Return to PA

Here are two pictures my mom took of Jet yesterday.  Today I am back in PA!  I apologize for not blogging yesterday.  I left the horse show and drove back to Pennsylvania and my computer battery died.  I had to wait until I got here today to plug it in.  

Jet jumped a really nice round yesterday in show jumping.  We had one rail which landed us in 16th place overall out of 33 starters.  I could feel him grow in maturity as the weekend progressed and I'm really looking forward to competing him this winter.  When I came out of the show jumping ring a spectator said to me, "He looks like he's been doing this his whole life!"  Amazingly, he has only been doing this for about a year and a half.  In fact, last year at this time he had never even competed in a recognized horse trials and he had only done two unrecognized horse trials -- one at beginner novice and one at novice.  It is a real testament to his sensibility and talent that he was able to easily move from green novice to one star level in less than a year.  He may not be the flashiest mover, but I definitely think Jet is a special horse. 

In other good news, Gina was able to pick Doc up today from Mid Atlantic.  His knee joint needs to be kept very quiet for a period so he will be on stall rest for about thirty days and then we will proceed to gradually bring him back to full work over a period of three months.  He looks perky and we can tell that he is very happy to be home, even though he's not terribly happy about the stall rest.  It was good to see him today.

Ashley

Dressage results and cross country today . . .

We scored a 61.4 in dressage yesterday which put us in 23rd place out of 33 horses.  This was just about where I expected to place.  Jet is very obedient, but since he is only a year and a half off of the race track he is still very green in the dressage ring.  He needs to learn how to relax and perform, which he will.  I was pleased with his test.  His real forte, though, is the jumping.  Today he was excellent.  He jumped clean and confidently around the seven and a half minute course.  I can feel where he has gained skill over the past few months and I can also see where he still needs to practice.  Some of the jumps that come quickly off of turns still surprise him.  As he gets more experienced he will start to look for those jumps.  At the close of today Jet was feeling excellent and he was in 15th place.  Tomorrow we show jump.  Right now I am at the movies about to see the new Bond movie with my mom and Brian!  Can't keep them waiting!

Ashley

Hi Guys!  I have pictures!  Kind of.  My mom arrived and she has a cord to connect my camera to my computer, so I got some pictures on my computer, but I am currently at the horse show and the internet connection is really slow!  I'm going to try again later tonight.  Here are two pics.  One of me with Jet just before the trot up and one of Jet in his "cave."

Ashley

Getting Jet ready for the CCI*

Yesterday Jet did his final gallop to prepare for the CCI* next weekend.  Today he was very spoiled and had an hour and a half massage from Ellen Bachmeyer who is the massage therapist I use down here.  She is excellent and loves to get a sense of each horse individually.  I met Ellen several years ago when I needed some help with Aly Cat and last year she helped me a lot with Doc.  She could see right away how honest Jet is, but could also see that he is still in race horse mode in his mind.  He has not quite settled yet into thinking of himself as an event horse, so he is in transition.  He is also still holding a lot in his body from his racing days, so getting regular muscle work over the next year is going to be critical in helping him to become stronger in his dressage work.  The plan for him this week is to do one jump school but to mainly focus on preparing for our dressage test.  He will also get another massage from Ellen when he is at the competition next weekend.

Doc is on the mend.  Dr. Poulin at Mid Atlantic ran infection numbers on his knee on Friday and Saturday and they dropped both days.  It looks like he will not need to go under anesthesia again, which is wonderful, and that he will be able to come home towards the end of this week.  Gina and Mr. Wetherill went to visit him on Saturday and they took him some apples.  He hasn't been able to be turned out during any of this and I am sure he has dropped a lot of weight.  Grass is the best thing to keep his stomach happy and his belly plump!

We ship over to the Ocala Horse Park on Thursday with Jet and the competition begins on Friday.  I'll keep you posted!

Ashley 

Arrival

We arrived safely and both Jet and my mom's horse Gavin are very happy to be off the trailer and out in the pastures eating grass!  Jet gets two days off and then we will resume our normal work schedule before the show next week.

The weather here is beautiful.  I took a picture of the sunset over our front fields last night and then realized that I don't have the connector cord with me to get pictures onto the computer.  It will have to wait until I get back to PA.

Doc is doing better.  His infection numbers in the knee joint have improved but are still too high.  They may come into the normal range this weekend or they may not.  If they don't, he will have another surgery on Monday.  I am hoping that the numbers come down.  The surgery is fairly routine, but it is hard on him.

Cheers!

Ashley  

The trip is not getting any shorter . . .

No matter how many times I do it, the drive from Philadelphia to Ocala does not ever seem to get any shorter!  Brian is driving now and I am on the computer.  We are about three hours from where we will stop for the night in South Carolina.  We stop at a small horse and people bed and breakfast.  The horses have a stall and a paddock for the night and Mo, the proprietor, feeds us like there is no tomorrow.  Of the food that we can't finish, we give some to Jada and Mo's pugs, of which there are generally a varying number, and the rest we are "required" to take with us.  The punishment for leaving food behind, according to Mo, is that we will never be invited back.  We then get to sleep in a bedroom with a hand made afgan on the bed and an electric blanket to stay extra warm.  Mo puts the word eccentric horse person.  Her farm is always a most welcome stop on the eighteen hour trip to Florida.

On Monday we had a check up with Dr. Blauner for Doc.  We decided that he had developed an infection in his knee joint and Dr. Blauner sent us straight away to Mid Atlantic in Ringoes, NJ.  He is there now and has had one procedure done on his knee to scrape the infection out from between the joints.  His treating veterinarian there, Dr. Poulin, told me today that he will be there for at least a week longer and may need another procedure.  I am crossing my fingers that he won't.  Once the infection is brought under control Doc should be back to 100% pretty quickly, but in the mean time the situation could be slightly risky.  For one thing, every time they have to go into his knee joint they put him under general anesthesia.  This is dangerous in and of itself.  All in all, Doc will probably be perfectly fine in about two weeks, but if you are reading this, think good thoughts for him!  

Ashley     

First Wedding Anniversary, Chicago, IL

My dad turned 70 yesterday and it was Brian's and my first wedding anniversary.  On top of this, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in October.  My dad was speaking in Chicago this past weekend on his birthday.  We decided about two months ago to give him a really good surprise.  My mom, my brother, Brian and I all showed up in Chicago at the conference where he was speaking!  The conference was taking place in The Palmer House, which is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the United States.  It was built over 130 years ago.  Needless to say, it is a beautiful hotel.  

Brian and I arrived on Saturday and in the afternoon we met one of my high school friends and her husband for drinks in the bar at Palmer House.  My mom showed up at about 4:00 and my dad walked by about ten minutes later.  Mom called him over.  You should have seen the look on his face!  My brother arrived about fifteen minutes after that.  Dad was so tickled!  Mom had also put together this awesome slideshow of over 100 photos of Dad from childhood to the present.  It was really well done.  My brother and I hadn't even seen many of the photos before.  After the slideshow we took my dad to dinner in The Palmer House restaurant.

At the end of the evening my brother, Brian and I went to Second City for a show.  Second City was where Saturday Night Live got its start.  The show was fantastic!  The ensemble group was so talented!  The show was based around comedic skits and there was a lot of improv.  I was so impressed by the talent of the actors. 

The jaunt was a great way to spend the weekend of our first anniversary.  We flew back yesterday and Brian and I cooked a delicious dinner for ourselves.  Today we are going to finish packing the horse trailer and on Wednesday we head down to Florida with Jet for the Ocala CCI* next week.

Talk to you soon!

Ashley