The Road to Regionals - "oh no. oh no no no no no."

 I took Hampton to the KDA Fall Classic at the Kentucky Horse Park for a spin around the ring in our Second Level Freestyle (I love this freestyle - the music is all Women-Power themed).

Rolex Arena!
Photo by Lisa Dean.

Hampton LOVES the "lower levels*" and cruised around happy as could be. He felt great and we managed a lovely 70% and won the class.

Perfect I thought! Great prep for Regionals!

We were all set to leave on Friday for St. Louis and the Sunday before I bring in the following horse:

The left front was also BLAZING HOT and just a touch of swelling was creeping up into the fetlock. I thought well that's a gnarly abscess. SHIT. Poor Hampton was so painful but the best thing for him was to go back out to the field and hopefully get this monster to pop.

However, my hopes for regionals were quickly fading ....

To be continued.

* - Second Level is in fact NOT easy and I hate using "upper" and "lower" levels because it infers those doing higher levels are somehow better when that is in fact NOT the case.