Diagnosis

"Are you going to find out why my leg hurts?"

"Can you interpret that for me?"

"I'm afraid you're not going to like what it says, Lance. You're going to be stuck in your stall for awhile; you've torn your high suspensory AND inferior check ligaments – and in an odd location, too. Rick says it looks acute rather than chronic and thinks we caught it early, so hopefully it will respond well to treatment. But dude, how DO you keep hurting your ligaments? This is the third injury in two years! Rick says we need to take a look at your neck and back to see if you've got something going on there that's setting you up for these injuries."

I'm rather numb. This latest set-back raises big questions about Lance's long-term soundness prospects, at least as a dressage horse. But I like the big red goober so much. Keeping him as a trail horse is fine with me, but what do I ride while I wait? At my age, it is not good to take much time off from any active pursuit; the road back is harder and more risky.

In a very interesting twist of timing, on Sunday I got an email out of the blue. It was Larry's breeder (if you don't know who Larry is, you can click on the label at right), wondering if I'd be interested in another training prospect to show and sell for her. This one is a green three-year-old half-Holsteiner mare.

Yes, I'm intrigued. No, we really don't have room. Stay tuned.