USEA Convention Program

35 Eric Markell Eric Markell is founder and CEO of Markell & Company LLC, a business advisory service specializing in business strategy. Eric is a retired senior executive of Puget Sound Energy where he held positions as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Resources Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer. Eric is a member of the Board of Directors of ENMAX Corporation, a Calgary-based power company, and has been a member of the Board of Directors of The Hudson Renewable Energy Institute in New York since 2013. Eric, his wife Ellen Ahearn, and their daughter Alex Ahearn have been continuously involved in competitive eventing since 2004. They have progressed together in the sport through leasing and ownership of a series of horses, including their current ownership of the very successful German Sport Horse gelding, Mai Baum. In 2016 Eric established MB Group LLC that acquired MB MaiBlume, a 7-year-old German Sport Horse mare, and MB MaiStein, a 4-year-old Oldenberg gelding. Eric has been a regular attendee and supporter of events in both Areas VI and VII, and through his family's ongoing close relationship with, and support for Tamra Smith, has taken on the challenge to support their three horses in high performance competition. Boyd Martin As a proven winner, Boyd Martin won the hearts of American eventing fans since the day he stepped foot on American soil in 2007. Boyd spent his first two years in the United States working as an assistant trainer for eventing legend Phillip Dutton and then branched off on his own to start his own operation, Windurra USA, in Cochranville, Pennsylvania. By 2009, Boyd had decided to switch nationalities and compete for the United States after finishing second overall on the USEA Rider of the Year leaderboard. Since switching nationalities and competing for the United States, Boyd has competed in two Olympic games, the 2012 Olympic Games in London riding Otis Barbotiere, and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro riding Blackfoot Mystery, where he finished 16th individually. Boyd has also found himself as the top-placed American finisher in his two World Equestrian Games starts. At the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Boyd finished in 10th place with Neville Bardos, and he finished in seventh at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy riding Shamwari IV. Martin was also a member of the gold medal-winning team at the 2015 Pan American Games, which secured a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro for the United States Eventing Team. He was a double gold medalist at the 2019 Pan American Games aboard Tsetserleg. Boyd can be seen almost every weekend of the year either competing several horses at a horse trials or coaching some of his students at shows. Martin's facility, Windurra USA, is also open for anyone to use, with an open cross- country field for schooling and schooling jumper shows throughout the summer so that riders of all levels can experience his facility and continue getting better at the sport of three-day eventing. John Meriwether An active amateur rider, John Meriwether's entry into the world of eventing in the 70s started with a Pony Club 8mm film of Badminton. That motivated him to join the Woodbrook Hunt Pony Club and then the USCTA in Washington state. The riding arc of his life has been frequently interrupted but never abandoned. A family move necessitated sale of the family horses with returns each summer to ride. Eventually, he rode as an Area VII individual at the NAYRC Team Championships in '76 on a horse owned by Mrs. L.S. (Bets) Andrews. He obtained a B.A. from Swarthmore College in Political Science in '82, then took a gap year hitchhiking around Europe which stretched into a second year with several months working for the MFH of the County Louth Hunt in Ireland. He worked as an exercise rider in a hunter/ jumper barn in San Antonio, Texas for Col. John Russell before returning to school for his MBA from Thunderbird in '86. He met with his soulmate and

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