It Gets Worse...
This year has not been the easiest, its probably been one of the most frustrating years yet. Earlier this year Gigi suffered from an unfortunate kick in the field. This happened twice a couple months apart, the first kick was obvious...
Little lameness, stiff and sore of course, this healed relatively quickly. The second kick however...this one was much worse. Gigi was lame for over a month and the injured area was much harder to find. The second kick got Gigi on the inside of her back leg, she was unable to put weight on the affected leg. The vets prescribed her antibiotics, pain medication and rest, over a month of rest. This worked, Gigi got better but the timing was so bad. We were booked to go to a horse trials in a couple of weeks (this was booked before the injury), I had no idea what to do, pull her out of the competition or go for it. The grass was rich and Gigi was fed whilst she was off (not a lot but enough to disguise her drugs), she was getting overweight and unfit. I had been on holiday too weeks before the injury and she had been in light work before then due to my job. The odds only grew worse!
Rockingham Castle International Horse Trials
Well...I didn't pull her out.
Two weeks before the horse trials my vet gave Gigi the go ahead, now I just needed to get my act together. I had two weeks to get Gigi fit enough for the competition, this wasn't just any competition though, this was the biggest competition I've ever entered. I was entered into the 90cm Arena Eventing class, there was a huge turnout and the ring was situated in the center of the shopping stalls! There were hundreds of people stood watching us and all I could think about was one of the bigger XC jumps!
Turning to my friend i said "I can't do this"
After walking the course I felt sick, me and my friend walked up to all the jumps, assessed them and took in the surroundings. Turning to my friend i said "I can't do this" we were stood next to one of the bigger XC jumps, my heart in my mouth. After a bit of reassurance, steady breathing and game talk I mounted Gigi and headed round to the ring. We could only practice over the upright warm up jump due to the wings being plain upright standards. Gi has a vision problem in one eye, she can't see the upright standards so when the jump is a spread she lands on the poles, I wasn't about to risk it at Rockingham so we just warmed up over the upright.
Time To Go...
I don't think I need words to describe how it went...
The Joker Fence
One Of The Show Jumping Fences
One Of The XC Jumps
Well, we didn't place, we had a few poles due to my error and my glasses falling off...oops... but Gigi did take me round the whole course! She struggled towards the end, she tired quickly but didn't give up.
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