Dr. Meg Sleepers (USA Endurance Team) daily blog on her road to WEG

Meg has been emailing a group of friends and supporters daily on her road to WEG. She has kindly allowed me to share her experiences. This first post comes a bit into her her journey, but hopefully all will be able to catch up quickly. I have also added Meg's first posts, which should help everyone catch up, so you may want to start form there. If anyone has questions for Meg, please write them below and I'll pass them along.

Sept 16

I know things are going to start getting busy and there may not be much down time
for a bit. Let’s see, our farrier is Jeff
Pauley (and he is absolutely fantastic—of course Dave is also a fantastic
farrier and he will actually shoe our 2 in front today once he arrives).
Jeff Benjamin…wow!! I haven’t heard his name in a while, but yes, he was a
wonderful farrier (and rider too). I haven’t seen him in quite some time and
am not sure what he is up to now. Anybody know?

What I was trying to describe yesterday in Smitty (Jeremy’s horse) is different than dog
trotting. Dog trotting (for non-horsey folks againJ) is when the horse
travels at the trot with the hind end slightly to one side of the front. I
would say if you were standing behind a horse that were dog trotting, the
hind end might be 10 degrees off to one side or the other if you were to
imagine the horse moving down a straight line. Smitty is
actually trying to run off (I think) but Jeremy is a strong rider (and has a
big bit) so he can keep him under control. But every 4 or 5 strides his hind
end shifts so he is essentially traveling at a 30 or 45 degree angle down
the trail (only at the canter…I haven’t seen him do it at the trot). So you
can imagine a horse traveling next to him would take the body language as
potentially dangerous when the hind end swings in your direction. Since both
of those questions are from Bonnie, thought I would also take a moment to
say that Harmon is an Angel grandson (Angel was a wonderful mare I got from
Bonnie about 20 years ago---can it really be 20??!??) and both horses are
related to the buckskin I competed with in the 1980s. Their mother was his
half sister.

As far as why I am biking when I have our big towing truck…that is just stubbornness I guess.
I refuse to drivethat big monster back and forth to the barn when I can bike,
walk or jump in someone else’s vehicle who is going.
I know I am forgetting someone’s question, but hopefully will remember it for a later update.

Picked up Dave at the airport and got both horses’ shoeing done then
went for a nice ride (about 6 or 7 miles). The horses felt
absolutely fantastic. The only small glitch is that Rev lacerated her right
hind cannon sometime this morning…probably on the stone wall surrounding
their field. There is a flap of skin about the size of a quarter lifted up
and I would LOVE to suture it. However, with the final selection tomorrow
Dave and Becky are worried sutures or staples will alter her gait. Soooo, I
just wrapped it up with some ointment. It will heal fine this way, but would
be faster with sutures…just inopportune timing. If that is the worst of it
for us this year, I will count us very lucky. Everyone has had their little
issues arise as in most years, but most seem to be resolving.

Unfortunately, Jeremy Reynold’s horse Smitty was lame today and he has withdrawn. I feel
terrible for him. He had a good season and the horse is fast. It is like
Ceci actually; her horse looked wonderful at the final trial and then he had
a problem after arriving here. We have all (I include here most of the
riders who nominated this year-not just those of us left standing) spent a
lot of money, sweat and tears to get here and it is a huge blow to have
something like this happen so close to the event. We all want the best
horses possible to represent the US, but we also are fervently hoping to be
one of those representatives. There are 8 riders left and 10 horses and the
final 5 will be chosen tomorrow.

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Sept 10, 11, 12...

9/10/10
It has started….actually it started a long time ago. You are receiving
this email because at some point you indicated an interest in hearing
about our endurance riding exploits. For the next 2 weeks you are
likely to receive additional updates unless you tell me you would like
to be removed from the list. Otherwise, feel free to hit the glorious
“delete” button.

The event we are currently focusing on is the World Equestrian Games
which is being held in the USA for the first time ever. So, although
Lexington, Kentucky would seem to be culturally and physically much
closer than Malaysia or Dubai or even Germany, preparations this year
have been as time consuming as previous years (perhaps even more so).
Dave has been in KY since 9/1 with our 2 short listed horses we are
swapping on 9/10 with me heading to KY (hopefully ultimately to
compete in the World Endurance championship on 9/26). Dave is going
home (to catch up on work and take care of everybody left at home)
until he returns to KY on 9/16 for final team selection on 9/17 (yes,
the final selection will not take place until then). I am currently
sitting in the Philly airport waiting to leave and thinking of all the
things I have left undone at home. Fortunately, Dave will have a few
days to organize things and some great friends are pitching in to help.

It’s a little after 9pm and I just got done checking the horses. It
has been difficult to not be here and it feels exponentially better to
see things for myself. The barn is actually quite nice, but it is set
up like a cross. Since Dave got here last, our two are on the short
side of the cross which gets a lot less breeze through the aisle (and
they don’t have windows). Fortunately, the weather cooled a few days
ago and it sounds as though that has helped a lot---originally our 2
were just sweating in their stalls. Unfortunately, since the only open
stalls are on this short aisle, these are the stalls the outside
campers had available to use (local riders that come here to camp) and
apparently for the last few days a coughing pony has been next to

Harmon. The stall walls are solid, so hopefully, even if he were to
have anything contagious, Harmon wouldn’t get it, but of course if he
does it will be just about the time of final selection. There’s
nothing to do about it now, the horses are getting temped twice daily
for monitoring and we are just hoping for the best. No other horses
will be allowed in for the remainder of the time. There is a concrete
slab that runs down each side of the aisle and in the front part of
every stall. The horses can stay off it if they want, but of course
Rev and Harmon were pawing on it and being silly the first few days
they got here. Happily, Dave said that stopped pretty early except
when one horse is left behind while the other goes out on trail.
Apparently that is still cause for agitation. They looked relaxed
tonight and dove into their dinners and I am really looking forward to
riding Harmon tomorrow (Dave rode Rev today, so she will just go out
for a walk tomorrow). Dave left flowers for me in the trailer so that
was a very nice welcome!

Sept 11
Lots of rain storms today, so I ended up deciding not to ride. I will
plan on riding both of them tomorrow. Their paddock is pretty nice
although it sounds as though Dave needed to repair the stone wall

which surrounds it before the horses could go in. I hate to say it,
but I am glad he was the one here with them and not me!! Some of the
pastures have sheds, but unfortunately theirs does not. Otherwise,
with the exception of some rocks that have fallen from the stone wall
it is really quite nice. This morning we went to speak at an Arabian
group’s meeting. The people were very appreciative and it was actually
really nice to hear their encouragement. We swung by the farm where
Michelle’s horse is staying afterwards (apparently she pulled a shoe
yesterday or the day before and damaged the hoof so she left and is
being rehabbed at this other facility for some reason). The facility
was simply breathtaking. From part of that property we could see the
vet gate area which has changed some from the pre-ride last year, but
is in the same basic location. There are 60 countries and 165 horses
entered in the endurance ride; in fact the WEG will be the largest
equestrian event ever in North America. But basically a slow day today
because of the weather, so I am planning on organizing my riding gear,
getting some computer work done and preparing for a busy day tomorrow.

Sept 12
I got a ride in on Harmon and Rev today. Both were fantastic!! I
wanted to do arena work with Harmon, but there really isn’t a good
place, so we just did our exercises down the trail. Rev and I rode
with everybody else (about 14 miles). For the afternoon, the entire
group was invited to a dinner hosted by the Arabian group we visited
yesterday and we were busy with that from the time we left at 3:30 pm
until we returned at 9pm. The horses were pretty hungry when we got
back and it was a lot of scrambling---heading to bed now. We moved
into the hotel today for the next few nights (next weekend we have to
move back to our trailers). Cell service and internet is available (or
at least much better) at the hotel, so I should be sending this update
tonight and probably every other night or so
now.
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