The silver lining to American event horse Courageous Comet’s untimely withdrawal from the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games eventing competition is that he stands to recover fully, says Brendan Furlong, MVB, MRCVS, US eventing-team veterinarian and a team vet for the US driving team at the WEG.

“He pulled his left front shoe on course and pulled up lame,” Furlong said of the fourteen-year-old gray Thoroughbred gelding, ridden by Becky Holder, 41, of Palmetto, Georgia, and owned by Holder and her husband, Tom.

“There was filling in the right front leg,” which indicated some degree of overstress to the compensating opposite foreleg, Furlong said. But “there was no pain on palpation, and he was ultrasounded by Dr. Denoix, who is the world’s foremost ultrasound specialist. He could find no damage to any structure — tendons or ligaments,” he said