Like a celebrity sighting

On Wednesday evening, my little barn was graced with a celebrity. Well, a celebrity to us horse people-- Chelan Kozak, world-class 3-day event rider. I had met her briefly while working at Pacific, but it was something entirely different to have her in MY barn, looking at MY horses, and giving Jessy a lesson on miss Moira. The goal is for both Jessy and I to take lessons from her... eventually...

Chelan feels that Moira's "pissiness" is due to soreness somewhere. Not the leg or hoof, as she's completely sound, but the back, neck, or hindquarter area. Ulcers was another suggestion she made.

I have an appointment with a bodyworker that Chelan suggested. She'll be here tomorrow morning and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she has to say. She came highly recommended, and I'm very interested to see what she finds.

I also ordered some ulcer medication from my wonderful local feed store. Upon reflection, I realized that Gia has some pretty classic symptoms of ulcers as well-- girthiness, poor appetite, general anxiety, wood chewing, digging... so they are both going on the ulcer supplement, and we'll see what happens.

In a way I feel like I should be disappointed or discouraged, but I'm not. I'm actually excited, like this is just the first step toward having happy horses, and hopefully a successful show career because of it. It was very nice to have another pair of eyes on my girls, especially such an experienced set of eyes!

We will get Moira sorted out, Gia is looking much more sound already, so hopefully within a few weeks we can have Chelan back out. We are very lucky as she normally doesn't travel to give lessons, but we live right on the way between her house and her barn, so she is making an exception for us. It makes me feel like squealing with excitement. (Sometimes I actually do... but I try to restrain myself.)

Wish us luck, and of course I'll keep you updated!