The Horse No One Can Fix

So the saga of Sultan's intermittent lameness is sadly drawing to a close with no answers forthcoming.  There is nothing we haven't done over the past 10 years to try to fix this horse, or at least seriously investigate the source of the problem.  We have trailed him thousands of miles up and down the length of North America to different vet clinics, and lameness specialists.

For 2 years I trailered him 2 hours (each way) every 4 weeks to Rood and Riddle, to have special shoes fitted, at around $350 a time. When he was with Danni's old trainer she had him shod with her farrier at $550 a time (every 4 weeks).

He has had full body bone scans, more x-ray's than 50 horses in their lifetimes, several surgeries, ultra sound, acupuncture, chiropractic work, stem cell surgery (that was a blast at $5,000 plus) he's been nerved, injected, had Lazar treatment, more supplements and medications than you'll find in a small hospital.  He's had stall rest, hand walking, lunging, no turn out, limited turn out, full turn out.  Had his legs daily wrapped and iced.

Everything we did was on the advice of whichever vet we were dealing with at the time, and to date, not one of them (and there have been dozens) has been able to diagnose the problem, or suggest a treatment or program that has any lasting results. No solution, and sadly not much interest either, no matter the amount of money we throw at them.

Throughout the past 10 years we have possibly spent in the region of $100,000.00 on this horse and it's caused Daniela more stress, heartache and tears than anyone should have to deal with.

Why haven't we given up?  is a question I hear you asking, and the answer to that is, because Sultan is the most spectacularly beautiful, stunning horse, truly a "Black Beauty". He is built for dressage, and the most comfortable ride ever.  Riding Sultan is like sitting on a cloud, if feels as though you're floating, which has actually been the case a few times unfortunately for Daniela, when he has unseated her with  lightening speed, and sent her flying through the air.

Sultan on the lunge line

His nervousness and unpredictability, make him a real challenge to ride, a challenge that few have been willing to undertake, and given that he has spent the better part of his life in one recovery program or another, actual qopportunities to ride him have been few and far between.

Today we find ourselves in a sad place, we can't fix Sultan, no vet to date has been able to accurately diagnose the problem, and with only a few exceptions most of them are just not interested.

Danni is in school full time now, she's going back to vet school,  which is very demanding and gives her precious free time.  So we find ourselves having to look for either a retirement home for Sultan, or as a pasture buddy for someone. It breaks our hearts that after all the effort, time, heartbreak, expectations, disappointments and thousands and thousands of wasted dollars, we now are faced with having to give up.
Neither of us ever thought it would end this way.

Daniela April Morgan takes the Markel AA High-Score Award

Atache 4

Daniela April Morgan Takes the Markel AA High-Score Award at Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III

On the Scene 2009 - Cincinnati Dressage Tradition Shows and Events

Written by Lynndee Kemmet for DressageDaily.com

Thursday, 16 July 2009 04:36

Wilmington, Ohio – It was only this past year that Daniela April Morgan crossed over to the adult ranks and already she's gathering adult amateur awards. At the June 19-21 Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III, the 22-year-old college senior earned the Markel Adult Amateur High-Point Award for her 74.20 percent in Intermediaire I competition. "It was a beautiful ride," saidCincinnati Dressage Tradition President Chris Federer. "We're excited to present Daniela Morgan with the Adult Amateur Award from her FEI test ride. Congratulations Daniela!" Morgan earned the award, sponsored by Markel Insurance, Mary Phelps Agent, with the help of her 19-year-old gelding Atache 4, whom Morgan calls "amazing for his age." She and Atache have been together since she bought him five years ago and the road to the high-point award hasn't been an easy one. When she got him, she was told he didn't have many show miles, but his rider at the time was a professional who handled him well. Morgan was not. "I bought him because he seemed like he'd be a good schoolmaster, and he has been. But at the time, I was a First Level rider and he figured me out real quick. I'd ask for things and he'd say, 'Yea, we'll see.' I didn't have enough experience or authority to take control." Morgan's lack of control meant Atache was in the driver's seat and, in the show ring, he really gave her a ride. "The first few years, I'd come out of the ring in tears. It's taken a lot of years and much patience to get to this point. He's still a handful, but I've learned to ride him." At the Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III, she knew she had a good ride. "But I didn't think it was that good. It was like, 'Wow.' That was my best score ever. I've had some 70s before in the lower levels, but never a 74. I was so excited," Morgan said. A native of England, Morgan came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 12 and she has spent most of that time in the Midwest region, but she did get the chance to spend some time training and showing in Florida when she attended school in Miami. Her most consistent trainer has been Grand Prix rider Sophie Flanagan. "She's originally from France and fortunately, I speak a bit of French so if she yells at me in French, I can translate it," Morgan said with a laugh. She has also taken clinics with a number of top riders, including Ulla Salzgeber, Lars Petersen and Silke Rembracz. "I find that if you get the right clinician, clinics can be one of the best ways to train because you learn from watching everyone." Morgan has been around horses since she was two because both her mother and grandmother rode. She started riding seriously at age eight. She'll graduate from college next year and is hoping to head to law school. Her real passion, however, is riding, but she's realistic enough to know she needs a good career to help pay the bills. What saddens her most is that she must now sell Atache. Her parents, Bob and Heather, have been very supportive of her riding, but can't afford to keep her going past college. "My parents aren't being unfair. I have three horses and my father said they'd help with one and the one I'm keeping is an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding I've had since he was four." That horse has had soundness issues over the past years and Morgan doesn't feel it would be right to put that responsibility on someone else. Hence, she's keeping him so she can take care of him even though she realizes it will likely limit her riding career. "I really love riding and I'd like to keep moving along in dressage, but I do think sometimes that in this sport, you have to have the money. I'm a person who can't do things half-way. If I do something, I want to give it my all and do my best. My parents are very proud of me, but I know my riding has been expensive. When you train and go to shows, the bills do add up." But until Atache sells, Morgan plans to forge ahead with him, perhaps even getting into the Grand Prix ring. "Maybe we'll take him to Grand Prix. He's working on the movements and so we decided to try and put the Grand Prix on him. But, at 19, we'll only try and see what happens. I don't want to push it with him if it becomes too much. " DressageDaily’s Mary Phelps, a Markel Insurance Equine Specialist is sponsoring the high-point Adult Amateur Award at each show in Cincinnati Dressage Tradition's series of shows and Federer said the show is honored to have Markel's support. She said she'd like to encourage more riders to compete for the Markel Adult Amateur Awards during upcoming shows and Cincinnati Dressage Tradition has a whole series of shows and events throughout the summer that are held at the beautiful Roberts Arena show facility. The facility offers over 500 permanent stalls, three outdoor rings and two indoor arenas. Next on the show agenda is the July 30-August 2 Cincinnati Dressage Tradition Pony Cup Summer Show, which includes a breed show. A fall performance and breed show is scheduled for September 18-20. Photo Credit: Bob Tarr

Daniela April Morgan Takes the Markel AA High-Score Award at Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III

On the Scene 2009 - Cincinnati Dressage Tradition Shows and Events

Written by Lynndee Kemmet for DressageDaily.com   

Thursday, 16 July 2009 04:36

Wilmington, Ohio – It was only this past year that Daniela April Morgan crossed over to the adult ranks and already she's gathering adult amateur awards. At the June 19-21 Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III, the 22-year-old college senior earned the Markel Adult Amateur High-Point Award for her 74.20 percent in Intermediaire I competition. "It was a beautiful ride," saidCincinnati Dressage Tradition President Chris Federer. "We're excited to present Daniela Morgan with the Adult Amateur Award from her FEI test ride. Congratulations Daniela!"

Morgan earned the award, sponsored by Markel Insurance, Mary Phelps Agent, with the help of her 19-year-old gelding Atache 4, whom Morgan calls "amazing for his age." She and Atache have been together since she bought him five years ago and the road to the high-point award hasn't been an easy one. When she got him, she was told he didn't have many show miles, but his rider at the time was a professional who handled him well. Morgan was not. "I bought him because he seemed like he'd be a good schoolmaster, and he has been. But at the time, I was a First Level rider and he figured me out real quick. I'd ask for things and he'd say, 'Yea, we'll see.' I didn't have enough experience or authority to take control."

Morgan's lack of control meant Atache was in the driver's seat and, in the show ring, he really gave her a ride. "The first few years, I'd come out of the ring in tears. It's taken a lot of years and much patience to get to this point. He's still a handful, but I've learned to ride him." At the Cincinnati Dressage Tradition III, she knew she had a good ride. "But I didn't think it was that good. It was like, 'Wow.' That was my best score ever. I've had some 70s before in the lower levels, but never a 74. I was so excited," Morgan said.

A native of England, Morgan came to the U.S. with her parents when she was 12 and she has spent most of that time in the Midwest region, but she did get the chance to spend some time training and showing in Florida when she attended school in Miami. Her most consistent trainer has been Grand Prix rider Sophie Flanagan. "She's originally from France and fortunately, I speak a bit of French so if she yells at me in French, I can translate it," Morgan said with a laugh. She has also taken clinics with a number of top riders, including Ulla Salzgeber, Lars Petersen and Silke Rembracz. "I find that if you get the right clinician, clinics can be one of the best ways to train because you learn from watching everyone."

Morgan has been around horses since she was two because both her mother and grandmother rode. She started riding seriously at age eight. She'll graduate from college next year and is hoping to head to law school. Her real passion, however, is riding, but she's realistic enough to know she needs a good career to help pay the bills. What saddens her most is that she must now sell Atache. Her parents, Bob and Heather, have been very supportive of her riding, but can't afford to keep her going past college. "My parents aren't being unfair. I have three horses and my father said they'd help with one and the one I'm keeping is an 11-year-old Oldenburg gelding I've had since he was four." That horse has had soundness issues over the past years and Morgan doesn't feel it would be right to put that responsibility on someone else. Hence, she's keeping him so she can take care of him even though she realizes it will likely limit her riding career.

"I really love riding and I'd like to keep moving along in dressage, but I do think sometimes that in this sport, you have to have the money. I'm a person who can't do things half-way. If I do something, I want to give it my all and do my best. My parents are very proud of me, but I know my riding has been expensive. When you train and go to shows, the bills do add up." But until Atache sells, Morgan plans to forge ahead with him, perhaps even getting into the Grand Prix ring. "Maybe we'll take him to Grand Prix. He's working on the movements and so we decided to try and put the Grand Prix on him. But, at 19, we'll only try and see what happens. I don't want to push it with him if it becomes too much. "

DressageDaily’s Mary Phelps, a Markel Insurance Equine Specialist is sponsoring the high-point Adult Amateur Award at each show in Cincinnati Dressage Tradition's series of shows and Federer said the show is honored to have Markel's support. She said she'd like to encourage more riders to compete for the Markel Adult Amateur Awards during upcoming shows and Cincinnati Dressage Tradition has a whole series of shows and events throughout the summer that are held at the beautiful Roberts Arena show facility. The facility offers over 500 permanent stalls, three outdoor rings and two indoor arenas. Next on the show agenda is the July 30-August 2 Cincinnati Dressage Tradition Pony Cup Summer Show, which includes a breed show. A fall performance and breed show is scheduled for September 18-20.

Photo Credit: Bob Tarr

Atache

Atache proved to be a better horse than we could have imagined, as a schoolmaster. He was not an easy ride,  you couldn't just sit on him and press buttons for the fancy work, you had to do it right or he wouldn't perform,  he could be a little hot headed.  It took Danni a couple of years with him to form a real partnership.  For the first 2 years it was Atache who was  calling all the shots, he didn't make anything easy for her, and left her on numerous occasions in floods of tears.  But once the partnership was formed,  and Danni proved she could be as stubborn as Atache, then the two of them really lit up the arena's.  Judges loved him, and most of them appreciated that he was not an easy ride.

Atache in training

Our move to Walnut Creek introduced another phase in our lives.  Danni met and worked with a new trainer, (I'm not mentioning any names here because the relationship didn't end happily) but this trainer was a spectacular equestrian, amazing, is the word that would spring to mind when I would watch her ride, she was at one with whichever horse she was riding, she was among the rare few that really understood and knew how to ride a horse correctly.
This trainer was stubborn, bad tempered, expensive and difficult, but OMG she really knew what she was doing.  Danni joined the elite group of girls under her tuition and this is where she really learnt to ride.  Her new trainer also took on Sultan, and for 18 months worked with him and Danni, and incredibly, kept him sound.  I was confident that with this horse and this trainer Danni really had a chance in major competition.

Every year in North America there's a competition called the North American Young Riders Competition. Young riders between the ages of 16 to 21, from all over America compete in qualifying competitions throughout the year in their state, and the four riders with the highest scores go forward as a team to represent their state.
At the championships there is a team bronze, silver and gold medal prize, as well as individual medals. Within the riding community this is viewed as a very prestigious prize, much coveted by all ambitious young riders.
 Danni's goal with her riding had been for a long time to represent her state at these championships. The scores required to qualify for the team were scores Danni had begun to meet with Atache.

Sadly we discovered that because she was not a US citizen she was not allowed to enter.  This seemed ridiculous to me as this is a competition for young people, children really, and it didn't make sense that some would be banned from entering because they were born elsewhere, surely if  the States was  their home, they should be given the same opportunities as children who were born here.  The winners of the competition represent their state, not their country.
Danni was educated in the States, America was her home, but because she wasn't born here she wasn't allowed to compete in this competition with her peers, it seemed very unfair to me.

I was determined to try and change the rules.  I spent three years working with the British equestrian federation and the United States equestrian federation trying to do just that.
It wasn't until the intervention of Roberta Williams (the wife of George Williams, one of America's top riders) that I started to make some real progress.  Because of Roberta's work with the USEF she became aware of what I was trying to do, and very kindly offered to help.  Having Roberta in my corner, gave me much more clout,  her hard work and efforts finally paid off, and Danni was finally granted permission to compete, she still wasn't allowed to represent her home state, but if nominated by Great Britain, she would be allowed to represent her country of birth.

The line up of winning teams, Danni is the last on the right

Daniela would be the first person from another country to ride in the competition for her country.  I had hoped that this would pave the way for other young riders living here to ride for their countries in the competition, unfortunately Daniela was to be the first, and last exception to the rule, and as it stands today the competition is still only open to US citizens.

The judges congratulating the competitors

Daniela's trainer had another talented young rider that she was working with toward the NAYRC, and told Danni that she would have to wait until next year before trying out for the competition.  It had taken me so long, and Roberta also had also spent a great deal of time in getting Danni permission to ride, so to turn around at that point and say to the USEF and the British Dressage Federation, thank you but we're going to wait until next year would have been rude, and there was also the chance that they may change their minds.  This could possibly be the only opportunity Danni would have to ride in this competition, so I told the trainer, NO, Danni is going to compete.
The trainer wasn't happy, and told us so constantly, it put a great deal of added pressure on Danni who was already feeling the pressure of knowing that she was under the spotlight now as a representative for Great Britain, her nerves fed through to Atache and he acted upon them, making life especially difficult for Danni, it also didn't help that the trainer spent next to no time working with Daniela and all her time working with the other young rider.
At the competition, all the trainers focus was on the other rider, and Danni was curtly told as she entered the show ring "don't embarrass me".

Danni getting a hug from one of the judges

Already feeling very nervous Danni's nerves were stretched thin as she rode into the show ring, tears rolling down her face. A small child in the audience jumped off his seat onto the bleacher below making a loud noise right next to Atache as he was beginning his half pass (a movement) in that direction, and he spooked, big time, consequently making him a wreck throughout the rest of the test.  Danni managed to bring him back under control, and rode the test with Atache spooking at every little thing, he had never been this bad, and Danni knew it was only because she was so nervous, he was feeding off her nerves.  Her test was ok, but not great, and after the competition a few of the judges came over and hugged her telling her what a good job she had done, and not to give up she was a great rider, and she had a great horse.  This helped a little, but Danni was bitterly disappointed as she knew they could have both done so much better.  I personally would have liked to give the parent of the child that spooked Atache, a piece of my mind...

Daniela April Morgan

Post Accident

Following a painfully slow recovery period, during which I had to be immensely careful not to bash myself in the head (something I did all too frequently after leaving the hospital).  I gradually returned to the barn to watch Danni ride, and help her with the horses. 

 My days in the saddle were still a long way off, and staying at home every day I really missed the barn atmosphere that I loved so much, just being around the horses, that is all except Nautica, who I just couldn't feel comfortable around any more. 

I eventually gave him away to the barn manager, who had always loved him despite his permanent lameness. The barn manager thought of himself as something of a horse whisperer, go figure, and felt he could cure Nautica, I really did wish him well, but I didn't hold out any great hopes of success.  Well in truth I didn't actually give him away,  I sold him for $1, just to make it legal.  Anyway I didn't have to worry about him anymore, he was in the same barn but someone else's responsibility now.

Everyone at the barn was too nervous to ride Sultan, Danni was riding him occasionally between his bouts of lameness, and I was doing ground work with him.  I would take him out and hand graze him, then lunge him for 20 minutes.  I actually became reasonably good at lunging, and enjoyed it because I was at least having some interaction with my horse.  Danni's trainer really helped me with the lunging, something I had no real experience in, and it really seemed to benefit Sultan, who was tearing the stall down to get out, we're talking one hot headed horse here.

Sadly the barn we were boarding at (obviously not run by professionals) had this crazy rule about a day off, I had never heard of anything so stupid in my life.  We were actually sent a letter saying "just like a bank or a building society we are closed on Monday's". Did these idiots not realize they were dealing with live animals not cash and paperwork?????????????

Monday was designated as the day off, and the rule was strictly inforced by the barn manager, a real little Hitler as it turned out.  There was no turn out, no mucking out, the barn was shut up and dark,  only feed was given. Aside from feed time, there was no one keeping an eye on the horses.  Consequently from 9pm (when the barn closed) Sunday night, till (9am) Tuesday morning the horses were left in dark dirty stalls for 36 hours, can you imagine?  I made myself really unpopular with the arguments and protests I raised about this idiotic rule.

I have always hated dirty stalls, and the stalls at the barn were never cleaned to my satisfaction, so I ruffled many feathers by turning up morning and night to clean my horses stalls myself.  One Tuesday after I had been away for 2 days, I emptied 28 wheel barrow's of filthy shavings from Sultans stall.  The stalls were only lightly picked daily, never properly cleaned, and only a handful of clean shavings thrown in, so the manure quickly built up.  It was truly nasty, and many of the horses suffered with hoof problems from it. Sultan constantly suffered with thrush in his hoofs, and I know it was because of the filthy stalls,  he's only  rarely suffered from it since we left that barn.

Danni was only 16 years old at this time, and although she had become an accomplished and experienced rider for her young years, because of my accident she was still nervous whenever she rode Sultan, he had started rearing, even the trainer wouldn't ride him, so he became a real problem, and for a period of time both Danni and I seriously stressed about what we were going to do with him.  We had absolutely no help from anyone at the barn, we were totally on our own.

We brought experienced riders in to ride him, but even they couldn't deal with him and would usually end up in the dirt.  We paid professional experienced horse people to hand walk him, (I couldn't because I couldn't risk a blow to the head, and I didn't want Danni doing it), but that didn't last long because Sultan would constantly spook for no reason and become a real handful to manage. The situation just got worse and worse, both Danni and I especially dreaded Tuesdays, because after 36 hours of being locked in a dark stall Sultan was a nutcase, completely crazy off his head.

Better times with Sultan in Florida, 2 years later

Dealing with Sultan was an everyday headache, no one except Danni would ride him, we couldn't turn him out because each time we tried he would charge about like an idiot and injure himself, and working with him on the ground was just dangerous, I would take him outside every day for an hour to hand graze him, sometimes twice a day, but even then he would jump around and behave badly.  I was at my witt's end. The vets bills were building up, and there seemed no solution.

Wellington, Florida

All this time Danni continued to work on her dressage with Travis, and we traveled all over the country to shows,  but it quickly became obvious that if she was to progress with her dressage she would need another horse.  Travis was a real sweetheart, but he was a jumper, not a dressage horse, and he had gone as far as he could go with dressage.  So the hunt was on for an upper level horse. Convincing Bob that Danni needed a horse that would cost as much as his Porsche, was no easy task, but he gave in eventually as he always does when his children need something.

First we leased an upper level horse for a few months, he was lovely, and Danni adored him and did well with him, but when we did the vet check before the purchase, a few things came to light and Danni's trainer convinced us that it was not the right horse for her.  Danni was heartbroken, but understood it was the right decision.

  

The next move was to go down to Wellington in Florida.  Bob, Danni and I went down for a weekend determined to find a suitable horse, and that was where we found Atache.  Sadly we were once again fooled by a trainer.  Atache was a fabulous horse, exactly what we were looking for with the exception of age, he was almost 14, and he had little show experience, but he was a great schoolmaster, and a potential Young Rider horse.   

Danni did really well with him and quickly advanced up the levels, but it wasn't until her first show that we noticed Atache had a habit of sticking his tongue out, something that judges hate, and will knock points off your score.  This was something we should have been told about when we first looked at him, but once again we had put our trust in a trainer, to our cost!  

Over the years Danni did incredibly well with Atache, and even managed to train him not to put his tongue out.

Eventually when we couldn't stand the barn we were at any longer, we moved the horses to Walnut Creek, a barn that actually was a professional horse barn, run by people that love and care properly for their horses.

That was where the next chapter of this story begins...

Why, I often ask myself!

Danni and I have had horses for about 15 years now.  I come from a long line of equestrians, so you could say that horses are in our blood.  Danni took to riding like a duck to water, right from the start you could see she was a natural rider.  

We made her work in a barn for a year before we agreed to buy her a horse of her own, we wanted her to understand exactly how much was involved with caring for horses, to make sure it was what she wanted.  

Danni's first horse was a total disaster, we were royally screwed by a dishonest trainer, and sold a horse with a torn suspensory, don't even ask how I allowed that to happen, I was a complete idiot and trusted a trainer; if you are not familiar with horses, just believe me when I tell you that this is an injury you do not want your horse to have, they can take years to heal, and some never heal at all.  Consequently poor Danni spent the first 2 years of horse ownership hand walking, wrapping legs and watching all her friends ride while she nursed her horse, and we dished out a few thousand dollars on vets, equipment, medication and treatments.  

Once it became apparent that this horse was never going to be ridden ever again, we bought Danni another horse.  This time we were much more cautious, and far less trusting, but we got lucky and bought from an honest trainer, something we have learnt to our cost is very rare in the horse world.  

We traveled to Florida and found Travis.  This amazing, talented, incredibly sweet little guy not only became a great horse for Danni but he became her best friend too. Over the next few years Danni did eventing and did really, really well.  Travis was extremely pretty in the dressage show ring, always placing in the top 3, he was also a very talented jumper.  He loved the cross country and would set off with his ears forward and a "Let's go Danni" expression on his face.

Danni and Travis

For the next few years Danni won more and more competitions, progressing to higher levels of eventing, this scared me to death, as I would walk the course with her before the show, and be scared out of my wits at some of the jumps.
Because Danni seemed to have a natural talent for dressage, I worked on persuading her to move from eventing and concentrate on dressage instead.  Sadly Dressage was not something Travis enjoyed, he loved to jump and tear across the open countryside.  Despite the odds Danni worked hard, and again did very well with Travis in the show ring.

At this time I had returned to riding again, and had bought myself a beautiful 17 hand, black, 3 year old Oldenburg, gelding.  We still had Danni's first horse, he was at home on our farm just hanging out in the field.  Both Danni and I were riding every day, my new horse was a handful, but the trainer was giving me daily lessons, and I have always enjoyed a horse with spirit, so his nonsense didn't faze me, and I could see that with the right training he had the potential to one day be a fabulous Grand Prix dressage horse for Danni.  That was until the day of my accident. October 23 2003.

Sultan

I dropped my husband off at the airport to get a flight to New York for business, and was on my way back to the house when I noticed Nautica out in the field,  one of his turn out boots had come undone and was hanging loosely around his leg.  I parked outside the barn, climbed the fence and went over to where he was grazing.  I petted his neck and talked to him as he was quietly grazing, then I bent down to do up his boot, and the next thing I knew there was a loud crack everything went black and I was flying threw the air, I crashed through the fence and landed on the concrete drive.
My vision was blurred, I had a sharp pain in my shoulder, I was dizzy and couldn't stand up, blood was pouring down my face, I was totally disorientated everything was spinning, I crawled across the yard to my neighbors house and banged on her door.
The next 7 days were spent in intensive care.  Every bone in my face was broken, I looked like the elephant man, but I was lucky to be alive.  My skull was cracked, the bone that protects the brain behind the skull was cracked and some air had seeped in, it was pretty serious, but I have since joked about how I was officially an "air head"  for a while, in the true sense of the meaning.

I think it was more frightening for everyone else, poor Danni was brought from school to the hospital, and almost fainted when she saw me, her screams were heard 30,000 feet up literally, as Bob had been alerted on the flight and was on the phone with the hospital when Danni arrived and started screaming, scaring the life out of Bob and every passenger and crew member on the plane.

So anyway, that's basically why I had to stop riding, and I only had my new horse a few months. It was pretty sad.  My accident had scared the life out of Danni, and for a little while she was nervous when riding Sultan, because he was so unpredictable.  Consequently Sultan didn't get ridden as often as he should have been, which was not good, as he was so hot headed and he needed exercise and turn out, the longer he was left the more badly behaved he became, just about everyone at the barn we were boarding at was too nervous to ride him, and Danni also had Travis to deal with, and Nautica at home, and school, and no Mother around to help, so life was hard for her for a while.  We didn't get much help from the people at the barn, Sultan was too much for any of them, this was really the beginning of a long and very hard chapter of our equestrian lives.

More to follow later...

William & Kate

 While Edi and I were out shopping on Friday we stopped to get coffee,   while we were waiting I was skimming through the magazine stand, and came across a magazine of William and Kate.  It immediately made me stand tall, (well as tall as you can stand at only 5' 3 3/4") and puff out my chest with pride.  

As the eldest son of the late Princess Diana, and Charles, William is such a credit to England.  I see him as our one remaining chance to redeem the British monarchy, which lets face it bares a somewhat tarnished reputation today, especially after the very un-royal behavior by some of our royal family over the last couple of decades.  To be more accurate I'm referring to the outrageously embarrassing antics of the inaptly named 'Duchess of York' (Fergie), who embarrassed the British public and the monarchy so much with her bad behavior, she was given the nickname 'Duchess of Pork'.  

Then we had the very inappropriate wedding of Charles and Camilla, something that should never, never have been permitted.  The only saving grace is that the Queen, God Bless her will never allow Camilla to become Queen.  I must add, that had Camilla ever become Queen of England I would have (with the utmost haste) become a citizen of another country, any other country, and renounced my British citizenship forever.  Fortunately with the upcoming wedding of William and Kate, the necessity for changing my citizenship will no longer be an issue, and I can safely remain proud to be British.

All the limelight these days is focused on the future King of England, William and his beautiful bride to be Kate.  They both make me so proud to be British.  I feel confident that William and Kate will restore the faith in the monarchy and bring back a pride to the British people. If only Diana was here today, how proud she would have been of William.  

God Save the Queen

Nothing specific!

I'm so excited this morning, Edi, Danni and I are going over to the new house to take measurements and photographs, so we can arrange where we're putting our furniture.  Since coming back to dry land I get excited about all sorts of silly stuff that is just normal to everyday land dwellers, this is what spending time at sea does to one.

Once again this morning I was woken by loud noise's from outside, they were digging up the sidewalk with drill hammers and cutting the grass, at 8am ON A SATURDAY, the one day most people get to sleep in, unless of course you reside at Easton Commons.  Now I realize that anyone who reads my blog knows that I am an early riser, but here in the apartment the air is so bad none of us sleep well, so after I've wheezed and coughed my way through most of the night, and then finally fallen into an exhausted sleep around 6am it was no fun to be woken by the bloody machines digging up the road outside at 8. This is when I miss Daisy the most.

Bob is still thoroughly enjoying himself sailing solo in the Caribbean, watching the dolphins and pelicans and fabulous fish swimming around the boat, or hanging out in the hammock relaxing with a book, and taking afternoon snorkeling trips off the islands,  I'm wondering if he will ever come back! If I ever want to see him again I may have to go back...  I'm really happy here on land, but I do miss the beauty of the islands.

Meanwhile I'm going to be making curtains for the new house.

Waiting and vacuuming...

This whole process of moving is a real pain in the ass.  Everything takes so long, we seem to be constantly waiting for something, or someone to get back to us.  How I wish all the paperwork was finished, all the legal stuff completed and we could just get on and move in, instead of climbing around all these bloody boxes all day.

As a means of distraction I have been appliance shopping this week, well mainly on line, reading reviews and product reports.  I really think reading reviews is useful, you get truthful unbiased facts from people that have actually bought used and experienced the products.

We really needed a new vacuum, and I had planned on buying Danni either a Dyson or Miele, both have great reputations, although they are both among the most expensive on the market.  So I got on line and read all the reviews, I quickly decided that I was not going to go with the Dyson, and I couldn't find that much on the Miele, but I found a lot (good stuff) on the Electrolux Nimble, which was half the price of the other 2, it came with a 5 year warrantee, and it was pretty. ( I like pretty things) 

This thing is so powerful! I swear it could suck the dust up through the floor off the ceiling on the apartment below us, I couldn't believe how good it was.  Now I'm off to look for a new washer and dryer, I hope I get as lucky as I did with the vacuum. 

You're probably all wondering (if you're still reading this!) what the heck I'm doing writing about vacuums and washers, (sad isn't it) it couldn't be further removed from Daisy on the water, which she is by the way... Sailing around the Caribbean as I write this, having a wonderful time without me :o(

I keep asking myself "do I miss Daisy?" and the truth is, I really miss having all the fun stuff to write about, but sailing is simply not in my blood, 4 years of living on a boat has proven to me that I truly am a land lover, and a pretty useless sailor to boot, but having said that, being on the boat gives me so much material, and has enabled me to indulge my love of writing, this post alone is proof enough that I am starved of good material, look at me for crying out loud... I'm writing about bloody vacuums...

Why I'm up at 3am!

If one was to look at my blog today,  just the post's over the past month since I returned from Daisy, it would be easy to believe that I had shrivelled up and disappeared, leaving behind only a glimpse of who I had once been. I'm reduced to posting photographs of Pelicans for crying out loud!  I'm not even that active on face book any more.  My readers have dwindled down from hundreds a day to only a couple of dozen. Those faithful few to Daisy, who are still checking in daily to see if she has risen from the ashes, I can only apologize and say please be patient, I will be returning to Daisy sometime in the next few months, and will find many more humorous and terrifying adventures to write about...

By the way, talking of terrifying, I was astonished at how many of you were interested in the case of the serial murders in Panama that I posted on my blog.  I thought my readers were only interested in my wicked humor, and silly adventures, but I couldn't have been more wrong.  Without going into any details, I felt it necessary to remove the posts from the blog since a couple of things had transpired recently that had caused me to become much more involved with the case than I was comfortable with.

Moving on...
Since returning to dry land / terra ferma, or whatever description one might use to describe a place not on the water, I have nothing to write about.  Sadly there are no thong clad men, crocodiles, hairy beings, or enormously well endowed skimpily dressed women running through the isles at my local Giant Eagle store. In fact nothing interesting or funny for me to write about.  Howling monkeys do not wake me from my sleep here, or Kuna's setting fire to their huts, blissfully though there are no mosquitoes, but no Toucan's or beautiful butterflies either.

The stories that so easily pour forth from me when on the water, have dried up like the desert. Well that's not entirely the truth, I always have plenty of things to write about, they're just not the things anyone would be interested in reading.  Who wants to read about the the time I spend packing all my belongings into boxes, dealing with relator's,  hunting for houses, wondering why my souffle didn't rise, or dealing with horse problems, of which there are many?  Answer, NO ONE!
 

My life has always been colorful, I skip from one adventure or crisis to the next with gusto, "drama queen" is a description much used by my children to describe their Mother.

I was woken from a deep sleep this morning at 3am by the bloody road sweeper outside, beep, beep, beep, bloody beep...  It's the reason I'm sitting here working on my computer at this God forsaken hour of the morning instead of fast asleep pushing up the zzzzzzz in my cosy bed.  The noises here in the apartment, compared to the noises on Daisy are as different as chalk and cheese.  On the boat all I hear at night is the gentle lapping of the water on the hull.

I am excited to be leaving here soon, and moving back into a house on a quiet street where I will enjoy silent nights, and a little peace before I return to the high seas...

The Pelicans

Oh how I love the Pelicans

I think these Kuna are about to lose their catch

I love watching them dive for fish

Pelicans swoop very low over the water, occasionally tipping just the tips of their wings in as they glide  inches above the surface

This really doesn't look comfortable!

I love the way the Pelicans perch high up in to tops of the swaying palm trees to watch for fish in the ocean, they are my favorite birds.

The beautiful San Blas

I decided to remove all the posts on the Panama murders, it was much too dark for my blog, so I've replaced the story with a few photographs of these wonderful islands

Frieda on the beach

Island in the sun

the water is so clear, why do we need mask's?

Incredibly blue water of the San Blas

IF-warning

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Blog!: IF-warning

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Check this out, another fabulous illustration by my incredibly talented daughter.

Make sure you look at the "sandwiches " section of her blog... WOW

San Blas

Beautiful San Blas Island Beach