In this video, rider Boyd Martin recounts taking his horse Contessa to the Mighty Pinetop Horse Trials at the intermediate level. He explains why he chose a slightly easier course to test a new cherry‑roll gag bridle, describing how the bridle improved Contessa’s control and confidence on cross‑country. Martin reviews a recent dressage test where Contessa scored 32‑33, notes her solid fitness, soundness, and muscle condition, and details the competition strategy that resulted in a slow round with about 20 time penalties and a fifth‑place finish. He outlines plans to compete at the Carolina International Four‑Star and ultimately aim for the Kentucky Five‑Star later in the spring, emphasizing the need for better rideability, adjustability, and pre‑event preparation. The video also touches on training resources in Pennsylvania, such as synthetic tracks and long turf gallops, and highlights the importance of equipment and conditioning for high‑level eventing.
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This is a video for the Club Contessa. Well, girls, we took Contessa out to her second competition of the year, the Mighty Pinetop Horse Trials. And I decided to put her in the intermediate. Originally I had a plan for the advance, but as you remember in our first intermediate a couple weeks ago, she was a little bit out of control and I wanted to test the new bridle, which was a huge success today. Well, this weekend. And I thought it'd be better to test the new, new bit over a slightly easier course. And, and also on top of that is I'm pretty confident Contessa will jump anything I point her at. And it's more this sort of control issues and, and also she's getting a little bit older now and I sort of justified the decision to myself too that she doesn't need to jump the really, really big jumps in February. We'll wait till Carolina International and we'll step her up to the four star short there in a couple weeks. But that being said, she did well in the dressage. Last Sunday I took her to a dressage show which is very productive. It's a, it's good for Contessa to just to go to a show and not have to gallop and jump. And she put in two good tests last week at Bruce's Field. I just did the second level test, similar movements to this intermediate test. And I think it was, yeah, pretty good test from memory. I have one bad transition, I think the walk canner. I picked up the wrong lead which didn't really matter, but she scored a decent score, I think 32 or 33, which pretty good. But the, the thing that I'm so thrilled about after this weekend is that I pulled out. I blew the dust off Neville Bardos's old cross country bridle. It's a, it's called a cherry roll. A gag. And it worked. A dream. I obviously gave her a light cross country school earlier in the week I think on Tuesday and gave it a bit of a test there and it was perfect. Obviously with Contessa she sees the jumps and most of the time she jumps it well, but every now and then she just runs at it. And I really wanted to address this before we take on a four star and hopefully Kentucky five star. It's pretty hard for Contessa to do a great test, you know, with these sort of provincial horse trials. We throw her on the trailer at 5 in the morning. We arrive at 6:30, throw a saddle on her and warm her up for half an hour and do the test. And she's a, she's a sensitive horse and I think this is where I pick up the wrong lead. So I think our next event is going to be the Carolina International Four Star and I'm not going to have that excuse there. We're going to get there the day before. I'll at least, I'll ride her at least two times before her dressage test. So she'll have a couple of rides where she can really get acquainted with the facility. And I'll be back up in Pennsylvania. So obviously Silver and Bettina is actually going to help me later this week and start really dialing in this dressage and see if we can get her down near the 20s. So with Contessa being such a good show jumper, I honestly haven't haven't jumped a show jump literally since the last competition. I just gave her a cross country school earlier in the week and she's so good at show jumping that I feel like our biggest challenge or our biggest hurdle in the, in getting to Kentucky is the rideability and the adjustability and the control for the cross country. Contessa's fitness work is slowly being increasing and I've got her looking good. She's. She hasn't dropped any weight. Her muscles still good, her body looks good, her soundness is really good. We trotted her up this morning after the, the cross country from yesterday and she, she trotted up really well. So by saying that I went like a really slow. I think I went around with like 20 time penalties, which was pathetically slow. That being said, it was more just giving her a run and seeing if this bridle worked. And again, I've just got to always keep thinking about Contessa's legs and there's no real reason, in my opinion, to be going flat out in February. She's a great jumper. I think Peter Wilde's going to come to Aiken later this week and probably give her a jump on Thursday in the show jumping ring. And like I said before, she'll. I think she'll head back to Pennsylvania on Friday or Saturday, which is perfect. I think the conditions are good up there at the moment. And the best thing about Pennsylvania is the, the galloping. We've got a couple synthetic tracks that we can use and if the ground's as good as it is at the moment, we can use the big long turf gallops, which we're very, very fortunate to use the same gallops as a lot of the steeplechase horses and timber horses. In Pennsylvania. She's just a careful jumper. Careful. She knows exactly where the rail is. It's a lover. So this is the cross country. This is about fence five and early on in the course and just gently tried to lift the bit in her mouth to slow her. And if you remember our disappointing round, not a disappointing out of control round a couple weeks ago, when she gets far, she sort of dips her head low. And using this bridle, I really felt like I could keep her nose up and her ears up. So when I'm slowing it, instead of sort of pulling the reins back towards my hips, I sort of almost just lift the bit in her mouth. And it worked a treat. Funny enough. I think it actually gives her confidence too. Like, I don't think she. I think she scares herself sometimes when she. She runs at the jump and panics at it a little bit is, I think actually having a slightly stronger bit in her mouth and. And sort of, I want to say forcing her, but making her get the right distance increases her confidence and, you know, her jumping the fence as well, I think is the key, you know, of success, especially over these big long, five star courses, is we need sort of control and brakes and adjustability towards the end. And she can't sort of run blind at the fences. So this part's right at the end of the course. And she started to get a little bit strong at the end, but not too bad. Like I said before, I just really coasted around the course. I just wanted to have a nice round. So we. I think we finished in fifth place. If we decided to go far, she would have won it. But it's not really our interest here. You see me just sort of try and keep galloping and lift her frame upwards. And I'd have to say this weekend's been a roaring success. I've got my tail up again. I really feel like this new bridle cross country is a major breakthrough in our ultimate goal at competing at Kentucky later this spring. Contessa. They are coming to the flower box at 21. Jump that and they're through the finish flags. Boyd, Martin and Contessa.
