A New Hope

Well, it has been sixty-four days since In Over My Head’s last race and for the first time in a long time, I can say I’m excited again about his future. As you may have read in my very long story in the last post, he suffered a rather serious injury to his suspensory ligament. He had no immediate future and his prospects of getting back to the track were very uncertain. He received excellent care from Dr. Hogan out in New Jersey, as well as day to day care from John (I actually don’t have John’s last name I’m embarrassed to say). From there, he shipped back to John Butenschoen’s farm in Marrengo and has been under the watch of Dr. Petrovich and care of Tyler Butenschoen and Penny Perrin. There have been a lot of people looking out for Mo and as it turns out, they have done a wonderful job.

When arriving back in Marrengo about a month ago, Dr. Petrovich took a new scan of In Over My Head’s injured leg. He was very optimistic about his process to that point. Well, late this week he was scanned again and we got a piece of news we really needed. Doc told Greg that the progress has been remarkable and that Mo should be ready to start jogging in just four months! I was floored. I can’t tell you how great it was to hear that news.

Now, the reality is that we won’t start him back that fast and everyone agrees there is really no reason to get him ready to go as winter sets in. So, our new goal (and it is obviously a very loose goal, but at least we have a goal) is that he will start back again sometime around April 1st, 2011. And, he will get to spend the winter in: beautiful Florida! Kind of a strange thing to think about considering it is spring now, but just being able to think about plans for Mo is exciting. Oddly enough, it is mapping my fictional story thus far…all we can hope for is that he is as successful when he gets back as I predicted.

More than ever, I am convinced we have a one of a kind horse and we are living in the middle of a unique and special story. All signs are pointing to him coming back from this injury and getting back to where he was. And he was racing in 1.50.4 in his second start after 3 months off in the middle of February. Where would he have been if he was real tight on a hot summer day? Certainly sub 1.50, right? I don’t know what lies ahead. He may have more bumps in the road to recover. I realize that is a very real possibility. He may come back to monster. He may get hurt again. No one really knows, but even though he is currently going crazy on stall rest with limited walking and cash flows are flowing out instead of in for the time being, I think we are all so glad we never sold him. He is a great story. He is our story and I know for a fact this story is far from over.