Road to Rolex- Part II

By Susie Beale; April 1, 2009:

Well, I have been a little slow in writing my next update. A great deal has transpired in the last 9 days and it has truly been an emotional roller coaster for me and all those around me. So without being boring I shall fill you in as best as I can!

Boyd and Isabella had a fabulous dressage test at Southern Pines on Friday March 20th, getting a penalty score of 34. This put them in third place which was not shabby with all the other extremely good horses and riders in their division! I did not hear from them on Friday evening, so I was checking the computer each and every hour to see if her score was up!! Saturday they had cross country at 10.30am and as Boyd had 7 other horses to ride, in addition to Isabella, I certainly did not want to trouble him with a phone call to see how she had run. Around 3pm, I couldn’t stand it any longer and so I sent a text! Back came a text that she had run fabulously, of course I was delighted, although I had still had no details! Then around 5pm, just as I was finishing teaching at home my phone rang, it was Phillip. The news was not good, she was a little off in her right front. After the horses gallop a cross country course, we ice their legs for 20 minutes, then later on that day, usually some four or five hours later we examine the legs and jog them for soundness. It appeared that it might be in her foot, her leg was tight and cold and there was no sign of any swelling or injury. Phillip and I decided that her would look at her again in 2 hours and call me again. It was a long 2 hours…………………………..but eventually the phone rang and the news was encouraging, she seemed a little better. We decided that she not be given any medication, they would pack her feet and poultice her up for the night, and Phillip would jog her in the morning to re-evaluate her soundness.

7.56am Sunday morning, the phone rings and the news is good “she looks perfect” are the words on the other end of the phone, I am delighted, and the decision is made that she will show jump. I don’t have an exact count but only a handful of the advanced horses jumped clean in the show jumping that day and Isabella was one of them! I talked to Boyd later that evening when he was on the road to PA with the horses and he said it was “ the best show jumping round of his life” and the Isabella had “tried her heart out”! I was so proud of her! She had finished in 7th !

Monday morning T leaves Cairn O’Mount to drive to Phillip’s stable in Unionville, about 50 minutes away, to collect Isabella and take her to the vet. I have decided that we should look into what may have been bothering her in her right foot so that we can hopefully avert the issue on future occasions. I am on my way to therapy and the phone rings, it is T. More bad news……………..this time it is her left front, there is swelling in her leg. Well she was headed to the vet for the right front, now we are going for the left front. As you can imagine, I am beside myself, after finishing on just a few time penalties on the cross country at a huge advanced track with Boyd, here we are with a fat leg. The other one, not the one that was bothering her on Saturday evening! It seemed as if things couldn’t get much worse, the hope of going to Rolex appeared to be diminishing fast.

After a scan of her leg it was determined that the swelling had been caused by a bandage and the vet was cautiously optimistic that there was no damage to the tendon on her leg. But the only certain way to confirm that was to wait and rescan in 8 days.

It has been a LONG 8 days, we have iced her leg 4 times every day, the girls that work for me, T, Chris, Mirar and Shanyn have been religious in their efforts to help Isabella in every way. On Friday, March 27th Kevin Keane Isabella’s own vet arrived home from Aiken SC. He very kindly agreed to see her that afternoon and examined the tendon. It was too early to rescan, but he and Phillip had discussed Isabella at length, and determined that she should go back into work. So Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday I took her to Valley Forge Park and trotted her for 25 minutes straight, up and down the hills. Each day watching her tendon like a hawk! It never changed and with each day I was more hopeful that there was no serious damage.

Tuesday came, and after a easy school in the dressage arena, T loaded her onto the trailer and we headed to Kevin’s for the scan. This would answer our questions on whether or not we would be continuing our “Road to Rolex” . I was anxious about the result but glad that we would finally know. Kevin had me jog her up and back and then in a circle, there was significant improvement from last Friday. (Luckily I was not the one being evaluated for lameness………..I would pass no test!) Dr. Mary Griffith put the scan on her leg and the result was better than hoped. The tendon looked tight and there was no change to it from 8 days ago. This news could not have been better!

So off we head to The Fork Horse Trials in Norwood, NC. Chris and I will leave here early tomorrow morning (Thursday) hoping to arrive in time for me to ride her. I have just received an email telling me that I have my dressage test at 1.55pm on Friday. This will be our final run before Rolex, we will do out VERY best to stay safe and sound, both horse and rider!!!!!