“Te pognosis was not god. Her vet, Jil says, told her ther was just a smal chance that se would ever be abe to ride her mar again.”
and on the sandy beaches that are also part of the property. She became cautiously optimistic that the mare might recover enough to enjoy life as a trail horse. A few weeks later, convinced it was the right time, Jill began gently schooling her mare. “I can just feel what Aria can handle when I’m on her,” she explains. By fall, seemingly miraculously, Aria was back in full
training and once again schooling at Grand Prix. Now she is carefully exercised on a daily basis to maintain and improve her fitness. “But,” Jill says, “we have a constant reminder of what
happened. The laminitic line is very visible about halfway down her hoof.” That reminder is truly sobering, she says. And it makes her return to top level work especially sweet. Jill is now making plans to travel to California to Charlotte Bredahl- Baker’s facility in March or April for some intensive schooling. The speed of Aria’s recovery still stuns Jill a bit. “The
recovery has been as fast as the onset,” she says ruefully. “I was shocked at the quickness of the onset and delighted at the quickness of the recovery.” She credits both the team effort of caring for Aria and
her own willingness to research—and try—new treatments with contributing to such a quick recovery. “I’m no expert in this,” she stresses. “I can only tell you about my own experience. It was a huge group effort—my students, John, my vet, my blacksmith and so many caring friends. They all helped so much. And finally, it comes down to belief. You’ve just got to believe.” “A ten percent chance is still a ten percent chance,” she
continues. “There’s a fine line. You don’t want to disregard your vet’s opinion and you can’t be willfully blind to expert opinions. But I decided to focus on that ten percent.”
T Dreams for the Futur
oday, Jill’s dream is to ride Dreamcatcher in a pas de deux with offspring Dreammaster, recently named 2011 Champion All Breed Award Winner at Prix St. Georges for the American Warmblood Society. Not one to set her
sights low, she wants that pas de deux to be at Prix St. Georges, and she hopes to compete at Grand Prix with Aria this year. She acknowledges there is work to do, for both horse
and rider. “These days, I’m really focusing on fitness. I still feel some inconsistencies—but remember, she’s 14 and I’m nearly 50!”
For Jill, Aria’s legacy will
live on, no matter what their competitive results turn out to be. In addition to offspring Dreammaster, Ballerina (a Dreaming daughter, making Dreamcatcher the granddam) was also recently named 2011 USDF Materiale Horse of the Year. “This is the horse of a lifetime for me,” Jill says. “She’s incredibly special. I’ve been trying to capture her specialness in our breeding program.”
Jill says she knows that, objectively speaking, the horses
she has bred are better than Aria. It’s just that they don’t sing the same song in her heart.
Warmbloods Today 47
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