Two hard falls last weekend at Fair Hill, Maryland, didn’t take the edge off the irrepressible Boyd Martin. He and his Olympic mount, Federman B, are standing sixth at the Pau, France 5-star following a cool and careful cross-country trip over Pierre Michelet’s twisting course on mucky footing.
Conditions exacerbated by more rain prompted the removal of 10 fences altogether on a very soggy Saturday. It wasn’t a day to think about making the time; it was a day to think about staying upright in the slop. So no surprise, none of the 56 from a starting field of 71 who finished the route made the optimum time of nine minutes, nine seconds.
Boyd had 17.6 time penalties for a total of 47.1 penalties, moving up from sixteenth place after dressage with the benefit of going early (fourth in the lineup) to avoid the churning that later starters faced.
Boyd Martin and Federman B going cross-country at Pau. (Peter Nixon photo)
The conditions scrambled the results order from dressage, with the new number one, Britain’s Caroline Harris, on the Anglo European studbook stallion D-Day, moving up from twenty-second place in dressage with a trip that accumulated a mere 10 time penalties for an overall total of 40.3. The top four are all British.
The leader from dressage, Roz Canter with Izilot DHI is barely behind Caroline on a score of 40.6 World number one Tom McEwen is also less than a show jumping rail from the leader with Brookfield Quality (43). Piggy March and Halo are fourth with a score of 45, just ahead of China’s Alex Hua Tin (45.7) on Chicko.
The other American, Will Coleman, moved up from thirty-ninth after dressage to twenty ninth on 59.6 penalties. Boyd withdrew his second horse, Miss Lulu Herself, before cross-country. She was twenty-first after dressage.
“After lots of thought and talking with my circle of family, coaches and owners, we have decided to save Lulu for another day,” Boyd revealed.
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