Horseman of year visits Three Runs Plantation

It will be difficult to replicate the success he enjoyed in 2010, but advanced level eventer Boyd Martin is an athlete who never seems to shy away from a challenge.

Martin competed this weekend at the Sporting Days Farm Horse Trials on Saturday and took part in the USEF 2011 High Performance Training Sessions at Three Runs Plantation.

He was selected as The Chronicle of the Horse's Eventing Horseman of the Year, but his 10th-place finish in the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, with the 16.1-hand chestnut Australian-bred Thoroughbred gelding Neville Bardos, was the highlight of his year. The Australian-born Martin represented the U.S. and turned in the nation's best eventing performance at the games on the U.S. team that finished fourth. He had placed fourth with the gelded son of Mahayaa at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day CCI Four-Star in April.

"It was a fantastic feeling (finishing 10th at WEG) and serves as a motivator for trying to make the next U.S. team and to do better the next time," said Martin. Owned by Windurra USA, LLC, Martin and Neville Bardos won the Fair Hill CCI Three-Star in 2009.

His reserve horse for WEG was a fox hunter from Pennsylvania that no one ever envisioned becoming a four-star event horse. Henley House Stable's Remington XXV, a dark bay gelded son of Rubenstein I, finished seventh at the Pau CCI Four-Star in France and 12th at the Rolex Kentucky CCI. The Hanoverian gelding has a wonderful personality, said Martin.

"He's a fantastic character, and he looks like he's going to have a very strong spring this year," said Martin. "I'm pointing him toward the Kentucky Three-Day Event."

There are several other emerging stars in the barn including a 9-year-old Holsteiner-Thoroughbred cross mare, said Martin.

"I have a Two-Star horse owned by the Juvonens (Henley House), a horse named Charla, and I'm very excited about her," said Martin.

George and Gretchen Wintersteen's Steady Eddie has an interesting story all his own. The 8-year-old bay New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred gelding was purchased by Martin in the Australian outback for a modest price and imported to the U.S. in 2010. The failed racehorse looks poised for success in his new career as a racehorse.

The elite athlete turned up his training another notch to prepare for WEG, he said.

"Whenever you get selected to a national team or for any event, where you have to focus all of your energies, you're willing to do anything and everything to give yourself the best shot possible of being competitive," said Martin. "That was my moment, and I took it very seriously. I feel like a lot of the sacrifices I made produced a good performance."

Contact Ben Baugh at bbaugh@aikenstandard.com.