Wishful Thinking
Wishful Thinking (5/19/15)
Sam and Midnight
Sam trying out Wish
Sam and Wish playing after cross-country
While we were in the process of adopting Mindanao from the MMSC, I continued riding my 22 year old unraced thoroughbred, Wish. My mom bought him for me after my naughty pony, Midnight, died. I was outgrowing Midnight and had already started riding Wish in lessons with my new trainer Chris Pope. Midnight was old and we think that he had Cushing’s disease, although he was never officially diagnosed with it. We bought Midnight for my brother when I was four. My brother was allergic to the horse hair (and Midnight was always hairy and we had to constantly body clip him), so he eventually lost interest and he was passed down to me. My parents had to build a taller riding arena because he would jump out of the original arena that had a two and a half foot fence. Midnight would run off with me all of the time and was always for sale. In the end, I conquered that pony and he finally gave up and started behaving himself. My cousin, Ava, who was three year’s younger than me started riding him successfully as well. It was late 2010 when he slipped and broke his leg in a freak accident and just like that, he was gone.
After Midnight’s accident, I started riding Wish more and more and my mom bought him for me just before my 10th birthday. Wish had been well trained and several of Chris’ students had competed on him. It was a bit of an adjustment because Wish had a much bigger stride and he rode off of his outside rein. I was used to pulling Midnight around when I wanted him to turn. At first, Wish was really sluggish. I thought he was going fast, but looking back, he was really slow. We progressed in our training together and started going to schooling shows. I was terrified of cross country. The very first schooling event, I refused to go out on course by myself. My mom got the organizer to let her ride Max around the course with me. I cried the whole way around. After it was over, I remember thinking how much fun it was and I couldn’t wait to do it again. The following year, we went to our first recognized horse trials and competed at beginner novice. We won third place, finishing on our dressage score. My mom competed on Max and was eliminated on cross country. Max would jump anything, but he was deathly afraid of the people and the umbrellas and the wind and the other things that were on the course. My mom schooled Max after the show and he jumped everything the first time like a pro. I was terrified again, but I was also excited and wanted to keep competing in more events.
Wish and I competed at most of the United States Eventing Association’s Area IV competitions and qualified for the American Eventing Championships (AEC’s) in both 2013 and 2014. We also competed at Pony Club Rallies in show jumping, dressage and eventing. We were even fortunate enough to compete at Pony Club Champs in novice eventing and participate in Festival at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2014. My team did well and I also did well individually. We finished off last year with a seventh place finish at the AEC’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJlL13KUu0Y . We did ok in the dressage phase (although we were improving with each competition), usually scoring in the low 30’s. The jumping phases were our favorite. Wish thrived in cross country and we would rarely pull a rail in stadium. Wish was no longer slow. He loved to go fast over the jumps. I guess you could say that he was just babysitting me when I was younger.
Sam and Wish recieving American Eventing Championships 7th place award
I was looking forward to the 2015 show season. Our dressage was improving because I am getting older and understanding the concept more. I knew this was going to be our year. We had decided to move up to training level, but we had also decided to make this Wish’s last year of eventing because he was getting older and we didn’t want to push him too far. Wish definitely had the jump. He would clear the novice jumps by a foot. He also had the endurance and loved to run.
We schooled our first training course in March. I found myself terrified again. I seriously considered staying at novice forever. We did well at novice, why push it? We had a little trouble schooling the trakehner jump and the tiger trap, but eventually got over them. It was our first time riding cross country since October. We should have attempted those jumps earlier in the schooling. I think Wish was a little tired by the time we tried those. We competed at an event in the Novice division in April as a warm up to the season. We schooled training one more time in May and I felt confident and excited about the next event.
Our first training level event was on May 9th and 10th and we felt ready. Our dressage was great with a 35.9 (the training level scores are a little higher than the novice scores). There was less than 4 points between me and 2nd place after our dressage. I was very happy. Then came cross country. Since the ground was a little sloppy because of rain, I decided to take it slow and safe. He cleared all the jumps by about a foot and we finished the course with time penalties, but I was very pleased with our ride. There were no problems at my arch nemesis jumps of the past schooling. I hopped off of Wish, took off all his tack, and walked him around for quite a while waiting on my mom to complete the course too. She had moved up to training level with her horse as well. She was very pleased with a clean, but slow and safe round. After my mom came across the finish she dismounted, untacked, sponged, and walked her horse for several minutes. Afterwards, we headed up a hill to the wash racks. On the top of the hill, I felt Wish jerk on the lead. Since I was facing the other way, I do not know what caused him to jerk on the lead. Right afterwards, I asked my mom if Wish looked a little off in his right front. When we were at the wash rack, I checked his shoes and noticed that he had a very slightly sprung shoe. Perhaps that was why he appeared to be a little off. So we went to the farrier and he fixed it. By the time we returned to our trailer, Wish was more noticeably lame. We took him home, hosed and wrapped his leg and gave him some bute. Something similar had happened at an event a couple of years before I even rode dressage. That time, he was off for a couple of days and then was better. I was hoping this was the same thing. I decided to scratch the rest of the show because I didn’t want it to get worse. After about 2 days of cold hosing, wrapping, and more bute, Wish seemed to be walking normal.
Sam and Wish training level last show
Since there was another competition coming up in less than a month, we wanted to have a vet examine Wish to make sure that there wasn’t anything seriously wrong. The vet came out about a week later and we fully expected him to give Wish the all clear, after all, he was walking fine and the swelling (other than the usual wind puff) was mostly gone. I was shocked when I heard the news that Wish had bowed his tendon and that he would be out of work for about twelve months. The vet also said that he would not recommend jumping him ever again. I tried to look at the positive side and told myself that it could have been worse. I was lucky that Wish would still be around. He has a great personality and is my best friend. It will be hard on Wish to not get to run with Max and Scotty, but at least he would be able to go in a small grass paddock by himself in about three weeks and eventually get to frolic in retirement with Max in the pasture. Max would be happy too, because he would often times be left alone while Wish and Scotty went to lessons and to shows. We knew that Wish would be fine.
I would have Mindanao soon and although my partnership with Wish and our competition days were over, I looked forward to starting over with the new horse. I loved my first training level cross country course. It was awesome going over several jumping elements at a time, up the bank, down the bank, to a skinny. I did it and I know that I will eventually do it again. I also know that Mindanao is three and it will be at least two years before I start introducing him to jumping. I am ok with starting over. The best thing about my time with Wish was the trust and partnership that we built together. Chris told me that Wish did more for me than he did for anyone else that ever rode him. We had a bond. I am looking forward to developing that trust and bond with Mindanao.