True Discipline and Relentless Practice Makes Champions – Boyd Martin

Published 11/03/2024

Ontario, Canada – On November 3, 2024, the Ontario Eventing Association (OEA) welcomed Boyd Martin to Ontario for his first-ever Canadian clinic. Boyd Martin is a two-time 5* Eventing champion, a two-time Pan-Am Games team and individual gold medalist and has represented the USA at four consecutive Olympic Games. He is a gritty, charismatic rider who embodies the fact that hard work and discipline can make your dreams come true. 

The clinic was held at Springhill Farm, in Kettleby, Ontario, a beautiful venue donated for the day by Ann Neal and the hard-working team at Cold Creek Equestrian. Twenty-five lucky riders were selected through a lottery to make up five groups of five. Auditors were invited and filled the space to capacity, making up an enthusiastic crowd of spectators. It was a superb day for riders and auditors alike, emphasizing the importance of discipline and practice to master the finer details of riding. 

The day began with a huge effort that rivalled the course setters at the Royal, to quickly build a course. The jump crew greatly appreciated the help of volunteers who raced around with standards and poles to build a master course, under Boyd’s guidance, that was used effectively for the groups of riders that followed. 

Group One showcased a very talented group of Ontario’s horses and riders, including Olympian Selena O’Hanlon and her Advanced horse MS Thunderbolt. Boyd started this and every subsequent group, with a 10 to 15 minute warm-up on the flat. He emphasized the importance for riders of creating a light, balanced seat, posting from the middle of the saddle forward, maintaining an ‘elegant’ posture and encouraging their horse to use their back and stretch over their top line. Using body weight aids and minimal to no rein, riders were asked to move their horses forward and back at the trot and the canter, and horses were encouraged to move between stretching and collecting. 

The little details make the exceptional riders. Boyd asserted that these first 10 minutes of any ride, when a horse is warming up, is the time to focus on the finer details of your riding. Although he delivered his directions gently, he nevertheless required riders to maintain an elegant posture at all times when mounted. As jump crew, I felt myself pull my shoulders back every time he delicately, and often with humour, admonished a rider for slouching. He spoke of the importance of ‘self-coaching’ when riding at home or without a coach and being disciplined and using mirrors or video feedback to correct your equitation on every ride. 

Boyd then moved the riders into a further warmup exercise coming off each rein to a small fence. He instructed riders to ask their horses to approach the fence at a quiet canter, preferring the small warmup fence to be jumped off a slower canter that required the horse to use power and strength rather than momentum. He asked that riders get their horses to a shorter distance to the warm-up fence so the horses did not end up at a ‘reaching’ stride at the base of the fence.

 

The exercise then moved into several gymnastics where Boyd stressed that it’s a rider’s responsibility to get their horse correctly to the first fence, then to sit quietly and allow the horse to find its subsequent striding so that the exercise trains the horse. All horses worked their way through a gymnastic of verticals with ‘V’ poles added and rails placed in front of the jumps as they progressed, and the jumps got higher. Boyd spoke about creating tougher schooling opportunities at home that require greater adjustability of the horse, so that at a competition you have access to a higher level of rideability from your horse. Several riders throughout the day needed help understanding the importance of taking the time to create a good canter before starting the exercise. Use of the full arena was encouraged to create good shape and softness in the horses. 

Written by Samantha Pritchard

Read the full story here at Ontario Eventing.

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