“The vets at MU said she had a
30-percent chance of survival and that even if she did survive her prognosis was ‘very guarded.’ ”
After five hours, they were finally able to get Gracie to
stand. The next challenge would be to load her on the trailer, as she was still unstable and only able to stagger sideways. It took two hours to load her. “We had to let the air out of the trailer tires to make it low enough to load her,” Bobbi recalls. Once loaded, they still had a two hour drive ahead of them as they headed for the University of Missouri (MU). Upon arrival at MU, Gracie was put in a neurological stall.
She’d forgotten how to drink and the staff at MU prepared Bobbi for the worst—if Gracie didn’t begin to drink on her own in 24 hours, she would need to be euthanized. Bobbi found a hotel so she could stay nearby, and was thrilled when Gracie took her first drink since the accident the next morning. The whole incident remained a puzzle, however. Tests ruled out EHV-1 and EPM as causes of the seizure. Gracie would get better, and then get worse again. At one point she developed a dangerously high fever. Then her urine turned brown—she had internal injuries to her kidneys from flailing on the concrete. The vets at MU said she had a 30-percent chance of survival and that even if she did survive her prog- nosis was “very guarded.” It was unlikely Gracie would ever compete again and it seemed increasingly likely with each day that she could die. Bobbi was heartbroken. Then Gracie began to improve. After two weeks she left
MU and returned home. She was still walking sideways, she couldn’t be turned out and she was on strict stall rest. Bobbi was just glad to have her alive and at home. However she kept improving.
Road to Recovery In August, three months after the accident, Gracie had a check-up with the neurological team at MU. To everyone’s surprise, they didn’t find any residual damage and she was given the green light to resume work. Jonni resumed Gracie’s dressage training and the “super
freak” lived up to the moniker with her freakishly remark- able recovery. In just two months they were once again training at Third Level and, since they’d already qualified for the regional championships prior to the accident, they decided to give the event a shot. “Even though she wasn’t 100 percent, she still finished sixth,” Bobbi recalls. They took the next few months to focus strictly on getting
Gracie back to 100 percent. Bobbi continued to haul her to Jonni three times a week for dressage training and also continued driving her as the weather permitted. In 2014 Gracie and Jonni again qualified for their regional champi- onships, where they became the Open Third Level Reserve Champions and the Open Third Level Freestyle Champions, which qualified them for the U.S. Dressage Finals.
18 March/April 2015
In November they made the trip to Lexington, Kentucky.
“It was a fairytale story to have Gracie qualify for the finals, especially after all she’d been through,” Bobbi remembers. “The finals were an amazing experience.” Gracie and Jonni finished third in the Open Third Level and fourth in the Open Third Level Freestyle. Gracie is currently schooling Fourth Level and the plan
is to begin showing her at this level later this year. “For now she’s standing around fuzzy in her paddock,” jokes Bobbi. Bobbi also continues to drive her. “The dressage has made her an amazing driving horse and one of her favorite things is to go driving down the country roads,” she says. Although Gracie’s comeback as a riding and driving horse
was nothing short of miraculous, Bobbi is happiest just to have her alive and well. “She’s a one in a million horse,” she says adoringly. Her remarkable recovery and success story is a one in a million too.
WINDSONG
Windsong, affectionately known as “Puff,” could easily be labeled the ultimate dressage schoolmaster. The 17-year- old Hanoverian (Weltmeyer / Lauries Crusador xx) has competed at FEI level dressage with seven different riders and has helped five riders earn the required Grand Prix scores needed for their USDF Gold Medals. He also competed in the Young Adult Brentina Cup classes in 2011 and 2012 with then-rider Heather Beachem. But while Puff has had a highly successful show career and has excelled as a schoolmaster, health and wellness issues have tested his resilience, making him not only the ultimate schoolmaster but also the ultimate comeback kid.
Success—and Surgery Puff made his FEI debut in 2005, scoring a 70.25% at Prix St. Georges with rider Martha Diaz. The next year he suffered a serious colic which required surgery. As if the colic surgery wasn’t enough, the incision line became infected, ultimately resulting in nine hernias along the scar line. Puff was out of competition until 2009, when he came
back strong earning a 65% at Intermediare 1 with rider Sarah Hellner. Puff had made one great comeback and was again doing what he did best, competing at FEI-level dressage. Aileen Daly, who owns and runs Xanadu Dressage in
South Carolina, bought Puff in 2012. “Puff had been a once- in-a-lifetime kind of horse for a lot of people already, and now he was a once-in-a-lifetime horse for me,” she says. Unfortunately, about four months after she bought him,
Puff suffered a seizure-like episode. Concerned, with no idea what had caused it, Aileen took Puff to Rood & Riddle in Lexington, Kentucky. “Nobody knew what had caused the first episode, and he was at Rood & Riddle for a couple of weeks before he had another episode,” she remembers.
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