I know, I know, I have been terrible at keeping my blog updated. Thank you for all the e-mails, phone calls, text messages, and general questioning about my where-a-bouts these last few months. I will say in advance, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year, and any other major holiday over the last six months I have failed to mention. Mine were all fabulous, and I hope yours were, too.

Fizzy continues to amaze me every day. We had a two week period where he gave me the best work he's ever done. We had an unbelievable, uphill, expressive, knock your socks off canter, a huge, cadenced collected trot, and such a balanced piaffe that I often found myself looking in the mirror saying to myself, "does this look as easy as it feels?" It did. Now the but...

For the last week or so, he's just felt... blah. For all of you that know Fizzy, you know he never feels blah. He isn't excited to go look at the polo mares next door (although my excitement to go look at the polo boys next door still stands!), he is walking like a normal horse and not like I-am-the-best-power-walker-on-earth Fizzy... and he just seems a little dull... Tim Ober came to see him, and the first thing he said was that he didn't seem himself... Too quiet, not cheeky. I had him draw blood and do a lameness exam on him- the good news is I am riding one of the soundest FEI horses out there (Me: "But Tim, you're sure you don't need to inject his hocks? All FEI horses have their hocks injected..." Tim: "Liz, listen, I'd be happy to spend your money, but I'd be hard pressed to find a sounder horse behind out there." Me: (Smile))

I am *hoping* Fizzy's quietness is coming from one of three things: 1) still feeling crappy from his vaccines a few weeks ago (although he's never had a reaction before), 2) change in hay (from beautiful, Kentucky hay to icky Florida hay, boo), or 3) he's pushing his new coat in. I know 3) has made him dull in the past, especially in the fall... but never in the spring... we'll see.

The good news:
1) He looks amazing. His coat glistens, his tail is big, his feet look amazing and his weight is perfect
2) He is still very interested in learning new tricks... Our latest is picking a bucket up off the floor and making a "basket" into his feed bucket
3) I have one of the best vets in the world looking after him
4) He still looks forward to seeing me everyday, and goes to the arena with a smile on his face, even if he seems a little "dull" in the work.

So that's my update for now... sorry it isn't a little cheerier... Our first show is in two weeks, so hopefully we'll have this figured out by then... Just so you all know I'm being a little overdramatic about this "Fizzy seems dull" thing, I will tell you one of the grooms for one of the top horses in the US came up to me two days ago and said, "you know, you and Fizzy are still my favorite pick for the team. You make it look so easy!"

Cheers,

Liz and Fizzy