Boyd Exell

Boyd Exell (born July 29, 1972, in Bega) is an Australian horse driver, trainer, judge and horse owner who specializes in combined driving with four-in-hand teams. He has won the World Cup indoor driving finals ten times, and won six world champion titles during his career. As of May 2024, Exell is ranked #1 in the world for his sport. Exell travels to Australia, the US and around Europe holding events to train drivers. Since 2015, he has been stationed in the Netherlands after spending 20 years in the UK.

Personal life
Boyd Exell was born July 29, 1972 in Bega, Australia where he and his two brothers and a sister were raised. His father was a civil engineer and his mother a schoolteacher. Boyd had always loved horses, and he and his brother Kent learned to drive horses early on and competed as young boys. At 16, Boyd started to compete seriously in carriage driving competitions in Australia and won the Australian National Championships with a Hackney Pony team. As a backup to a career with horses and pressure from his mother, he completed an apprenticeship with a local engineering firm.

When he was 21, he travelled to the United States and eventually settled in England to learn more about horse sports and carriage driving. He stayed in England for 20 years before moving to Valkenswaard, Netherlands in 2015. Exell is married to Preetha and has two children James and Olivia. Exell enjoys boating and water skiing.

Career
Along with competing in four-in-hand driving sports, Exell has been active in breaking, training, buying and selling horses. Much of his time has been spent training drivers in America and across Europe, and he has sought talented drivers to mentor. He has provided horses and carriages for weddings and funerals, and driven coaches for sponsors and owners.

"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."

Exell was a judge for the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) from 2010 to 2020, and Deputy Chair of the FEI Driving Committee from 2012 to 2014.

Annually, he hosts the Driving Valkenswaard International combined driving competition at his farm in the Netherlands.

Competitions
Boyd Exell became the individual world champion for the first time at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. He was able to repeat this success at the 2012 World Championships in Germany with the same team.

In August 2013, Exell's top horse died. Bill 22 was a brown Orlov Trotter born in 1992. He had reached the age of 21 and was considered the fastest four-in-hand leader (front horse) in the world at the time. Boyd Exell's success story began in 2008 with Bill 22, winning a bronze medal at the World Championships in the Netherlands. Together they won four World Cup Finals in a row, from 2009 to 2012. In 2013, Exell placed second in the World Cup Finals in France with Bill 22 in the team. Boyd had taken over Bill 22 from driver Michael Freund (equestrian) in 2007, with whom he had won five World Cup Finals starting with a 2002 victory in Sweden.

In 2014, Exell won the title of individual world champion at the World Equestrian Games in France. In 2016 he became the individual world champion again in the Netherlands. In 2018 he defended his world championship title again in North Carolina, and in Italy in 2022.

In 2023, Boyd Exell won his 10th World Cup Finals. At his prior win, the last qualifier before the Finals competition, the announcer declared Exell "number one in the world, more titles than any other driver in history."

Wins
Boyd Exell has won 75% of his FEI competitions, with 158 wins out of 212 starts, and as of May 2024 is ranked #1 in the world for his sport. He won the world championship competitions in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022, and placed third in 2008. Ten times he has won the World Cup indoor driving competition (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2023) and placed second 3 times (2013, 2016, 2022).

Exell was eight times British National Champion, and he has won the driving competition at CHIO Aachen eleven times (2003, 2009-2013, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023).

Accolades
Boyd Exell was awarded an Order of Australia in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to equestrian sports. In 2017, Boyd Exell was inducted into the Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame in recognition of his achievements in carriage driving. Equestrian Australia named him the International Athlete of the Year in 2010, 2013 2014, 2015, and 2016. In 2015, the FEI honored Exell with the Reem Acra Best Athlete award.

In 2014, his team of horses was named IRT International Horse of the Year. The team of five geldings were aged 7 to 20 years old; two were Dutch Warmbloods (KWPN). "'It's hard to find reliable leaders 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"

As of May 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.