After Boyd Martin took the reins of Fedarman B last summer in memory of his previous rider Annie Goodwin, it took the pair a bit of time to build a partnership.

But Friday, on the first day of the $50,000 Grand-Prix Eventing at Bruce’s Field, all the pieces came together in a perfectly suited place: the Aiken Horse Park (South Carolina), where Goodwin had been a regular fixture for years and sat on the committee that established the annual Grand-Prix Eventing competition.

Boyd Martin and Fedarman B lead the Grand-Prix Eventing at Bruce’s Field in Aiken, S.C., after the first day of competition. Christine Quinn Photo

After Friday’s dressage and show jumping, Martin and “Bruno” are leading the advanced field on their dressage score of 25.9 penalties, just ahead of Martin’s second mount, Christine Turner’s Tsetserleg, who won the dressage but dropped a rail and picked up a time penalty to sit in second overnight on a score of 28.1. Ariel Grald and Leamore Master Plan are in the third spot on 30.2.

Goodwin, who was killed last summer in a cross-country schooling accident, developed Bruno, now 12, from an unbroken 3-year-old to a four-star horse, riding the Dutch Warmblood gelding (Eurocommerce Washington—Paulien B, Fedor) to a sixth-placed finish in the 2021 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI4*-S just months before her death at age 32.

When Martin, who with his wife Silva Martin had coached Annie, took over the reins in August 2021 for the Annie Goodwin Syndicate, the pair started slowly at training level before moving up to intermediate for most of the fall. After retiring at their first advanced outing together, the pair finished 2021 strong, taking second place in the Tryon International Three Day Event (North Carolina) CCI3*-L division in October.

This year, the pair have been honing their craft at dressage and jumper shows and had just one eventing outing, in the intermediate division at Pine Top Farm (Georgia) a few weeks ago, before heading to the Aiken Horse Park’s advanced-level eventing showcase, the Grand-Prix Eventing at Bruce’s Field.

A ceremony remembering Goodwin, in whose memory the Aiken Horse Park Foundation last year set up the Annie Goodwin Rising Star Fund to assist promising young equestrians, will be held Saturday before the start of cross-country. The competition will run in reverse order of standing starting at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, with action livestreamed on Horse & Country TV.