SUCCESS for me is really all about our willingness to persist along a path of purposeful steps forward. This past weekend was one of those steps as Sandman and I participated in our first endurance ride (albeit it was the short ride but still a step forward) with Masquerade and our trainer Ashley Dudas on board. We rode as a team and both horses did very well. For me it was just great to be back in the saddle on our new boy Mr. Sandman and back in camp with our endurance friends and their amazing horses but most importantly at the same time, having Masquerade who is my heart horse and my partner now for 11 years, on the trail with us and in the very competent hands of our trainer. Ashley is the only person, other than myself who has ever ridden Masquerade and there are many reasons for this but having said that she did great and so did he. He is doing well and as you can see from this 3rd photo he is improving and getting stronger and healthier every day.
For those of you who have been following us for a while, Masquerade was diagnosed with Cushing’s a year ago and many said he would never compete again and worse that he would struggle physically from here on in and that we might not be able to bring him back but we have been working diligently to overcome the symptoms of that diagnosis and what many thought would be a debilitating condition. Today, he looks and feels (when riding him) great and knock on wood, I think we are going to in baby steps bring him back into this sport over time. Over this past year, I’ve researched this disease to the Nth degree and I’ve found numerous examples of these horses competing successfully in our sport and other equine sports as well including, Polo, Hunter Jumper, and Steeple Chasing. He enjoys being out with his endurance buddies and he clearly enjoys trotting and cantering the trails again and for this reason, and because he is still younger than most with this condition and because he enjoys the rides, we are going to be giving him this job to do again, so fingers crossed we are giving this a shot. 
Our other boy, Mr. Sandman (pictured here) is an off the track young race horse with five races under his belt. With that background comes some baggage but also on the upside super good genetics, speed, strength, and a friendly nature and personality. As you can guess as a young race horse he is a handful which is where our trainer Ashley comes in..she has been able to work wonders with both Sandman and I and both of us are now more comfortable with one another but also more confident all of which really showed in this ride. We switched leads seamlessly trotting and cantering at will thru all types of terrain and bushwhacked portions of the wash as well and both horses did great and relatively speaking as a four year old Sandman was very willing to lead (very scary for most horses) and pass other horses (and fall back) without a care in the world for the most part as long as he had some visibility on the horizon.
Our other boy, Mr. Sandman (pictured here) is an off the track young race horse with five races under his belt. With that background comes some baggage but also on the upside super good genetics, speed, strength, and a friendly nature and personality. As you can guess as a young race horse he is a handful which is where our trainer Ashley comes in..she has been able to work wonders with both Sandman and I and both of us are now more comfortable with one another but also more confident all of which really showed in this ride. We switched leads seamlessly trotting and cantering at will thru all types of terrain and bushwhacked portions of the wash as well and both horses did great and relatively speaking as a four year old Sandman was very willing to lead (very scary for most horses) and pass other horses (and fall back) without a care in the world for the most part as long as he had some visibility on the horizon.Big victories are often the result of small baby steps and with this in mind, we are off to a very nice baby step start. I’ve learned from my time with Masquerade and now Sandman it is well worth the time and energy to be patient with these horses who are our partners in this sport. I’d like to thank Stephanie DuRoss for putting on another great well managed and fun ride and her team with Taylor Jane, Ashley Wingert, and Aliki Otey, all of whom at every turn were always smiling, calm, and collected along with their volunteers and VETS who made it happen. Also, Ashley Dudas who rode Masquerade, Mary Jane Harris, Shannon Conley, Chance and Stacy who we camped with and their horses Triton and Eclipse all of whom sat in camp sharing wine and laughing along with our ride buddies both in camp and on the trail..it was a blast and so good to be back literally and figuratively in the saddle with this amazing group of people.
There is nothing better than a good horse and a long ride to put life in perspective. This was a small but significant step forward for all three of us and life is back in perspective and Lori DiLoreto Spataro and I can exhale now. Enjoy the ride 🙂