The ups and downs of horses are very well known by all the people who participate in any equestrian sport, and I must admit that in the past two weeks I’ve experienced yet again another quick high and a much quicker low.
After Richland Park, I was so pleased with how all three horses went, and after getting home to Pennsylvania I was all set to leave for Europe the next day for a little vacation. Before I left, I went to the farm to check the ponies and see my truck, which was driven home by someone else to help get me on the road a bit earlier. Apparently the truck ended up having a bit of an issue while driving.
Someone took it to the shop for me, and I got a call while I was in the middle of my vacation informing me that it was going to cost $4,000 to fix, which didn’t really surprise me too much, to be honest.
But a truck breaking… not so much a big deal… Ping, however, came out of Richland with an injury that will keep him sidelined for a while. The news of that came while I was away as well.
The good news is the horse will make a full recovery and be back sometime next season. Obviously I’m very disappointed about this, but witnessing everything that’s happened at True Prospect Farm this year gives you very good perspective on life. Suddenly the things you would find devastating shift, and a horse being slightly injured (though it’s very disappointing) seems small in comparison to the fire or Woodburn’s death. The loss of Cooper obviously has given me a lot perspective as well, and I’m very happy that Ping is quite alive and very well!
The other bad news I received while waiting to get on my nine-hour flight home was that my two rascals of dogs, Bizzie and Mollie, went missing in my absence and had already been gone for 24 hours.
If you know me, you probably know my almost strange (well maybe very strange) obsession with my dogs. They go everywhere with me, and they also sleep under the covers in my bed, which some deem as not so normal…
So I was beyond worried hearing this news. When I got off the plane in D.C., I had a missed call from a nice lady telling me she had Mollie with her. She woke up that morning and just found her sitting on her back porch. Too funny… Mollie is a character and loves humans. Turns out she was more than three miles away from the barn.
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But I got a bit more worried when I got back home and no one had seen or heard anything on Bizzie. She’s a strange dog, to be honest, and I think she misses Lillian very much, as she has always kind of been her second mom—she always watched her when I was away.
By the time I got home and started looking for her, she had been gone for about 48 hours. Finally, after three hours of driving around and screaming my head off for her, she finally came running out of a cornfield.
I sobbed like I had just won “American Idol” or something.
So now I’m back home, with different plans and a broken truck. But most importantly, Ping will be OK, and I got my dogs back!
‘Til next time,
Jennie
