United States Eventing Association

On the Road with El Dorado - Part 6

I have yet to meet a rider who hasn’t had to take some time off from training for some frivolous injury. Now I’m not saying that they shouldn’t have taken time off…I’m just saying the injury in itself was on the, “say what?!?!” end of the spectrum. Well, my ridiculous injury is here, and poor Dorado’s training has been put on hold…for the most part.

Last Tuesday, I was taking the halter off of my new Dressage ride – a big black Thoroughbred / Percheron mare named Saphira – when she turned the wrong way and smacked me square in the nose. In five minutes, my nose was swollen and bright red, and I had two black eyes.

Off to the hospital for Erica!

Needless to say, my nose was broken. I took the rest of the night off before getting up and thinking that things would be fine in the morning. Of course (or I wouldn’t be writing this “ridiculous injury” blog) things didn’t go so well when I woke up.

I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get on Dorado that night – per hospital orders – so I moped around the house, complaining about my nose and how stupid it was that I couldn’t do anything when my nose has no impact on anything. I know…mature, right?

My father, whether it was out of the kindness of his heart or whether it was because he was sick of hearing me complain, decided to give Lance a break for the day and help me with Dorado. I’m sure you all remember that Dorado has yet to learn how to longe, right? Well, Dad said that it was time for him to learn and we trekked out to the barn.

As I watched my father work with Dorado, I realized that I never get to see my own horses work. I’m always the one riding, training, or competing with them. Realizing this, I sat back and watched as the wheels in Dorado’s head started turning and he started to understand the concept of a longe line. It was really nice to see!

Dorado is still making progress on the longe line and he’s getting better every day. I’m looking forward getting back in the saddle as soon as I get the okay from the docs. Re-check on Friday and then, hopefully, back to work!

Until next time, keep your nose away from big horse heads! ;-)

Erica and Dorado

P.S. – July 8, 2009 – While I was out of commission, Dorado got his first massage therapy treatment! One of my good friends, Meghan Maier, is a newly certified massage therapist and she came out to pay Dorado a visit. He wasn’t too fond of it at first – probably because he had never had one before! – but he quickly began to enjoy it! His next massage is this weekend…hopefully he will enjoy this one as much as the first!