I first met Abby out in the paddock at Ploog Quarter Horses when I was trying to catch her for the first time as a yearling. We were going to bring her in to the barn to begin breaking her. Jodie and Lia were both out in the paddock with me to help catch her. Jodie was ranting about how beautiful she was and how talented she was. All I could see was a dirty, hairy, unclipped absolutely CRAZY bay filly. She would not let us catch her, then I learned that her mom is the same way.

 

In the process of breaking her to ride, she was tied around one day she had her first “episode”. Abby has a condition called Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM), basically it means Abby’s body cannot process complex sugars and carbohydrates that come in grain. So when she gets worked hard those sugars from grain clot up in her muscles and, to someone who doesn’t know better, it looks like a seizure or an HYPP attack, we call it “tying up”. After a horse “ties up” it is incredibly sore in its whole body. Then they need to be on stall rest for at least a month and after the rest, they need to be brought back to exercise very very slowly.

 

After this episode Abby was put on special feed instead of grain. And in the mean time I fell in love with her while slowly working her back to normal exercise. Everything went well until the next year when she accidentally ran out of her food and got grain for a few days then tied up again.

 

Despite all of Abby’s talent, Jodie decided that they couldn’t properly take care of her special needs along with the 70 other horses they had. Jodie knew that I wanted her and loved her more than anything, and she knew I would be able to take care of her. She finally told me that I could buy her for an amazing price.

 

I brought her home and worked with her myself awhile then I decided she need to have a professional trainer so she got finished correctly. Now she is in training with Tom Yanz of Vermillion, MN and she’s doing great!

 

I have paid the slot entry fee for the 2007 3yr old and older Maiden  Western Pleasure at the Reichert Celebration in August with a little help from my Grandma Frater as our sponsor. That class will be Abby’s debut class along with the 60 other horses entered.

 

The ironic part of all this is that Jodie has entered Abby’s 2004 full sister (I Always Wanna Win) in the Maiden Western Pleasure also! So the sister’s will be competing against each other in their first class.

 

Abby is my “Princess” and will be with me for the rest of her life. She is going to be my first and founding broodmare when I start my own breeding program someday.