A while ago I wrote a blogpost about the amazing comeback horse, Neville Bardos (linked here).

If you are not familiar with the story, this amazing horse – who was bought for a mere pittance – has grown into a stellar, formidable, oft-winning 3-Day eventing horse.

However, that is only part of the story…

Neville Bardos recently survived a horrible barn fire.  He should have died.   At the ER veterinary clinic, the doctors kept re-sampling Neville’s blood because the tests showed that his oxygen levels were so low, he should have been dead.  His lungs and throat were so severely burned, they never thought he’d ever come back.

But, he did.

Incredibly, he competed just 8 weeks later.

Amazing.

Some say that because Neville is a cribber, his throat and lungs were in better ‘shape’ for burns of this nature.  (dunno…)

And now Neville and his rider, Boyd Martin, are trying to make the US Olympic team.  (As an aside, both of Boyd’s parents were Olympians…- Wow!)

I found this extensive clip on MSNBC and wanted to share it with you so we could all start rooting for them.

I’ll keep you posted on their progress!  Also, you can follow them on their FB page (linked here).

(Here is a link to the MSNBC video.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(This just in from reader, Kitty!  THANK YOU!  Here is the direct link to the webpage below.)

 

Burghley Horses: Ten Fun Facts About Boyd Martin’s Neville Bardos… and Some Bonus Ones!

August 26, 2011

Posted by Patricia under Burghley Horse Trials, Ten Fun Facts About…

2 Comments

If you have been following our series, you know that we are featuring some of the horses that will be competing at The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials,  not as top level competitors but as horses – with their unique quirks and personalities.

With this series, we wanted to show that horses at the top level of the sport are just as silly as the ones in your barn… and that they loved by their riders (and grooms), not only for what they “do”, but for who they are.

Our sixth Burghley “spotlight” horse is Boyd Martin’s Neville Bardos.

In case you missed our other Ten Fun Facts articles, here are the links #1-Sinead Halpin’s Tate, #2-Hawley Bennett’s Gin & Juice, #3 Jessica Phoenix’s Exponential, #4 Kyle Carter’s Madison Park and #5 Hamish Cargill’s Sandhills Tiger.

And here’s Neville!

Horse: Neville Bardos
Barn name: Nev
Born: 1999
Nationality: Australian (but proud to represent the USA)
Color: Chesnut
Sex: Gelding
Breed: Thoroughbred
Owner: Neville Bardos Syndicate LLC
Rider: Boyd Martin

1. Favourite treat = beer

2. Neville was  bought for $799.99 at a country fair

3. He is named after Boyd’s maternal uncle who is the real Mr Neville Bardos

4. He hates trailering unless accompanied by a pet goat

5. He loves popcorn

6. The grooms at the barn call him George

7. He almost didn’t make it to WEG because Boyd thought the show was in Lexington, Virginia

8. Everybody thinks he’s a gelding but in reality he is a stallion and has tons of offspring, little Nevilles and Nevillettes

9. His favourite phase is dressage and loves watching videos of Totilas

10. Boyd has to sing to him in German before XC

Ok, if you thought I just made these up because I got bombarded by emails asking me WHEN we were going to feature Neville… you are right. Here are the real Ten Fun Facts About Neville…. from the REAL Boyd Martin.

Thank you Boyd for taking the time to send them to us!

From Boyd:

1. Neville is named after a true Australian gangster named Neville Bartos.

I changed the surname slightly so that in case the real Neville got out of prison and came looking for me, (in case he was angry about calling a horse after him), I could pretend the horse was NOT named after him. I named him this as I thought Nev looked like a tough, scrappy type of horse. (There are some funny videos if you search “Neville Bartos” on YouTube.com)

2. Silva took Neville to his first competition at Scone Horse Trials, and fell off him at the first jump. It took 15 minutes to catch him and then she got back on and finished, but had 467 time penalties, finishing last.

3. Neville has done one CCI *, two CCI **, three CCI *** & three CCI ****, without a cross-country time penalty or jump penalty.

4. My good mate Gordon Bishop was the person that first looked at Neville as a three-year-old after he finished racing in Australia.  He was $800.00, and Gordon knocked him back, saying he was not a good enough jumper.

5. I had a badly broken leg at the time, was highly sedated on pain killers and I bought him at the time Gordon tried him because I thought he was a good looking horse. (I didn’t notice he had a white eye).

6. For the first four years of his eventing career, I would hang Neville’s ribbons up in Gordon’s tack room after a successful event just to remind him of his error.  I even sent Neville’s 2008 9th place ribbon from Kentucky to Gordon back in Australia.

7. I nearly sent Neville back to the trainer and asked for a refund the second day I owned him, when I found out he was a wind sucker.

8. At his first off the farm outing, a jumping day in Newcastle,  Neville broke loose when we were unloading him and bolted with lead rope, halter and shipping boots straight into the jumping ring in the middle of someone’s round.  It took five people to catch him.

9. Neville now has 10 separate owners, after he was syndicated after the WEG last year.

The first share was sold to April Whitlock from Kentucky, who had watched him jump around Rolex. I had never met her, and she just sent a check in the mail to surprise me.  She did not mention it to her husband either until a few days later, when all hell broke loose.  I nearly had to return the payment, but after talking with Chuck on the phone at great length, assuring him this was a great thing, it all settled down.  They have turned out to be fantastic supporters.

10. I nearly received an assault charge after getting into a heavy altercation with one of the Chiefs of the fire department just before I bolted into the barn to drag Nev out of the fire at True Prospect Farm on Memorial Day.  I caught up with the fireman early the next morning to shake hands and apologize.

But wait…. we’re not done! We received Ten More Fun Facts about Neville from Boyd’s head groom Lindsey Taylor. Thank you Lindsey!

From Lindsey:

1. Neville was born in Australia and ‘rescued’ by Boyd at the age of 3.

2. He has tried to kill everyone who works for Boyd at least once. The most recent episode resulted in three broken facial bones and two surgeries.

3. Boyd has trained Neville to windsuck on his arm- he likes to think it attracts girls!

4. Neville likes to pretend that he has never seen a wash stall before. There are some wash stalls which he will not walk straight into, but has to be backed into.

5. The sound of clippers results in a cacophony of snorting out of Neville. He is still not too sure about those things after all of his experiences with them.

6. He is not to be trusted, no matter how much he tries to tell you he should be. Any type of care: ice boots, equissage, etc. requires careful supervision. He is a troublemaker!

7. He is a walking miracle, three months ago, veterinarians were unsure that he would survive after being rescued from the barn fire. He is now in racing fit shape and ready to compete at Burghley!

8. His habit of wind sucking is a life saving trait. Boyd pulled him out of the barn fire by the strap on his wind sucking collar.

9. Working students put their lives on the line when hand grazing Nev. His actions can be very unpredictable and when he gets that wild look in his eye, things turn dangerous pretty quickly. No texting or talking on the phone allowed!

10. If there is such a thing as insanity in horses, Neville would be walking proof! Maybe that’s why Boyd gets along so well with him…

For more information about Boyd  and Silva Martin (and Neville) – visit Boyd and Silva Martin.com

They are also very active on the social media front… with a fantastic blog and great Facebook page (go like it!)

All of us at HJU wish Boyd and Neville, a successful run at the Burghley Horse Trials!

Boyd and Silva, also have a great series of training videos, which we’ve been reviewing on HJU (two enthusiastic thumbs up from Carrie) … so check them out! >>

 

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.