By Charlene Strickland
k
A diligent hunter rider shares how her horse recovered from a suspensory injury.
O
ne step, one jump—any equine athlete can land differently and sustain unusual impact. Such incidents typically cause no ill effects. Unfortunately Buddy wasn’t so lucky one day in
December 2011. Landing after a jump at a horse show, the Oldenburg gelding hit the ground and his rider immediately suspected a problem. Anne Marie Mueller of Malibu, California, recalls, “At the
show he had a less than attractive jump, and he just didn’t feel right. I left the show and immediately took him to a vet- erinary clinic and they said, ‘Nope, nothing wrong.’ I got him home and thought that maybe he was just feeling funny that day.”
But on her next ride, she knew he still didn’t feel right. “I
have my horses at home and ride five or six days a week—so I know my horses,” she says. Anne Marie’s quick recognition of Buddy’s odd feeling spurred her to seek a second opinion. Her instinct helped her horse get a correct diagnosis of a double hind suspensory injury—a serious injury for a cham- pion show hunter. In the past, few equine athletes would be able to return
to their careers after a hind suspensory injury. Fortunately for Buddy, and thanks to improved treatment options, he beat the odds. His owner enlisted a team of professionals who supplied the right treatment and ongoing care so he could return to the show ring.
AN AMATEUR’S DREAM HORSE Anne Marie started riding in her thirties. “It was a child- hood dream,” she says. “I finally got to the point in my career where I had time and money, and I started out on the lunge line.” Dragonfly Creek Farm is Anne Marie’s barn, in the mountains north of Malibu, where her trainer Patrick Span- ton works from.
20 July/August 2014
a
c
Her first show horse, bought in 2005, was a Trakehner mare, Promises to Keep. Anne Marie retired the mare from show- ing, and went into breeding hunters. The mare has pro- duced five foals, the first two by embryo transfer. Calypso, currently seven years old and
sired by Just the Best (KWPN, Best of Luck
x Close Watch), is now himself showing and winning. Her current partner Buddy shows as Athabasca, named
after the town, river and glacier in Alberta, Canada. He’s been a top amateur hunter at competitive USEF A-rated shows in Southern California. Foaled in Germany in 2002, Athabasca has a solid jumping pedigree (Sprehe Come On x Acorado). His sire (Cantus x Landgraf I) was an international jumper, as was his damsire (Acord II x Corrado I). Her trainer Patrick found the gray at a 2009 show at Thun-
derbird Equestrian Show Park in Langley, British Columbia. Patrick is a native of Vancouver and Anne Marie was with him at the show for horse shopping. “We were looking for an equitation and medal horse/hunter, which was Patrick’s big pushing point. I am totally glad we did, because then I could do both divisions with my horse. Patrick saw him grazing and knew he would be the one. Then we rode him, and tried other horses there, too.” Patrick jokes, “When I saw him, I thought he was cute eat-
ing grass. I said, ‘That’s the one.’ You know when you get a feeling for a horse—I just had a feeling that he would be the right guy. He just happened to be nice to ride, too.” “He’s 16.2 and has beautiful conformation. He had been doing his first and second year hunter classes, so we knew he had the scope,” Anne Marie adds. “Buddy is very intelligent about the jumps. He measures the jumps and backs up to help the rider as much as possible. He tries to jump every jump the same,” remarks Patrick. The pair started showing in California in adult amateur
hunters and equitation classes, along with adult equitation medal tests. Anne Marie discovered her horse’s preferences. “He’s got a lot of rules at home about where you can stand in the ring, like who can stand in a certain place. He’s trained his people very well, and we don’t even fight it anymore.”
INTO REHAB Concerned about her horse’s soundness after his “funny” landing—despite assurances he was fine—Anne Marie con-
B
y
r
i
n
d ig
n
u g
B B
d
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68