Fun With Sapphire at Devon and Setback Update...

This past weekend I had the HUGE privilege of covering the Olympic Observation Event at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair for Horse Junkies United.  It was AMAZING -- I got to sit in the official press box with all the "real" journalists.  However, part of getting a press pass to cover it for HJU means the content belongs over there, so if you're interested in knowing what I saw and who I met (think big name rider!) you can read about it by clicking HERE.  Sorry to make you do the extra work, but rules are rules!

To update you on the Home Front:

The Boy, aka Noah, has been given the okay to wean himself off his cane and is now going for PT in the hopes of joining his summer rugby league only 2 weeks into the season. (Conveniently, we get to go to PT together.  How's that for mother and son bonding time?)

Me: I've recovered from my stomach bug and have moved on to a head cold. As Charlie Brown would say, AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!  Oh well, better a small cold than anything serious.  The PT is helping my back, although it's embarrassing to realize how weak I've gotten, and of course it's fun to share giggles with the Boy as we do our exercises together.

Sugar: The Sainted Mare has not progressed as far as we would have hoped by this point.  We've been tack walking her, which she finds boring beyond belief, icing her, and hand grazing since she can't be turned out. (She likes the hand grazing part, especially as she doesn't need to wear her grazing muzzle.)  She had her second ESWT session and a re-eval on Monday, which showed she's still lame when being flexed.  So, 10 more days of tack walking, etc., and then another ESWT and an ultrasound to see where we are at.  I've also asked my good buddy Carolyn to come down and cold laser Sug a couple times a week.  I'm bringing out the big guns now! Fingers crossed that we see some improvement.

So that's where we stand.  I hope you do go on over to HJU to check out the Devon piece. 

Thanks for reading, and take care!

Long Live the Queen...

No, not the one with all the corgis (Elizabeth II of England).  The one of the show jumping ring, Sapphire.

I was supposed to be at Devon last night, covering Sapphire's retirement and the Well Fargo Grand Prix of Devon, but a nasty stomach bug laid me low.  I can't complain about losing 5 of the pounds I've gained since I fell off last September, but I'm not thrilled with the timing.

Thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, at least I got to watch the events on my laptop.  Sophie and I curled up on the couch together, my little girl smelling of green apples and clean little girl after her shower.  We both started sniffling as McLain walked Sapphire around the warm up ring, and had segued to fall on BAWL mode by the time she entered the ring.

She looked fabulous, and was on her toes the entire time.  Soph and I loved when McLain rode her to the side of the ring and let some children say hello to their idol.  What a gentlemanly thing for McLain to do.  Sapphire, for all her excitement, was very good for the kids, standing still and letting them get a good look and a few pats of the famous nose.  My daughter ached to be there, and was a bit sad that I wasn't, as she'd harbored hopes that I'd be able to get her Sapphire Breyer horse autographed. 

Sapphire looked as though she couldn't quite figure out why she was being untacked, why she and McLain weren't jumping the fences in the ring with them.  That was so good to see -- the fact that she was still in form, that she would have loved to have been out there, that her fire was still lit.

It was a perfect ending to the evening that McLain and his new mount Antares F, a high energy horse as different from the placid Sapphire as it is possible to be, won the Grand Prix.  I think we could call that coming full circle, don't you?

Be well, Sapphire.  Enjoy your donuts, and have fun being a momma.

My favorite photo from last night, taken by Rianne Berker.