When I was leasing Lunia, I was told she was trained up to 3rd level dressage. I had never really done dressage, but I was definitely interested in it.
Fast forward to when we bought her and moved her to my hometown at a barn that has a dressage trainer. I was kind of intimidated by the thought of taking lessons because it looked so difficult but I am so happy I did try it and had the opportunity to for even a little while before I had to make the decision to stop doing it for Lunia.
Lunia was doing wonderful during our weekly lessons. Most of the lesson was my trainer telling me all the basic things I was doing wrong (like crossing my hands over the withers), but I learned so much, Lunia worked so hard for me and was looking great.
However, after some time she began to be lame more than usual (I say usual because she’s notorious for kicking her stall when she’s in heat) and we were missing our lessons for weeks at a time.
My vet recommended we send her to a specialist to do a bone scan and see what was going on with my Lunia. The results came back as such:
“The bone scan revealed several regions of IRU that may be affecting her performance at this time (sacroiliac joints, left plantar calcaneus, right lateral stifle). Historically, her retractable behavioral issues may be difficult to keep her from repeatedly causing mild ‘non-structural’ injuries to her hindend/hindlimbs and therefore it may be difficult to maintain a degree of soundness neccessary for competitive dressage training. Lunia may have no significant issues at a lower level of exercise or as a trail horse.”
I immediately decided that dressage was not the path for me and Lunia after seeing the scan results and recommendation from my vet. I never got to compete, I never entered a show, but I get to see my best friend every day and keep her healthy by just having fun with her and that’s all I can ask for.
Life with Lunia 