My Horse -- Ludo

September 20, 2009

For anyone who knows me, they also know that horses have been a major part of my life -- for almost my entire life. My first recollection of horses on the farm where I grew up, were horses/ponies from Cedar Point. (For those from Ohio and the surrounding area, today Cedar Point is a huge amusement park like a Six Flags -- back when I grew up, it was pony rides and a beach) We used to board them in the winter, and I remember my dad saddling up a horse and I would ride to the end of our driveway and ride back -- and my drive was about a half mile.

And my dad continued to board a few horses for other folks, and then we started buy our own. I rode in 4-H for a lot of years -- and the only thing I knew was "western". I had never heard of dressage, and never saw horses jump. After I was out of high school, I met a friend who wanted to learn to ride "English" and learn to jump. So we did -- and I was totally hooked. I rode "hunters" over fences for years, then I saw "eventing" (3 phase competition -- dressage, cross country jumping, stadium jumping) where people where riding through the woods and jumping fences. I knew this was something I needed to learn to do.

And after I broke enough bones eventing, I decided to just do dressage. I made several expensive mistakes in buying the WRONG horse and then I started riding with Anke Boersma, and met "Ludo". She imported him from Holland as a 4 year old, I bought him a short while later, and he is now 16. So we've been together for a long time.

I've been blessed in my life to own 2 wonderful horses -- Going Places (my event horse), and Ludo (my dressage horse). Both were talented -- but probably not Olympic caliber horses. I kept Going until she died at 23, and plan never to sell Ludo. Both horses were extremely giving -- they always tried, they always did their best for you, and neither had a malicious bone in their body. Now.....they both threw me off many times, but almost always when they were in a situation where they were scared, and just wanted to get away, without me on their backs.

So now Ludo is 16, and like all of us getting older, the wear and tear is obvious. He's competed in Prix St. George, which is the first FEI level dressage test (that's an international test) with my trainer, Anke. I've competed him at 3rd level, and before all the injuries, I was about to move up to 4th level (level before Prix St. George).

For most of the years I owned Ludo, he was never sick or lame. Until about 2 1/2 years ago when he started going off, but with some rest, he would be okay. Those periods of "good" were shorter and shorter, and he's had almost a year of rest (being just a pasture horse). But I found a fabulous vet at Coosa Valley Equine in Alabama -- Dr. Ed Murray. He's been able to diagnose the damage and we went through a long period of rehabilitation, and Ludo has really been sound for probably 6 months. He was doing many of the upper level dressage movements he knew before his illness.

(As you can see from the picture here, Ludo is quite a good jumper as well as a dressage horse)

Now he's going off again, so Monday we are on our way back to see Dr. Murray. Everyone keep their fingers crossed that this is a temporary set back and can be fixed. I know Ludo will probably be retired in a couple of years, but I'd really like to ride him longer. He's a wonderful, giving horse with a REAL personality. I love my horse, and if we have to retire, he's going to retire in Montana -- along with me.