner mare up to the the three-star level in 2019 before Libussa took over the reins.

She is excited about her first time tackling a di Grazia Kentucky five-star cross-country course.

“I think it looks amazing,” she said. “It's a bit different from the European courses, but all the technical questions are here, and it's a course to ride forward, and I am looking forward to it.”

Cross-country kicks off tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. ET with the CCI4*-S. The first five-star pair will leave the start box at 1:30 p.m. ET.

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