Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Much Ado About Nothing

So. Pretty much what the title says.

Not much has been happening on the Comedic Eventing front since I bought the trailer. I haven't seen it since yet, since it's living about an hour away from me and it's not as if I really need to go SEE it.

Dante was doing very well, but had a set back when the farrier rasped his feet too short in mid-October. The farrier had been doing a good job until this point, but suddenly quit/retired without warning to any of his clients shortly after doing Dante. When Dr. Newton came out a couple days later to look at him, he was lame in all four feet with 30% less foot than he had had before.

Le sigh.

In terms of setbacks, it could be worse, really. It's an easy fix, just wait for his foot to grow out. Again.

When Dr. Newton looked at him a few weeks ago, he was 90% back to where he was before. He said at that time we could put shoes on and see how the horse was, or be conservative and wait a couple more weeks. I figured I'd waited this long, might as well let the horse be 100%. He'll be out to look at Dante again on Friday, and hopefully we'll move ahead on shoes.

We updated Dante's FEI passport as well. This is so important to keep updated, even if your horse is currently being a pasture puff. The officials can give you the hairy eyeball if there's a gap in your horse's vaccinations, and possibly eliminate you. We had a scary incident last spring where almost half the kids at the barn were almost retroactively eliminated at an FEI competition after dressage due to a secretarial clerical error on their passports that said the horses had been vaccinated less than seven days before the show. This wasn't the case and they were allowed to complete after much hoopla, but there were a lot of tears and heartbreak before the whole mess was sorted out. Moral of the story, keep your FEI horses religiously updated on their vaccines!

I haven't looked at a single barn yet. Since Dante had a setback, it's likely he won't arrive until late January now. I can't quite bring myself to go look at barns until I know for sure he's coming, or at least until he gets shoes.

I've been running quite a bit, trying to stay in shape. The hills of Middleburg are kicking my butt! It's hard to stay motivated during the week though, when I arrived home and it's already completely dark and cold. I'm looking into buying a P90X or similar program, that I could do inside.

I've been traveling too, went to Vegas for a high school friend's wedding, and up to NJ over Thanksgiving to be with my SO for the holiday. I managed to run my two miles on both occasions!

(The most awesome window display ever in Vegas.)

In October I was lucky enough to score some tickets to the Puissance at the Washington International Horse show. It was quite entertaining to take a subway to get to a horse show, not to mention all the stalls in the middle of the street. This weekend I am excited to witness the Middleburg Christmas Parade, something that apparently can draw over 10,000 people! Thankfully I automatically have parking at my house! So I'm finding ways to fulfill my horsey fix. Hopefully the wait will be over soon.

2 comments:

  1. Hi!

    So I was looking for eventing blogs one day and came across yours. I've already read every single post! I must say, Dante is absolutely gorgeous and I am insanely jealous of everything you get to do. I recently bought my own OTTB and I'm in the process of getting him ready so we can go to some mini-trials next summer. I'm not new to riding but I am certainly new to eventing and this blog has helped me out a LOT.

    You've moved relatively close to me (I'm only a state away...ish!) so I hope that maybe one day we could meet up. It always inspires me when I see someone my own age doing so much. I can only hope to do the same.

    Congrats on the trailer and I look forward to your future posts!

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  2. Hawk, I'm so glad my blog has helped (and entertained, hopefully) you! Thanks for the compliments about Dante, I certainly agree that he is gorgeous! Good luck with your own OTTB, they can certainly be wonderful mounts!

    I'm not sure whether you're in WV, NC, or MD, but if it's MD, I'm sure we can manage to run into one another! At the very least, at a show.

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