October 8, 2011– Soggy footing coupled with Sue Benson’s demanding cross country track saw a massive shake-up of the leaderboard at the 2011 Boekelo CCI3*. Boyd Martin led the charge of the Land Rover U.S. Eventing piloting two horses around the course with no jumping faults.
Martin (West Grove, PA) lies 23rd and 32nd with the Otis Barbotiere and Remington XXV, respectively, heading into the show jumping. The Otis Barbotiere Syndicate’s gelding finished just over the optimum time, collecting 4.4 time faults, and now stands on a score of 60. Remington XXV, owned by Henley House Stables, found the heavy going challenging adding 16 time faults and has a two-day score of 61.8. Despite the less than ideal conditions, Martin was very pleased with the effort and class his horses displayed today.
“Remington found the going tough but he just kept going and going. Otis is definitely proving he is a horse for the future. He jumped around pretty well today,” Martin said. “Today was very influential to the competition. It was very muddy and wet; the footing deteriorated as the day went on.”
New Zealand’s Mark Todd leads the competition with NZB Campino on a score of 41.4.
Individual standings can be found here.
The U.S. is now out of contention in the team competition following the elimination of Tamra Smith and the retirement of Michael Pollard. Smith (Murrieta, CA) and Leigh Mesher’s Mar de Amor were eliminated for collecting three stops throughout the course. Pollard (Dalton, GA) elected to retire Nathalie Pollard, Carl Bouckaert and his own DV8 at fence 18.
Germany leads the team competition on a score of 152.6.
Complete team scores are available here.
