Rough July

Sorry for the lack of posting but the last month has been pretty hard. So after Estes we had only a few weeks to prepare for western heritage show. On the first of July Bo pulled up lame in Liberty. He started limping really bad on his front left. He got a massage and we found soreness in his top line. We were instructed to stretch him out and do some exercises to help alleviate the stiffness. I rode one of my leaser's other horses Jack for one practice. We then rode Bo around and after some trotting he pulled out of his limp. I rode him for liberty saturday and for royal on Wednesday and he did just fine. Then the next saturday he started limping again. I followed the instructions of work him out of it (just stiff muscles) but it didn't seem to be getting better. I then felt the limp shift to his front right so I pulled him out. I felt horrible for riding him as long as I did but I was doing what I was told. I was in tears when I brought him to his owner as I was so concerned for his well being. At this point Heritage show was in a few days and I had no horse to ride. Jack was being ridden by one of my teammates so I took Karma in for heritage and a teammate lent me her red liberty horse. So I went into heritage show on two horses that I'd never ridden in class and I called the liberty performance and rode no bridle and hit 3/4 jumps. I'd call that a huge success. Then Royal I rode 4-1 and 3-7 and Karma did phenomenal since it was her first big westernaires show and only my third time riding her. The drills could've been better but we stayed together as a team the best we could and got out of the arena together. Performing for red ropes was super fun and we got buttons added to the front of our costumes. The first show was better than the second for everyone. It was just super hot and miserable. Precisionettes promotions happened that night and Nighthorse move ups happened on Friday. They moved 20 to Royal and 28 to Crimson. It'll be nice having a full team with points again since the stock show move up didn't happen. Sadly I had to miss the graduation ride and new girls first ride because I was on vacation. On July 31 Bo went to the vet and my leaser called me with some bad news, Bo has been diagnosed with early stages of Ringbone (arthritis) He is immediately retired from all classes except for Royal and Roman (with another rider) that means all of our hard work in liberty is gone, although I am extremely pleased that we accomplished a no hands jump with no bridle during our last class together. He will be getting treatment to keep him comfortable through annual that way I can graduate off him for royal and I couldn't be more grateful for that. It is kind of poetic that as we run out of the arena together in october it will be his graduation run too, since he will retire from drill team after annual. Although I only have a few weeks to prepare another liberty horse for olympics and possibly red liberty tryouts (although I'm not sure I'll get another shot with a new horse)  I know that not using Bo in liberty is what is best for him and that's all that matters. He has had a long westernaires career and I am honored to be the one to ride him through his last show. That being said I rode a rental horse for liberty yesterday and I got skeeter! He did really well even though he was crazy excited hahaha. I'm not sure if I will use Jack for olympics or rent. We will see!