I submitted my Freestyle Level 2 audition

Still (horse) crazy after all these years

It took three years to complete all the steps of submitting the second half of my Level 2 audition and suddenly here it is. I’ll find out in 4 to 6 weeks what the assessment team thinks of me ‘n’ River dancing to J.S. Bach:

It’s a journey

It’s taken me a long time to let go of my need to do all of my auditions with Rocky, my “real” levels partner. But he’s been lame since February 13, and last month the x-rays showed “navicular changes” for the first time. He’s in orthopedic shoes now — or at least, I hope he is, as he keeps throwing the one off his right front foot — and soon we’ll be able to get back into playing with him on the ground to get him back into good physical condition.

Whether he’ll be able to continue as a riding partner, we won’t know for several more months,. We need to see how he responds to his new shoes, Previcox (NSAID), and new conditioning program before we can decide how to proceed. In the meantime, I’m reading about conditioning and dressage, and exploring the Straightness Training program to see if it’s appropriate for him.

Rocky hasn’t been consistently sound the whole 7+ years that I’ve had him, but I know he did everything he could to be sound for Scott’s first 2 years of Parelli. The beauty of the journey is that Rocky made that effort for us, and ensured that Scott could develop to the point where Scott can now form partnerships with other horses for our lessons and continuing progress. Of course Rocky is still our partner — our friend, teacher, student, and companion — and we will continue to come up with activities in which he can become “smarter, calmer, braver and more athletic.” Whatever “more athletic” is going to mean for him.