LM BOLENA

Bolena is a beautiful and well built chestnut mare by ZT Naphl, born in 2005. When I first received her details from her breeder Carlos Larrere, I was captivated by her and bought her. Initially I kept her and raced her in Argentina. Bolena is an opinionated mare with heaps of attitude, and can be really feisty. Our first ride together in Ezeiza was slightly more eventful than I had anticipated. Bolena was very excited about the prospect of racing the FEI 2* and her exuberant buck and bronc display landed me on the floor! Thoroughly disgraced with a bloodied face, and a hole in my knee, I managed to catch her but during her free spell in the woods she must have knocked her leg and we vetted out lame after the first loop. I don’t think either of us were in much of a state to continue, it is always telling when the vets keep asking if you are ok !

Thankfully things progressed in a much safer vein after this. I competed on her several times more at Ezeiza, and also did her first FEI 3* 160 kms there. We also competed at Junin in an incredible heat wave – temperatues soared way over 40 degrees and we hoped to extend our vet hold so that we could go out when the tempertures dropped a little, but it wasn’t allowed and we were terribly disappointed to vet out on the penultimate loop. Our slow and steady trot had saved us in the heat, but her muscles became tight behind and it was not possible to continue. As so often with endurance, it was a question of so near and yet so far.

When I first bought her to the UK in 2015 I offered to let Facundo Larrere ride her at Royal Windsor. It is such an honour to ride in the Royal grounds and an incredible experience, and I wanted my Argentinian “family” to have this opportunity. I partnered LM 42 and Francisco Larrere came over too and partnered his favourite mare LM Zan Naphl. All three chestnut ZT Naphl mares made a pretty picture but would you believe it, all three vetted out ! That’s endurance !! But we all still had great fun and good times together.

Bolena went on to show what an incredible horse she is and I trained her not once but twice in the British winter to go and compete in the heat and the sand of Dubai. I cannot describe what this achievement feels like to train a horse in our off season, battling weather conditions and poor going, and travel them by plane across the world and to ride in a totally different environment. I wanted to test all the training and horsemanship knowledge I had accumulated to date, and I am overwhelmed at what we achieved together. Both times Bolena completed and both times we were complimented by the vets for how well she handled the ride and in particular for how good her bloods and vet checks all were. She looked amazing throughout both trips, and thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine.

Bolena went on to represent Great Britain in the European Championships in 2017 where sadly we were unsuccessful and did not compete. A bitter blow but Bolena bounced back in usual style to “win” the FEI 3* 160 kms at Kings Forest only to receive FNR by the FEI due to route marking issues - somewhat harsh when all competitors in the class made the same error and not only did Bolena cross the line first but was also to be the sole finisher on a tough day. Once again Bolena pulled out all the stops. An exceptional mare.