FORMER international event rider Ella Boyle has announced the acquisition of two dressage horses, both of whom are also licensed stallions and have already joined her at her Hillsborough base, Glebe Equine. Hexagon’s Kaygo is an 11-year-old KWPN by Capri Sonne Jr, who was bred by the late Leunus van Lieren and trained to Grand Prix by Stal Hexagon’s Thamar Zwiestra. He was approved by the KWPN in 2018 and has sired 60 foals registered with them, two of which are licensed stallions. Pontiac VDT is a six-year-old KWPN by the Totilas son Total US. Despite having passed his licensing, he has not competed yet, and was most recently in training with Dutch team rider Diederick van Silfout.

Boyle sourced these horses through the Dutch-based agent Gina Falcone Haden. “I got a plan together and headed over to Holland, met Gina and tried around 30 horses. The plan was definitely not to buy two horses, and it wasn’t to buy a stallion either, but I couldn’t leave these two behind. I hope that I can learn a lot from Kaygo to put into the development of Pontiac, and I think running them alongside each other should help a lot with my riding.”

Freak accident

After two serious injuries in recent years, Boyle hopes that these horses will enable her to make her return to the competition arena. “In 2021, I had a total freak accident when I was taking a horse off the walker and it kicked back at me. I lost 70% of my liver, my lungs collapsed and I had internal bleeding. After a week in intensive care, I spent a further five weeks in hospital. It was a very scary time.”

She returned to riding, but less than a year later another freak accident saw a young horse fall on her and shatter her pelvis. “I’m plated up now,” she said. “I suppose I did lose a bit of confidence and it made me look at things and think ‘maybe I’m not meant to do this forever, maybe I’m not totally bulletproof’.” This is what motivated her to set up her fitness and rehabilitation centre at Glebe Equine, which offers a water treadmill as well as cryo- and laser therapy. She has also been breeding and producing her homebred event horses successfully, with Ben Rainey’s help.

“Starting the business took the focus off my riding for a while. Now, a year in, I have a super team in place and the time is right for me to start riding again. The long-term plan is ideally to compete for Ireland and potentially to use them for breeding, but for now my focus is on building good partnerships with both of them and progressing their ridden careers. I was very lucky to be able to secure both of them and I’m grateful for the support of my family and the team we have at home.”