Pass the Bubble Wrap, Please

On Sunday, Leo and I were out on a hack with Jen and her horse, Sammy. After about 2 hours on the trail we were heading back and got a little bit lost (again). We ended up finding a path through the woods that neither of us were familiar with. The path was littered with logs. It appeared to be intentional - perhaps put in place by a local hunt. The logs were smallish (under 2 ft) and we just trotted down the trail over them. As we went, the trail got more overgrown and unfortunately, the logs got bigger. Well, Leo and I did not see one of the logs covered in some overgrowth. We fell over it. Leo face planted, was scrambling not to hit the ground. I think his left shoulder hit and he was struggling to get his hind feet under him when I fell off. We both got up and were dazed. Like WTF just happened?? (Note to self: don't ever really relax on a trail ride).

I walked up the trail and found another log hidden in the over growth and cleared it away so that we could see it. When we got back to the barn, I discovered that Leo's left hind hock was all scraped up. I took his temperature, hosed and cleaned the wounds, and gave him some bute. On Monday, he was lame.

He was still lame on Wednesday but had no swelling in his hock so I called the vet. Liz came out on Thursday and flex tested him. He didn't get lamer from the flex test but she did say he was surprising sensitive to touch at and around the wounds. She said he could have bruised a bone or a ligament. Or that the hock movement during the trot, stretched and pulled at the wounds to cause enough pain to manifest his limp. So she gave me Animax (antibotic and steroid cream) to put on his wounds and recommended several days of stall rest. If he's not looking better by Monday, we'll do an x-ray. Obviously, Marlborough Horse Trials is out.

Such is life, but I am disappointed all the same. Marlborough was the last event with an "average" xc course. The rest of the recognized events this season are moderate to challenging, and I really wanted a good confidence building run to jump back into things. I definitely don't want to start off with a course that is technically preparing horses and riders for a potential move-up to prelim.

I went online and scoured the competitions so I could come up with a Plan B. I COULD call it quits for the season and not worry about competing until next spring. Part of me would be ok with that, part of me would not. I was lucky enough to find quite a few unrecognized events which run divisions up through Training:

Sept 30: Olney Farm Starter HT
Oct 21: Maryland HT Starter HT at Loch Moy
Nov 3: Plantation Starter HT
Nov 11: Maryland HT Starter HT at Loch Moy

Plan B

• Try and re-route to Olney on Sept 30
• Leo needs to be sound by early next week for this to be feasible
• Depending on how that goes, decide if I want to enter Radnor HT Recognized (which is listed as moderate but confidence building) or do the Maryland Starter HT

Plan C

• Leo isn't better in time for Olney
• Re-route to the October Maryland Start HT