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...