PART 18 - MY JOURNEY WITH MJ

In November 2024, after I'd made the decision to retire MJ completely, a client of mine recommended a specialist equine vet based in Newmarket who was a friend of hers.

She asked if he would be willing to come and look at MJ, and as a favour to her, he did.

I wasn't expecting a miracle.

I'd already accepted that MJ had DSLD and that our jumping and competing days were over. I'd spent months trying to come to terms with that and had started to adjust to the idea that our relationship was going to be about keeping her comfortable rather than riding her.

The specialist agreed that MJ may well have DSLD, but he also felt there was another issue which could be contributing to her discomfort.

His suspicion was that she was having problems with her sacroiliac area, potentially because she'd been compensating for the DSLD.

He came back on 21st January 2025 and injected her SI.

A week later, I took her out for a hack.

I honestly couldn't believe the difference.

She felt comfortable.

Really comfortable.

After everything we'd been through, I was almost afraid to get excited about it, so we took things incredibly slowly. We gradually did a little more with her and, as far as we could tell, she continued to feel good.

Then, in March, we decided to see what she thought about jumping.

I can't even describe the mixture of excitement and nerves I felt.

I knew we had to be incredibly careful. I knew that just because she felt better didn't mean that the DSLD had magically disappeared. I also knew that if we did get the opportunity to jump again, I didn't want to take it for granted.

So we started very small.

70cm.

Then 80cm.

And she absolutely loved it.

It was like she hadn't missed a day.

We did exactly what we'd done when she'd been diagnosed and told never to jump again: we jumped a few fences, gave her time to process what she'd done and then asked her to jump them again.

There was absolutely no hesitation.

She wanted to do it.

And I think that's the moment when I realised that perhaps we'd been given a second chance.

I knew it might not last.

That was always in the back of my mind.

I was constantly looking for signs that she was uncomfortable, constantly questioning whether I was asking too much of her and determined that if this was going to be temporary, I was going to enjoy every single ride as though it might be my last.

We kept the jumping to a minimum, mainly doing it at competitions rather than schooling regularly at home, partly because I wanted to protect her old injuries and partly because I didn't want to overdo anything.

Our first competition in nearly two years was a British Dressage combined training competition.

MJ produced an incredible 72% dressage test and then went clear in the showjumping, although she was her usual incredibly enthusiastic self and the round was slightly erratic!

She won her class.

And honestly, I couldn't have cared less about the actual rosette.

I was just so incredibly grateful.

After being told she would never jump again, I was standing there with my horse, having just won a competition.

It felt completely surreal.

And I knew that whatever happened next, I was going to enjoy every minute of it.