29 August
Today, Fred should be having his pre-Lincoln bath, getting plaited up and heading to Ros & Dave for a sleepover ready to drive to Lincoln at 6am tomorrow......
Fate once again had other ideas....
On 20 July I was dressage writing for Jayne and Jane at the combined training at Badgworth and the rosettes looked amazing. Jane said "Why not do the final class?" I said "ooh I haven't jumped in a while, can't do the 90cm", and so Jane said "Well do the 80cm then"....
I had gone to the yard in my non-riding gear, so on the spur of the moment, Jane kitted me out in jodhs and show gear and there we were, with an hour to frantically re-learn Novice 24, getting dressed and warming up.
Jayne called to help me. My first time learning a test that fast, but we did a good test, followed by a whizzy, very wild 80cm clear SJ round, finishing on 32.17 for 2nd place. and when I say 'wild' we were leaping, taking out strides. Fred was just having the time of his life. I didn't even do a warm up fence, I just said to Charlie, I'm going to canter around the outside for one lap so he clocks the jumps and then we'll start, as we screamed past Charlie after the first lap, I said to her 'oh blimey, this is going to be hysterical - I'll hold tight' and Fred was off. :D
When I got home my lovely step-mum in law had bought me a beautiful pic of Freddie from his Hartpury comp back in May. Whilst the whole thing was a bit of a debacle with the adding up farce, Fred was amazing that day and his pic is beautiful.
That day I posted my update to Facebook that "Freddie really is my one in a million unicorn. Such a clever pony. A busy August coming up and I've promised him more jumping to balance all these darn circles. I'm so lucky to have Freddie."
On the 23rd July Jane and I had a little play in the arena with Freddie in a happy mouth pelham to get him to understand that we want the nose and mouth to stay more still when he's working. He was very accepting. He's not normally happy to have his bit changed but he seemed quite willing and comfortable.
But that night when I got home, I thought I'd just got a touch of heat stroke. By 7.30pm I was in bed with fever, chills and Covid. I didn't get up again until Friday, which was just long enough to shower off the sweat and go back to bed until Monday morning. I realised when I couldn't be upright for more than an hour, that my Trailblazers championship was over....
I withdrew (and it turns out that the person that got in to my spot actually won) but I was hopeful that there was still time to recover for Lincoln. AT LEAST I HAD LINCOLN.
As we went through August, recovery was really slow. I was riding again and was able to do bits on the computer for the clubs Lincoln sponsors, but if I did an hour lesson or ride, I would have to sleep the whole next day....
We had a plan to work around it though. The BKRC team rallied, Ros was going to be in charge of Freddie and all I had to do was get on the lorry and ride my tests. Evie got her parents to pack a 6 man tent so I could sleep in my own section when I needed it, Ewen bought me a blow up mattress... we were going to make this work....
I was excited to see my times were 8.30 and 9.36am. The universe seemed to be on my side.....
I knew I wasn't going to be as competitive as I'd hoped becuase we certainly hadn't had the preparation I'd have planned. But we qualified and we were going.....
But when I took a nosedive in energy during the Bank holiday weekend, the universe changed its mind and told me I wasn't listening....
To not over-face my energy levels on any day, I plotted the Lincoln prep each day...
Tuesday morning I packed up my bags, washed my jacket, stock and gloves and put my bridle numbers in. Then at 1pm I got up to the yard, set up the arena (then had a sit down) before having my final lesson at 2pm...only to discover Freddie wasn't right. First a couple of odd strides on the left which came from behind and I wasn't sure if it was me losing my balance from dizziness or a lame stride. It didn't happen again and was then very balanced on the left but when we turned right, he fell out through the shoulder, head came up, stride went funky and it just didn't look or feel right.
I asked Jayne what it was, she said "I cant really say lame, just not normal".
We stopped and I cried. And I cried. And I cried. I was exhausted. I was trying so hard to make Lincoln, I was absolutely exhausted and my worst fear - the thing I fear every time I buy a horse, having had two go lame and seeing my best friend lose her horse to lameness just 8 months ago, the fear that it is inevitable because of the design of horses - had reared its head.
Thankfully, there was a farrier on site who looked Fred over, hoof tested. No pain. Watched me trot up, confirming sound on hard, weird on soft on right circle. Which normally concludes - muscular/tendon.
Mille came to give Freddie his final 'pre-lincoln treatment' on Weds PM and confirmed that we were not sore in our usual way. Again we couldn't really say what or why, but Freddie was off games. And so now we wait for Uncle Tim.... and we pray.....
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