Success and Disappointment

Hi All!  Doc jumped around the cross country course today like a million bucks.  He was fantastic and accurate the whole way around and he loved the crowd.  Fair Hill was really spectacular today.  We were the third horse out of 53 to go on course and being at the beginning is always a challenge.  You don't get the benefit of learning where other horses are having trouble.  Luckily, I like being a trailblazer at horse shows because then it gives me less of a chance to get nervous.  I just ride the way I planned to ride in my head and I don't over-think it.  Not only were we clear, going all of the direct routes, but I had the fastest three star cross country round that I have ever had.  I finished with sixteen time faults and our placing moved into the 20's.  Normally I ride cautiously and will go more slowly.  Today I knew Doc was fit and that he felt great and I pressed him on.  

The great disappointment of the day, though, was that when we pulled up at the end of the course Doc was completely lame.  He was so lame, in fact, that we worried he had fractured his pastern somehow.  When we took him back to the barn I had the treating vet palpate him.  We wound up doing x-rays right there at the show.  The x-rays were clean, so we had no answers.  I decided that no matter what it was, I was going to withdraw him from the rest of the competition.  Under FEI rules a horse is not allowed to have any drugs that reduce inflammation like banamine or bute.  I felt that Doc really needed drugs to ease his discomfort, so I decided to withdraw him so that we could medicate him.  With no answers as of yet, my vet is going to come to the farm tomorrow to further asses Doc.  Sometimes the day after diagnoses are more accurate than the ones given on the day.  Strangely enough, when we got him home Doc was almost perfectly sound.  Brian's theory is that he hit his leg hard on the third to last jump (where I know he hit the jump) and stung his leg pretty badly.  Let's hope that's all it is.  The alternative at this point is a strain or tear to a tendon or ligament.  

Thank you to all of my friends and clients who came to support us and cheer us on today.  In particular thank you to the Wetherills, Lynn and Craig Rzonca, Dr. Patricia Bona, and Tara and PJ from Kendalwood farm where I regularly take Doc to swim for conditioning.  We really had a support team there!  And of course thank you to Brian for being my number one and Gina for all of her help this weekend.  Tomorrow we will see if I made the right decision.

Ashley