Long weekend...

Well, the ride is over and Summer didn't get to compete. (sad face : *( )

Adriane got to ride Summer Friday morning with another friend of mine on her TW, and they had a wonderful ride. She came back into camp all smiles. She groomed her so beautifully, went to check her in and the judge said grade 1 lame. WHAT??!!?? I totally believe the vet, he is good. But why is she lame? After all day of trying to figure it out, (I won't go into details), we figure it is the farrier (horseshoer). The ride farrier, pulled all her shoes for me and I am going to give her a month off with no shoes. Let her hooves rest. Let them expand to where they are more natural and comfortable.

Now let me tell you how the lameness scores work, QS (questionable sound), Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3. Grade 3 horses are pulled from the ride immediately.

I pulled Summer before she even started the ride Saturday morning. I pulled her Friday around 4ish. She is worth more to me than that ride is. I was not going to chance on her getting worse because I want a .50 cent ribbon. There was one lady who's horse checked in grade 2 lame and she still rode out Saturday morning. Of course she pulled Sunday morning cause he was a little worse, WELL DUH! I tell you, I have no respect for her horsemanship abilities. I couldn't imagine asking a hurting horse to carry me 15 to 20 miles for a ribbon. Once again, I will repeat myself, NOT WORTH IT! The vet judge thanked me Friday night for pulling Summer. I now know he respects my horsemanship abilities and knows what Summer means to me. He even made a comment Sunday at awards and said he knew there were some good horsemen when they wouldn't let their horses even start the ride because of pain or lameness issues. I know he was talking about me and another woman for pulling her horse cause it had sore withers and she wouldn't ride either. And she even drove all the way from New Mexico! Good for her for loving her horse like that.

Other than that, the ride was a success. All the riders were happy, ate good food, received good gifts and seemed to have just a wonderful time. And for that, all the tiring behind the scenes work, was worth it.

I plan on Summer competing at the two rides in March, so I pray that her lameness issues are due to a bad farrier and that it's nothing internal. If it is internal, I will have my vet out and we will start the search.

TTFN