My first real appreciation for how truly athletic horses can be occurred when I was about 9 years old. That was when my cantankerous 12-hand pony Millie began showing off her acrobatic side, pulling all sorts of stunts to unseat me. (“You don’t think I would try jump out of the ring rather than over this cross-rail? Watch me.”) Some days she was more successful than others.

My appreciation for how much effort and care it takes to keep an equine athlete healthy and at the top of his game, however, didn’t develop until I was in my teens. To get through a rigorous competition schedule sans injury, my horses needed to be incredibly fit, fed high-quality feed and supplements, receive first-rate farrier care, and undergo routine veterinary exams and maintenance. And despite my trainer-vet-farrier-family team’s best efforts, year-end goals and dreams of qualifying for national shows were sometimes spoiled by bouts of lameness. I learned that with pushing a horse to his athletic limits comes this risk and others.