Kate Sanderson’s winter round up
Well what a rollercoaster the last few months have been. I would be lying if I said things had been straight forward. If anything it has truly shown me, every extreme of the highs and lows of horses and the sport.
Coming into winter things were great. Dram had qualified for the Petplan Championships after years of trying, which meant all my attention focussed on turning to that. However, two weeks before we were due to set off, something wasn’t sitting quite right with me. There was a niggle in Dram’s way of going, and in the end, I decided to make the decision to withdraw. Even though I still couldn’t quite put my finger on what was going on.
After multiple physio checks, saddle checks, trying a variety of different things at home, we narrowed it down, to him not being quite right behind. Dram went back to the vets to have his stifles medicated (his one previous weakness). Sadly, I didn’t quite realise what I was letting myself in for, nor prepare myself for the news I was about to face.
My initial instinct was right and it was his stifles that were the issue. We took some new, up to date x rays which showed he had developed several bone fragments within the joint. My vet and I talked about treatment options and realistically our only potential option was surgery. But again the news just got even worse…
After the images were sent to the surgeon for his opinion I was broken with the news that the damage was too far gone and that surgery wasn’t going to be worth doing. If the surgery was a success, the best Dram would achieve, would be a light hack (which he doesn’t do). I was absolutely heartbroken. Whilst we were toing and froing with the vets and surgeon, we had ran a Bute (anti inflammatory and pain relief) trial. Sadly this proved unsuccessful, so I had no option but to retire him, which is gut wrenching for a 10 year old with very little mileage.
All of my youngsters had been turned away and were having the winter off, to grow and strengthen mentally and physically. All I wanted was to be able to enjoy horses again, without the added stress. To top it all off, we also lost our beloved family pony Galaxy.
In a bit to remain positive, I turned my attention to bringing Cruise (my other lifetime pony!) back into more work aged 22. He had spent the summer ticking over and enjoying his life, but looking at the Winter Area Festivals it all became too tempting. Mum and I just wanted to go out and enjoy the horses without any pressure, and Cruise has always done just that. We’ve always been able to rely on him for a fantastic day out. Just a few days after loosing Galaxy and having the news about Dram, we headed to the Riding Club Dressage Qualifiers. Cruise absolutely put a smile on my face! He finished 3rd in the Prelim and then won the Novice on over 77%. Since then, he has stepped up to competing in his first Elementary’ s qualifying for the Area Festivals in both the Novice and Elementary which is where our attention focuses on next!
