Progress and Research...

On the brighter side of life, Scottie seems to be improving. We are almost four weeks post treatment and about ready for our retest. He is getting stronger every day and keeps packing on the weight and muscle. His toe dragging is virtually eliminated. His tripping is gone, except for the random hole here and there. I am still trying not to get my hopes up too high just because sure as I do, it will end in heartbreak, but my fingers are crossed nonetheless. On the not so brighter side, now that his EPM is residing it is becoming evident that he has a stifle problem. We are unsure at this point if it is injury or aging joints and I do not really want to pursue that until after his EPM test. Dynah is now referring to his case as "peeling away at an onion" while trying to resolve his issues and piece together his history. We are definitely still in agreement however that this project is worth the time and it will all work out. While speaking with the vet, the subject of joint injections came up and I was a big unsure of exactly how they worked so I did a little research on my own... The AAEP has a wonderful short article that clears up ALOT about joint injections, and all types of joint medications/supplements actually, so if you are like me please check it out! AAEP Lameness and Joint Medications

Scottie is not the only horse in my life that is improving by leaps and bounds... The Woodridge Farm girls are doing wonderful as well! Allouette III, or 3Lu as we call her, has recently been started over fences and she absolutely loves it! This horse has jumper or eventer written ALL over her!! Her canter is coming along surely and she gets more confident in herself and me as her rider every day. Today we actually hacked out around the property, by ourselves -Shock and Awe- with only one tiny spook! Such a grown up! Wiebella, aka Wiebit, has been working on her self carriage and is coming along nicely with that, thanks to some help from Laurie Hedlund. She gets a little lighter and more sure of herself every day. We are still working on collecting her canter while in self carriage but it will come with time.

3Lu exploring the property on our morning hack

Overall, I am very happy and content with life and horses right now. Things seem to be looking up and heading down the right path (for once!) and that is a huge sigh of relief. Look for a new post shortly regarding Scottie's test results and any other random happenings! Until then, always remember to keep kicking!

Rough Waters

Since my last post several events have happened, many of those leading me to the decision to put Stretch up for sale once and for all. The upper levels just aren't in the cards for him and it is in his best interest to pair him with a rider that accepts that and has other goals in mind. It hit me today when I loaded him in the trailer that I am about to say goodbye to one of my best friends of nearly six years. I realize that I have to look at this as a business decision and that it is best for him, but it is still difficult. Thus far two families are very interested and hope to look at him soon. I believe that he would be very happy in either situation.

On the other hand, I would like to welcome Dance Of War, aka Duelly, to the Up A Creek Eventing team! Duelly is a 9yo warmblood gelding out of a Seattle Slew mare by Der Radetzky. Needless to say, athletic might as well be his middle name! Duelly has joined the team on a two year free lease and I can now proudly say that I have my first "owner", the wonderful Ms. Linda Dany. It makes me feel so professional!!! Duelly came to me as a blank slate after only 30 days with Lee Johnson and a week with Dynah. We have been paired together for nearly three months now and have both improved by leaps and bounds! He is a completely different ride from what I am used to and nothing could be better for me at this stage in my career. When we first started together, Duelly had never seen more than trot rails and had to learn all about that darn stadium thing! I can thank grids for that one!! We have since completed two schooling shows with incredible results. Duelly's first outing was the Lily Pond CT in which we ran green as grass and finished on our dressage score of a 33.0 to land us in first place. Second on our list was the Gallery Farm CT where we ran in the starter division and finished on our dressage score of a 31.5 to finish in second. Duelly was quite the show stopper at Gallery and had the entire xc warm-up sitting on the sidelines watching him school! I am so proud of my new little grey pocket rocket! He is turning into such a super star and I cannot wait to see where the two of us go in the future!

The down side is that the future has been temporarily put on hold. About two weeks ago I was kicked in the knee while working with a three year old filly and have been down for the count since. Two sets of xrays and two weeks later we have determined that there are no broken bones and we are in the process of scheduling a CT scan to evaluate any possible tendon damage. Unfortunately, the only thing I have been riding is the couch! The fall plan was to aim Duelly for his first recognized event at Texas Rose HT the first weekend of November, but he needed the full two months prior of heavy schooling to be ready to run beginner novice. Scratch that plan. Now I am just hoping that I will be back in the saddle in time to run him in a schooling HT at Southern Hills in mid November and would like to attend at clinic at Feather Creek in either December or January. Only time will tell if these will be possibilities and hopefully we will have more results this week.

Today has been a particularly hard one and I have never missed being on the back of a horse this much. Im not sure why, but it seems as though every time my dreams are finally within grasp something terrible has to happen. Nevertheless, if there is one thing that eventing has taught me it is that things don't always go according to plan and that we must make the most of any situation. I will keep kicking! All this down time is at least giving me the opportunity to step back and evaluate some things in my life and really think about some decisions. Not yet sure what the future holds in that respect but expect to see great things from the little grey come spring because I can't stay down for long!