the dressage phase and has proven himself a sure bet on the cross-country, but the show jumping remains his bugaboo. Sometimes he performs a brilliant clear round and at other times it all falls apart. Without this weak link he likely would have been on the WEG team, but in the end the selectors chose the horse that is weaker in the dressage but could jump two clear rounds. Boyd admits that his confidence has wavered at times.
“Every time I took on a new challenge with Remi, whether it was his first 2-star, 3-star or 4-star, I always thought to myself, ‘Heck, what am I doing here with this horse?’ I had sleepless nights before cross-country wondering if I was going to survive, yet every time he has gone above my expectations. I’ve finished almost every course wishing I’d pushed him a bit harder and went a bit faster. When I walked the Pau cross-country course, I really questioned whether Remington could get around. After watching 70% of the field crash and burn and a number of top riders take options on the course, I wondered if this little reject from Germany could do it…but I think it goes back to his will to please and fantastic work ethic to do whatever the
“I also think [Remi] has such a good relationship with Boyd. If Boyd asked him to go off a cliff he’d probably do it!”
guy on top of him asks him to do. He was one of only two horses to take every direct option on the course.” “Obviously the heartbreaking part of the weekend was
the show jumping,” Boyd adds. “We jumped clear rounds at many of the lead-up events to Pau. However I think as a rider I made a critical error of making him try too hard in the warm-up. I don’t think he was tired or stiff or anything, but I may have pushed him too much in the warm-up and broke his spirit a bit. He’s a horse that thrives on confidence and enthusiasm.” It has been a long and bumpy road, and the Juvonens
have stuck with it through thick and thin supporting Boyd and Remington all the way. “The whole thing is a journey, really like life!” says Densey Juvonen. “Would you like to do certain things? Yeah! But for the WEG if you’re honest about it, Ron and I have to put ourselves in the shoes of the selectors. If I were a selector I probably would have selected Neville too because he was able to do exactly what he did: cross-country and stadium, both very well. Remington would have had a shot at really winning because of his dressage, but his weak link is the stadium – sometimes it’s brilliant and sometimes it’s not. If they’d already had three horses like Neville on the team they might have taken Remi, but to be safe they took Neville.” The Juvonens say that it was interesting watching the whole selection process, particularly the selection trials in Georgia. They also attended the WEG to cheer on the U.S. team, and they have recently joined the Neville Bardos Syndicate thanks to Boyd gifting a share to them, so they still felt like they were a part of the team. Densey concedes, “Now Pau was a real disappointment
The duo in the final show jumping at Rolex. They placed 11th. 44 March/April 2011
and there’s no getting over that – Remington performed brilliantly up until the gods made a choice. There was a bad rainstorm during the last quarter or so of the show jumping, which caused problems for Remi and quite a few other horses. It was more than a downpour; it was more like a hurricane! It was hailing at one point and the footing looked like Lake Erie! It was for all the top horses. William Fox-Pitt had three rails and Oliver Townend had five! If you look at the statistics it was just terrible. Obviously a few horses were okay and able to jump right through it, but it was a big disappointment.” Looking on the bright side, she adds, “Of course as
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