Dressage rider and trainer Silva Martin, 29, became a citizen of the United States of America on Friday, May 30, in Philadelphia, PA. She was sworn in with 72 immigrants from 32 different nations. She now plans to apply to the FEI for permission to represent the USA in riding competition.

Silva and her husband Boyd, 30, train out of Phillip Dutton’s True Prospect Farm in West Grove, PA. “I wanted to get the American passport because Boyd and I love living here and this is home for us now,” she said.

Boyd is a three-day eventer who has two horses on the short list for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. He is a native of Australia who has dual citizenship thanks to his American mother; last year he got FEI permission to ride for the U.S.

He said, “I changed my citizenship last year, and Silva is starting the process now of representing the United States. It has been a real asset for my horses and I to take part in team training sessions, and I am excited for Silva to potentially have the same benefits to her training program.”

Silva was also able to keep her German passport. “It’s not easy to do that so I had to jump through a few hoops, but I’m glad I did,” she said. “All of my family is still in Germany and I travel there a lot for business buying and selling horses as well as working with my sister, so it was important for me.”

She said, “I’m so excited to be American too! We plan to stay here and hopefully one day I can represent America as a rider. Representing Germany is very difficult because you have to live in Germany and there are so many people to choose from, so it’s kind of out of the question for me. All of this went a lot quicker than I thought it would, so I’m applying for FEI approval next.”

Silva has several horses competing at the FEI levels as well as a string of promising your horses. She said that her coach Jessica Ransehousen is particularly excited about her becoming an American citizen because of the opportunities for Silva and her Grand Prix horse Jeff the Chef W.

“She seems to believe in Jeff, so whatever happens, happens,” said Silva. “He’s still a young horse and needs more time so it’s not a big hurry, but it’s my goal to ride at the Olympics one day. I’ve trained this horse from day one, and we’re there now and it’s very exciting; there’s still a lot of work to do, but now it’s just making what we know perfect. I’m excited to ride him and see how far we can get.”

More information about Silva Martin, Boyd Martin and Windurra USA, LLC, is available at www.boydandsilvamartin.com.