Regards con’t: Decision Made

 7/20/23

The choice was easily made. Regards was hopefully going to be a mama. She had been letting me know that she was feeling a little bit sore after her jumping classes, so of course I let the boss know. We had a equine vet available for pictures to show us how her tendons were after her class.

Regards had been winning every class she was entered in and loving it. I knew by then that we were to go walking about before she would allow me to wash her off. She was such a show off. Anna had brought her to the point where Regards was racing fit and then added in a lot of gymnastics. To Regards,it was like a game that was so easy. She was  incredibly athletic. I wished I could have met her before she had beef almost wrecked mentally and physically. Wow! 

The last show for us,  and luckily it was close. Once she was all tacked up, Anna said that she could feel her mare’s excitement . It was time and they were in second place. Regards jumped each first round jumps easily, clearly enjoying herself. There were only two horses left to decide the winner.

The heights were raised for a jump off between another great open jumper and herself. Two had a very tricky take off angle and almost enough space to make it, so long as a horse was easy to turn and rate their speed. Two were monsters. It was going to cut the top horses from the lesser horses for sure. 

I could see Anna and the other horseman talking about it while waiting for their call. All I could do at that point was to wish them both the best of luck.  Due to Regards being a fraction of a second slower, was to go first. They entered the ring and picked up a canter, while Anna let Regards see the heights. Regards shook her neck and head as she was saying.   “ Let’s go, human… I have work to do!”

Anna aimed her towards the one simple jump and they sailed over it. Next was the first of the two tricky jumps. I knew Anna was glad she’d taken the time to look at those two. She swung Regards out to one side to get a better take off and left it up to her great mare to bring the ribbon ( and the huge check) home. 

They thundered towards it in complete unison and I swear Regards kicked her turbo booster into action. Leap, fly, land ,one stride .. leap, fly and land. She’d done it. One more to go….. they cantered around directly into the big fence. No easy angles for those two. With a Big grunt of effort Regards took off, cleared the huge jump and one stride after, she threw in a giant buck to let it know that she could have gone higher.

The whole stadium went wild. Anna asked Regards to slow down and then to walk. Anna was never a person to show many emotions, but I could see she was in tears and rubbing her wonderful mare on her neck, then top of her rump.  They exited the ring to allow the other team to have a good round.

I was drooling over the horse in the ring … he was spectacular. I had seen him before and he was absolutely perfect in confirmation. A huge deep bay, with a stunning head… wow, just wow. They took the first jump easily but came in the tricky ones a little bit too fast and had a pole down. The rider was done. He slowed his gorgeous horse down and took his hat off to honor the winner. 

Later when it was time to receive the awards, they both entered the ring together and cantered their way around the ring. They stopped in the middle and did a typical dressage move… hats off, and bowing their heads to the crowd, instead of the judge. There was some music playing in the background and when it was turned up, it was “We are the Champions “ by Queen. Anna and Regards turned around and went to the award presentation area, after she gave the second place winner a kiss on his cheek.  

 After all the excitement had settled down a little, we were able to talk about the class and how Anna thought it went. She was so incredibly amazed at Regards’ effort that each time she began talking about it,the happy tears began. Regards herself was still high from winning and was being an amazing horse. Allowing so many face pats and praise from her fans. She loved it. She would grab a mouthful of hay, then stick her head out of her stall for more attention. 

Something caught her attention and she lifted her head to see who it was. I had learned that her competition was named Sternlicht. He was a Hanoverian stallion who was at stud a few hours drive from the farm. I got to meet him and I was in love. Oh my gosh, he took my breath away. We chatted with the rider and when he walked away! I told my ‘family’ what I thought of him. 

 We had gotten the bad news about Regards’ tendon deterioration, it was decided that she would be retired from the show ring. The vet had let us see the injured tendon photos and they would not have lasted much longer…

We all agreed that the second place stallion was one stunning animal. Then my boss asked me I thought he would be a good stallion for Regards. 

??? !!!! 

I was stunned.. Really??? Everyone was nodding their heads ‘yes’.

 Come February, Regards was hopefully going to be a new mama… I could barely wait .