Boyd Exell (born July 29, 1972, in Bega) is an Australian horse driver, trainer, judge and horse owner who specialises in competing with four-in-hand teams in the combined driving sport. He has won the World Cup indoor driving finals ten times and won eight world champion titles. As of October 2024, Exell is ranked number one in the world for his sport. Stationed in the Netherlands since 2015, he travels to Australia, the United States and around Europe holding events to train drivers.
Along with competing in four-in-hand driving sports, Exell has been active in breaking, training, buying and selling horses. He has trained drivers in America and across Europe, and sought talented drivers to mentor. He has provided horses and carriages for weddings and funerals, and driven coaches for sponsors and owners.[3][4]
The nice thing about carriage driving is that we can host our sponsors and owners and we can take them to Royal Ascot on a coach (an English Park Drag) with a team of horses. We can take 10 to 12 guests and we can have three days of racing. We set off from the Royal Mews in Windsor Castle, head down through Windsor Great Park, spend the day racing, have lunch and take the guests home. That is one of the upsides of driving, to be able to host your owners and your sponsors in that way.
Annually, he hosts the Driving Valkenswaard International combined driving competition at his farm in the Netherlands.[4] Exell trains other drivers at his farm and travels internationally to hold seminars on driving.[7][8]
Competitions
Boyd Exell became the individual world champion for the first time at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. He repeated this success at the 2012 World Championships in Germany with the same team.[2][3]
Exell during the 2013 World Cup series in Geneva, Switzerland
In August 2013, Bill 22, Exell's best lead[a] horse, died at the age of 21. Bill was an Orlov Trotter born in 1992, previously driven by Michael Freund[de; fr] with whom he won five consecutive World Cup Finals, beginning with a 2002 victory in Sweden. Exell started driving Bill in 2007, and won a bronze medal with him at the World Championships in the Netherlands in 2008. They went on to win four consecutive World Cup Finals, from 2009 to 2012. According to Exell, "Bill taught me that you could trust him at top speed through the obstacles and he could still be careful and responsive."[2][9][10]
In 2014, Exell won the title of individual world champion in France. He repeated his win in the Netherlands in 2016, in North Carolina in 2018, in Italy in 2022, and in Hungary in 2024.[2]
Exell at the 2014 World Cup finals in Bordeaux, France
Boyd Exell has won 75% of his FEI competitions, with 161 wins out of 216 starts.[11][b] He won the world championship competitions in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024, and placed third in 2008.[2] He won the World Cup indoor driving competition ten times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023) and placed second four times (2013, 2016, 2022, 2024).[2]
Exell was British National Champion eight times,[3] and won the driving competition at CHIO Aachen twelve times (2003, 2009-2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024).[12]
In 2023, Boyd Exell won his 10th World Cup Finals.[13][14] In January 2023, the announcer declared Exell "number one in the world... more titles than any other driver in history."[15]
Accolades
Boyd Exell was awarded an Order of Australia in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to equestrian sports.[5] In 2017, Exell was inducted into the Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame for his achievements in driving.[16] Equestrian Australia named him the International Athlete of the Year in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.[17][18] In 2015, the FEI honored Exell with the Reem Acra Best Athlete award.[c][20][6]
In 2014, his team of horses was named IRT International Horse of the Year.[d] The team of five geldings were aged 7 to 20 years old; two were Dutch Warmbloods (KWPN).[21]
"It's hard to find reliable leaders[a] who are honest and forward. Horses at the back need to be honest, reliable powerful and hard-working – but the ones at the front that need to be brave and independent are harder to get... chasing the perfect team is like chasing the pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow." —Boyd Exell [8]
As of October 2024, FEI ranked Boyd Exell number 1 worldwide for Driving World Cup Standings, Driving World Cup Qualification Standings, and Driving World Ranking - Four-in-Hand.[11]
In a 2021 presentation of his competition career, FEI said of Exell, "Behind Boyd's success lies his genuine love of horses and a deep sense of connection with his animals, and it's this mutual understanding between Exell and his horses that has made them a formidable partnership on the international carriage driving stage, and truly an equestrian icon".[22]
Personal life
Boyd Exell was born July 29, 1972, in Bega, Australia,[23] where he and his siblings were raised. His father was a civil engineer and his mother was a schoolteacher. Exell is married, has two children, and enjoys boating and water skiing. Boyd always loved horses. He and his brother Kent learned to drive horses early on and competed as young boys. At 16, Boyd started to compete seriously in driving competitions in Australia and won the Australian National Championships with a Hackney Pony pair. As a backup to a career with horses, and due to pressure from his mother, he apprenticed with a local engineering firm.[24][3][4][25]
When he was 21, he travelled to the United States, then settled in England near London to learn more about horse sports and carriage driving, and to improve his riding and driving talent. He stayed in England for 20 years before moving to Valkenswaard, Netherlands in 2015.[17][26]
Notes
1 2 "Leaders" are the two horses at the front of a team of four. The two horses at the rear are called "wheelers".
↑ Statistics counted from 1 January 2010 to 11 October 2024.
↑ Fashion designer Reem Acra is a patron and sponsor of numerous FEI awards and events.[19]
↑ IRT is an international horse transport company, and the sponsor of the award.
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