Back in the saddle . . . a little

Keebler is now three months status post his tendon/bursa surgery, and has survived the period of enforced stall rest pretty darn well, considering.  No longer sore at all, he coped with the boredom and confinement like a trooper for the most part.  Still can't turn him out, but he's gone from 20 minutes walking under saddle to 25-30 minutes with a little bit of trotting here and there.  A few uneven steps, for sure, but his vet is pleased and thinks he's right on track.  Thankfully no hauling back and forth to Lansing for a while, as we just had our first snowfall of the year--about twelve inches--and my brand new trailer (see below!) is up to its axles in snow.

Dr. Stick thinks video updates are just fine, so with my handy dandy Flip video camera, I get to chronicle monthly test-trots, providing Keebler obliges by not dumping me on my head.  He's so very, very . . . happy to have a job again, even if it's mostly walking around the indoor arena and trying to canter when I'm not paying attention.  Which I am, always!  He's going to stay at GLEC for the winter so he can continue to work under saddle.  The babies miss him, sort of.  Well, not really, because he bit them whenever they came within reach.  In fact, they are digging his nice big stall as their nighttime hangout and feeling like their world is back to normal, both of them having been born in there before the Big, Bad, Gelding moved in.

The view is good from up here.

 The babies are growing and shaggy and sweet and eating me out of house and home!  Oliver was gelded this week and handled that about as well as you could expect.  He's going to be a "been there, done that" kind of horse even before he's been anywhere or done anything.  Lilly is BIG and bossy and surprisingly very quiet to handle, considering her mom was a bit . . . challenging.  There is a sweet, easy mare in there, and I hope I can keep her in sight because she's going to be gigantic.  All they're doing right now is eating, being groomed andtied and messed with a little and being babies.  Here they are trying on their winter clothes--so far lots of big-eyed sniffing and test nibbles but neither one has destroyed the other's outfit yet. 

Keebler update, among other things.

This week marks four weeks status-post Keebler's tendon/bursa surgery.  We have had some discussions about keeping all four feet on the ground when out hand-walking, and we have had to add many levels of security to the Dutch doors on the stalls, as they are often mysteriously open in the morning, with a horse OUTSIDE who ought to be INSIDE.  Near as I can tell he hasn't done any foolish stuff, and it looks like the self-turnout actually has helped his demeanor considerably, even though there are now stall guards and clips securing the doors.  Just can't risk a big, dumb, feel-good buck-fest right now.

Stall toys are coming, and today he had a good time playing football with a stale loaf of French bread.  He also got to make mean faces at the vet and fling his vaccination syringe into the bedding.  Twice.  Lord, I will be glad (on so very many levels) when enforced confinement is over!

Soon I will have two weanlings on the place to keep each other company for the winter.  Ollie is driving all the grownup horses NUTS with his silly-boy antics, and badly needs a playmate.  Lilly, the filly that was born here in May, is coming back and spending the winter.  The two of them can torment each other non-stop, giving the adults a little peace and quiet.  As the mother of an only child, I often wish for a sibling for Evan for this very reason!

Speaking of stall toys, the big green ball in this video was once fully inflated.  Until Keebler decided to body slam it, pick it up in his teeth, and throw it out of his stall.  He apparently does not care for big green balls, but Ollie, as you can see, LOVES them.  

Next thing in the horse life is the Honey Run Team Challenge, where Bonnie will hit the "reset" button on her eventing career after a year away, doing the same show where she made her debut as a four-year-old.   That day ended with me on crutches, looking at ACL surgery.  Let's all hope very hard that Bonnie has learned a thing or two in her six years eventing and now realizes that a log on top of a hill does not mean jump the log AND the hill all in one leap!  Crazy Irish.

On the non-equine front, the fall colors are starting their two-week phase of pure gorgeousness, the weather is perfect, the NFL season is in full swing, Evan's digging Rocket football, and generally life is good.  I've figured out how to do audiobooks on my iPhone, and have tackled The Help, Year of Wonders, and Juliet recently.  Next up is a little bit more of a cerebral workout in Teaching Company: Exploring the Roots of Religion.  I loved the first three, and am certain the last one will be great as well.  I just need to find 36 hours to spend in the car! 

Where the heck did I put that lead shank with the CHAIN?

Keebler is officially one week status-post his tendon surgery, and unless you looked at the big, huge bandage on his leg (one more week of THAT) you'd never know it.  He apparently is feeling JUST FINE and our twice-daily walks are . . . thrilling at times.  Turkeys?  LEAP.  Rustling leaves?  BOLT.  Colt trotting up to the fence?  WHEEL AND SNORT.  This is not a spooky horse, he's just looking for stuff to do.  God help me, it is an adventure.  The boy feels GOOD.

He has not taken one single, solitary permitted step other than at the walk, but that hasn't kept him from doing some airs above the ground now and then.  And the leg does not seem to trouble him one bit.  Today's bandage change revealed perfectly clean, dry incisions.  The stitches come out in a week, at which point the bandages can be done away with.

The photo makes his (poor, naked) pastern look puffy, but it's not at all.  Looks fantastic, as a matter of fact.  There are two stitches; I'll be taking those out in a week.  And by the way, I can see him going through lots of aluminum shoes.  They are fantastically light, but durable?  Huh.  Half a dozen trips up and down the driveway at the (reluctant) walk and they're already hacked up and a bit worn.  So he can be a spotted Imelda Marcos, who cares? :-)  Chris keeps telling me that there are MANY types of aluminum and no doubt a better alloy could be devised to allow more durability without adding weight.  He'll get right on that, yup.

Next checkup is October 5th at MSU, at which point some lucky soul (probably me) gets to trot him out.  Should be fun!

Journey to the Center of the Hoof

OK, here is the beginning, at least, of the veterinary saga that has been Keebler's life since July 4th.

Week one:  LAME, suddenly, after having a few days off after the South Farm HT.  Vet happened to be there and blocked the foot and he was sound with the palmar heel block.  He also about fell over when we did hoof testers, so the working diagnosis was bruise or abscess.

Week two:  Soaking, poulticing, soaking, poulticing . . . no improvement.  Pulled the shoe, no sign of bruising or abscess.  Stress level starts to go up a little at this point! 

Week three:  Another exam--this time the heel block left him still completely lame--WTF?!  So we blocked up higher and he went sound.  OK, now what?  X-rays show a big old sidebone, quite a surprise in a small, light, elastic-jointed, easy-moving critter like him, but possibly an issue?

Week four and five:  No improvement, tentative plan is just to see how he comes along.  I'm not much LIKING this plan--too many question marks.

Week six:  Off to Michigan State for another exam.  Still stinking lame, and this time he blocks to the heel again.  Oy vey!  I find it absolutely and completely maddening how the diagnostic process takes place when the patient is non-verbal.  X-rays give a better view of the impressive sidebone, but at this point we're all thinking it's In The Foot.  A bad place for a lameness to come from--lots of moving parts in there.

So we did an MRI of the foot, and there it was--a lesion in the Deep Digital Flexor Tendon just at the "pulley zone" where the tendon runs over the navicular bone.  The navicular bursa is sort of torn open and all the fluid has leaked out.  Here is a picture . . .

So I am FAR from an expert in interpreting MRIs, not to mention my last close examination of hoof anatomy was in 4H Horse Bowl in like 1979, but just above the frog there (the biggest, medium-gray structure on the bottom) is a black structure which is the DDFT.  Over to the right side of that structure, up top, is a tiny little gray indentation--that's the tear in the tendon, which is SMALL.  To the left are two bright, white parallel lines--that is the "healthy" part of the navicular bursa.  (Again, this is an amateur interpretation!)  The part above the little divot/tear in the tendon should look the same, but it's all dark there, indicating the disrupted part of the bursa.

Pretty cool, except when it's a dearly-loved animal that is in your care. 

So the consensus after MUCH discussion with the expert lameness vets at MSU was that Keebler's best shot at future soundness was probably surgical exploration of the area with debridement of any torn tissue, adhesions, loose bodies, etc.   For those of you who like to look at the veterinary literature, a citation of a small review of cases was provided and you can read the abstract of that here.

Basically the options were to give the horse 6-9 months off and see what we had, and that would be the horse to go on with, or do this exploratory surgery in the hopes that it would give him a better chance.  The surgery is not terribly invasive, and Keebs had tolerated the anesthesia for the MRI very well, so his owner gave the go-ahead and the date was set.

Surgery was this past Wednesday, and Keebler did very well.  When I got a post-op call, the vet told me Keebler had just pinned his ears and showed him his spotted rump, busily scarfing down the hay he'd been kept from that morning.  I figured that meant he was behaving normally.  No apparent effect on mood, anyhow!  The actual tendon lesion was not too bad, and the vets were hopeful that they were able to clean things up as well as possible.  Of course he's going to form more adhesions and scar tissue, but this gets him a head start on a proper recovery, with the help of 3-degree wedge shoes to raise his heels and take a little strain off the tendons.  They are aluminum and very light and are the Natural Balance style that I actually like very much--Gwen wore them for the whole time I had her and did beautifully in them.

Here is a picture of the inside of the navicular bursa:

The messy-looking, ragged stuff on the left is adhesions where the bursa used to be.  The part on the right is the normal half.  The instrument you see is 4mm wide, giving you an idea of how small a space this is!

So Keebler came home with his space-age shoes yesterday, and is floating around very comfortably in my very large foaling stall.  It's large enough for him to canter circles in it (I have seen him do so) but so far he is being very sensible.  We have had a few discussions about his daily Gastrogard paste, but it's getting done, and thank GOD there is peppermint-flavored Bute!  Only about another week on pain meds, and stitches come out next week, at which point no more bandages.  He's allowed to walk five minutes three times a day, gradually increasing to an hour twice a day, and that will be a good opportunity for me to make up for the fitness I'VE lost by not riding much for the past two months!

More to come . . .

And what of the little spotted horse?

A short but phenomenally FUN horse show season with Keebler came to an unexpected end after our July trip to the South Farm Horse Trial.  Dressage was coming along little by little, jumping was awesome, and dang it--I was getting closer to my "usual" goal at a HT--to finish on  my dressage score.

A typical not-bad-could-be-better dressage test was quickly forgotten, and it was on to XC over ground that was a little hard but not too bad.  I'd popped off over Bonnie's shoulder last year at their dark-in-the-woods half coffin, so was a little anxious about that.  Of course with my awesome Mother's Day present of a helmet cam, I can just show the video rather than blather on about the course . . . South Farm XC helmet cam

Watching now I can see where the two seconds that we were over time were lost.  Dang it!  But there are still a few "steering optional" moments and I was trying to be subtle and finesse things maybe too much.  Anyway, a great clean round other than 0.8 time faults and since Keebler was completely ho-hum about the Amish buggies after the first few sightings, I was hoping to have a nice SJ round.

This is how Keebler jumped on Sunday--clean out of his skin! 

And this is what we went home with. :-)

Sadly, the happy ending was decidedly deflated when Keebler came up lame 4 or 5 days after the show.  We'd checked his back and done a little work on that, but after a few days of turnout he came in 4/5 lame on the right front.  He blocked to the foot and was positive on hoof testers, so we figured stone bruise from the galloping or maybe an abscess . . .

. . . and two months later, as I start catching up with Keebler news, the poor guy is sitting at Michigan State University recovering from surgery with hope and uncertainty keeping him company.  More later . . .

A very busy week on the farm

Let's see, where to begin?  Other than Daisy the pony, who is her usual sweet self and whose main job is to stand around, look cute, and give the occasional pony ride, all of the horses in my "family" have had momentous weeks.
My farrier's mare, Heather, whom I've been mare-sitting for about six months, foaled a nice big, leggy bay filly (might turn gray, I was certain at first but now am not so sure) on the 25th, at the very polite hour of 11pm.  No troubles, a textbook delivery, and the only problem I have is that the mare WILL NOT be caught.  She's out in the big pasture eating grass, hanging out, and being feral.  So the filly is minimally socialized but I'm hoping mama will soon get tired of the bugs and the sun and decide to come in.  

Erika's got a pregnant horse at her place who will be coming here in a week or so to foal as well.  I kind of like the idea of having a nursery--have some mares around, babies and youngsters all over the place, and keep the "going" horses in training at Erika's place.

Which brings me to the more depressing part of the update.  Bonnie became off a couple of weeks ago, progressing to the point where she's now quite lame.  Last year she developed an odd bump on her pastern, but X-rays were normal at that time and she was sound.  Glad I got the films done then--new X-rays done this week show some ossification up high in the lateral cartilage, or in other words, she's growing a sidebone.  Not terribly surprising given her big body and somewhat less than elastic way of moving, plus she's had a couple of hard clobbers to her ankles.  Prognosis uncertain, starting with 3 months off and hoping to get a lameness vet to check her over soon so there's no missing the forest for the trees.

But to keep it on the upbeat, the idea of a Bonnie baby has been growing on me.  I wouldn't say she's solidly earned her place in the gene pool with her competitive career, but she has the best temperament, really good legs and feet (current condition perhaps notwithstanding) and yes, I'd take another one like her.  Haven't made up my mind yet, but things have a way of happening for a reason, which is how I'm looking at this lameness issue.  Stay tuned!

Keebler has been doing great, nice and shiny and a lot happier, it seems, since I changed him from my regular ration balancer to Ultium.  I'm giving him some TUMS, as well, which he thinks are horse treats, just in case his tummy is bugging him.  He is 100 times less cranky and generally is being a happy dude.  He is back at Erika's now while I switch all these mares around.  He'll get to hang out with his gelding buddies and act like a hooligan without an emotional mother-to-be grouching at him all the time.

This weekend we went to May-Daze and did our first Training HT together.  Dressage was really pretty darn good, and if I'd had the horse in the ring that I had in warmup I think our score would have been even better than the 37.7 we got.  I know it's not an earth-shattering score, but the improvements have been huge and I think it'll keep getting better.  Dressage shows, poor Keebler, are in the future.  Stadium went well once we got past the first jump!  Something distracted him on the way in or he decided it would be a really good time for naughtiness, but I found myself going sideways on our opening circle, and I swear he never even saw fence #1, plowed right through it.  I should have circled again before sending him but didn't think I had time since the judge had blown the whistle the moment we went in.

I hate to show this first picture, but compared to the second one it is a great illustration of the difference between Keebler Not Paying Attention and Keebler Realizing It's Time To Go To Work.  The first picture is jump #1, the 2nd picture is just 8 or 9 strides later, fence #2, with Our Act Together.

Cross country was a blast, and although Keebler had one big spook at a shiny black ramp (the smallest jump on course!) which genuinely seemed to surprise him--he got sideways so fast I was nearly on the ground--he absolutely was perfect everywhere else and literally ate it up.  Felt fantastic, and I can't wait to do it again!   Next weekend I'll have my chance at Indiana.

Helmet cam video is a little large for our satellite to handle without coughing up a hairball, but it came out great and I will post it later.

Horses might not be my son's cup of tea, but . . .

I must have done at least an adequate job indoctrinating him.  Today after school he decided to invent some of his own Pokemon characters.  After the obligatory death and destruction-types (with powers such as "nuclear blast", "TNT", and other such boy things) he was at a loss for the next one in the series.

He looked out the window for a few minutes and said "GOT IT!".  Who or what did he see out there?  Why, his pony, of course!  Standing by the corner of the paddock, looking hopefully up at the house to see if maybe dinner might be three hours early today.

"PONY is the name of the new Pokemon, Mom, and it has only one power".

I'm thinking "bite" or "kick" or "trample" or maybe even "run underneath a tree branch", knowing ponies.

Nope, the awesome pony-power is . . . CUTENESS!  Could anything BE cuter?

He may not be a horse kid, but at least the pony has made an impression, and that's something at least. 

A gravitational shift at Rolex, courtesy of one courageous iconoclast named Allison Springer

Many people are aware of my stand on wearing helmets while riding. For those who don't, it's easy-peasy. Never, ever, throw a leg over a horse without an approved helmet strapped on.

Pro: might save your life, or better--prevent a devastating, permanent NONfatal head injury.
Con: umm, you will have helmet hair

Yes, I'm aware that things can happen, especially with horses, that helmets won't protect you from. Yes, I'm aware that just walking down the street has its hazards. But please reference the list of "cons" above. So??? No-brainer, pardon the pun.

Eventers are probably farther along than most groups of riders in terms of wearing helmets, but something that's puzzled and completely irritated the hell out of me for years is the "fashion" of putting on fake helmets for dressage, awards ceremonies, and other times when helmets are not strictly mandated.

Yes, I'm aware that most riders don't, in fact, wear helmets. And on that topic I can only muse on the veracity of the old axiom that "there's no cure for stupid" and on Darwin.

So today at Rolex, the premier competition in our sport, and its pinnacle on American soil, a singular and unprecedented shift in the gravitational field of the "world" of horse sports occurred, in the unassuming person of one Allison Springer, a lovely rider who is knocking on the door of greatness. What she did was throw tradition and "fashion" to the spring breeze and trot down the center line wearing an approved helmet, defying the (literally) centuries-old tradition of wearing a bowler or top hat. An anachronistic relic that has long since needed retiring if there ever was one!

Doesn't she look great? And to emphasize how much dressage judges do NOT care about what's on top of your head, she is solidly in second place in a large field. I'm rooting for her to win, although she has already achieved a gigantic victory in my book and a singular place in the eventing pantheon. Brava!

Take Manhattan, just gimme that countryside

Actually, I love Manhattan. I've always fantasized about having a really cool little apartment right there in the middle of everything, and spending six months living in the city. Just six months, no longer. I'd be hating it by then and I don't want to hate NYC, it's the playground of my youth.

But living on our little farm is the greatest. THE GREATEST. I love the seasons, (well, three of them) and how the deer and the turkeys and the foxes and the coyotes and all the other varmints keep right on living here like they always did. I love every inch of the place, and even though we've only been here 3.5 years, I feel like I know every inch of it, too. There is nothing like spending a day doing stuff around the place, and finishing up and not wanting to go inside. Late, late sunsets (and it's not even summer yet!) really help to make the days seem endless and like there's plenty of time to do everything.



The current herd is settling in well and getting along: Daisy the pony, Keebler, and my farrier's wife's mare Heather, who is gigantically pregnant and staying here to foal. A win-win deal--I had a mare to keep the pony company all winter and someone to eat all the hay I bought last year AND I get free shoes and trims while she's here, and Mike and Kim get their mare looked after. This will be my third foal--the foaling stall is all ready (one of today's projects), the video camera is ready, and it's almost time to start the big countdown. She's due in early May.

Bonnie is spending the summer at GLEC and Erika is going to compete her, get her past that "almost Training level" point for me. I miss having her here; she's the real boss of this place and looks around in a more proprietary manner than I do when she's "home". There's not a turkey that walks out of the woods that she isn't aware of. The boss mare. Keebler has cheerfully adopted the duty of "stallion" and feels like it's his job to herd the two mares around with his head snaking along the ground and ears flat back, chasing the potentially horse-killing barn cats away from the herd. They humor him, both the cats and the mares. It's good for his ego, which actually needs no stroking.

Last weekend we went to Kentucky to the Spring Bay Horse Trials and he performed very admirably for a horse who hasn't gone cross country in almost two years. Turns out he's extremely agreeable out on cross country and perfectly easy in stadium. Dressage remains a work in progress, but we have definitely gotten somewhere these last few weeks. I need to find a dressage show somewhere. He'll love it.

OK, now I will get to the new horse

To continue the saga . . .

I have been an active member of the Chronicle of the Horse bulletin board for, well, sort of forever. They know me there, and there are dozens of people I see at shows that I "know" from COTH; it's always fun to meet up with people at shows and exchange code names. Sort of like a secret society. Anyhow, in my typical fashion I got to musing out loud over there about being at sort of an eventing crossroads and wondering if I should find another schoolmaster.

Enter Seema, a fellow COTHer, fellow (although former) Michigan eventer, fellow medical person, fellow eventer, and owner of a little spotted horse named Keebler who has as colorful a pedigree as he has a personality. Part Holsteiner, part TB, part Appaloosa. All boy--what was I going to do with a GELDING? She was looking to place him in an eventing barn with a really good trainer and my barn and trainer certainly fit the bill, if I do say so myself! Was I interested in a year-long lease on a little horse with all the jump in the world and (to quote his owner in her introductory note) a little bit of an Appy-tude?

(I didn't realize before I met him that the part between the ears for Appies is generally more colorful than their hides)

Sure I was! Gwen came to me completely in a spur-of-the-moment decision, nudged along by another eventing buddy. And the horse had never met a jump he didn't think was meant for jumping--just like Gwennie, and PRECISELY what I needed. The deed was done, and late last fall Keebler arrived up north after spending lots of time in Florida and Alabama--just enough bunny fur and plenty of warm blankets to see him though a real winter.

Excited, I tacked up for our first ride--first check: Bonnie's girth SWAM on him, hmmm, so do all my saddle pads and boots and coolers. Luckily he came with bridles and lots of halters--I will explain why later--and I borrowed a little girth and off we went. I realized within a few minutes that I now had the ride on two horses that are as opposite as opposite could be, in almost every way imaginable . . .

Bonnie: girl, big horse, little gaits, must be pushed to use herself and big, free movement does NOT come naturally. However, she is obedient, easy to ride, and cheerful about almost everything. Although not athletically gifted, she is always ready to go for a ride. A good egg, easy to have fun with but hard to get a great performance. Not entirely her fault. Nature endowed her with big, sturdy hooves and limbs and a great temperament, but not with glorious gaits.

Keebler: boy, little horse, big gaits, uses every bit of himself all the time but no aversion to sending each of his four limbs in random directions. Supple does not begin to describe him--think "gumby". Big walk, big stride, lots of movement in a small package. However, how shall I say it--NOT obedient, NOT easy, and decidedly NOT cheerful about dressage! Plenty of go, but a little light on submission and cooperation. Verdict? Bruce Mandeville had him pegged in 30 seconds: "there's a lot going on in there". Smart, smart, smart, clever, clever, clever. Opinionated, prickly and makes you figure things out on your own.

I was going to learn a lot from this one.

And this is Bonnie as a grownup, her 2nd-ever Training level HT in Kentucky in 2009. She totally has the capability, but doesn't always remember that--every time we go XC I get the feeling that she is "this close" to totally getting it and becoming bold and confident. "This close", however, can be a fairly large gulf when the rider is lacking in courage.

The other photo is of the incomparable Gwennie, age TWENTY, ripping her way around another cross country course, clean, fast, and flawless. EVERYONE needs to have a ride on a horse like this once in their life--or preferably many, many more times than once!

To continue introductions

This is Bonnie, a few moments after she was born. Her mama is an OTTB I bought as a rising 5 year old in 1993. She is a pretty, fancy mare and passed on her easy, sweet temperament to her daughter.

So, this new horse I'm riding.

I won't try to put the past 10 years of my horsey life down in one big paragraph, but I'll just list the highlights:

2000: the birth of my homebred IDSH mare, Seelie Court, fondly known as Bonnie, my first attempt at breeding and if I do say so, rather a successful one. She's no superstar athlete, she's not going to the upper levels, but I bred her to be a sensible, easy horse to have fun with. She fits that description admirably.

2001: my son Evan was born, I was in the last year of my cardiology fellowship, and I hardly got to ride at all. Bonnie hung out and grew.

2002-2004: New job, young kid, lots of work, Bonnie growing and seeing the world. Her mother Kelly has decided at this point that she no longer wants to jump over things and I'm not quite ready to give up on eventing!

2004: Enter Guinevere, an opinionated chestnut warmblood mare who had been there, done that, all the way up through multiple CCI*s with amateur riders. I'd known her and her owner for years and--long story short--one day I just up and decided to buy her, never having so much as sat on her.

2004-2007: Had some of the greatest years and rides of my life with Gwen, starting out at Training level, moving up--beyond my wildest dreams--to Preliminary and even having a good crack at a CCI*. She tied up before phase D, which was heartbreaking, but just being there was an amazing ambition fulfilled. Tried to breed her, unsuccessfully, at the age of 19 (it was a long shot, well worth the try but not meant to be) and at the age of 20 she came roaring back and finished her competitive career with a slick, fast XC at Maui Jim Horse Trials, followed a few weeks later by a whole pile of ribbons at a hunter/jumper show, just to show she could do anything involving jumping and do it really, really well.

Later that year, she came down with EPM and although she recovered "pretty well" she was never quite right again and she never jumped again. She went out a winner, her last class winning me the first (and probably the last) blue equitation ribbon I'd ever seen.

2008: All grown up now, Bonnie had crept along slowly with me to "almost Training level" in eventing. Good but not great in all 3 phases, we had good days and bad days. She's a good girl, an easy ride, but not blessed with terrific movement nor great athletic ability. So when matched with the human version of the same limitations in her rider, (those being a lack of courage and riding ability) our progress was sort of glacial.

2009: An OK season with Bonnie, just not quite getting it done at Training level, although Novice has gotten to be very solid. We had some pretty nice scores in dressage, and the mare is actually really very fun in that phase, just sort of earthbound and always limited movement-wise. Still, it's pretty cool to have a horse that was born in my lap doing all that fancy "dressage stuff" like half pass and lengthenings. I'm easily impressed, and (I like to think) a realist. She's a darling horse to me but not going to Rolex or beyond 2nd level dressage. She and I have a lot in common.

At the end of last year, Gwen took a gigantic turn for the worst and I had to have her euthanized in early September. It was heartbreaking, but she'd had a long happy life with much love throughout, so letting her go was as hard as it ever is but she had earned her long rest and will always be there in the center of her favorite paddock.

So with a hole in my heart and room for another horse, after a while I started wondering if I could ever find another schoolmaster or schoolmistress who could teach me as much as Gwennie had.