WHITNEY ALMOST BACK HOME AFTER THE NECESSARY WORRIES IN BRAZIL ...
A horse that is part of the family, to "non-horse-people" that’s hard to explain, they think for sure that we have gone mad.Anyway, we now hope that Whitney gets back home safe and sound from Brazil. If we would have had a crystal ball, she had never made that trip. Unfortunately we didn’t got that crystal ball, but hopefully we get our Withney back!
Normally she would return on Thursday morning from a 14-day trip to brazil. She would participate in the CSIO Porte Alegro in Brazil, her last important competition at high level, unfortunately an injury ruled otherwise.
On the way back home there would be a stopover in Sao Paolo. Thank god for that stopover! During the short flight Whitney made colic. During the stop she could be taken out of the container and get the needed nursing she needed at the airport of Sao Paolo.
Fortunately doctor Jarvas, who has not left her side, could give Whitney the necessary medication to get her better. Last night around 3am we got the reassuring call about her recovery. Meanwhile the horses of the other Belgians had already flown on to Frankfurt, where they are now safely arrived.
If everything proceeds further without any problems, Whitney will have her flight to Frankfurt tonight. We will be happy and relieved when we can pick her up tomorrow!
What Whitney meant for us, we can not only describe with a list of sportive successes.
It is nice that the experience of the successes also for our children has been fun. A journalist of Equnews asked our son Thibeau what he would like to win later. What would be the highest feasible for him..
He asked us what we thought he would have replied there. I gambled first "Belgian champion in the seniors," Patrik guessed second and chose the Grand Prix of Aachen. We were both wrong.. Then I got all scared that he would have picked something far too high, I thought of Olympic champion. Then he shook his head even harder, no wrong again.
We really could not guess, and then he said, "Well, the Grand Prix of the Groentenjumping" .. That choice made us actually really happy. The victory of Whitney at that Grand Prix was indeed memorable, and we will continue to think about it with a warm heart.
The great sport for Whitney is now behind us, but we cannot put her totally inactive from now because she does not deserve that. We like to keep her active in a relaxed way, and we'll see how we can let her say goodbye to her audience in a symbolic way. Because we are very sure that not only we but also she has enjoyed all those beautiful moments.
It had been nice if someone of our children could take over the reins of Whitney to do some small competitions. That is not likely anyway. We know ourselves and we know that we would always expect more and more and that cannot be the purpose. What does the future brings for Whitney are now very much autumn walks and what comes after that, we'll see.
What we do know is that our children continue to do their best to ride their ponies. Our son Thibeau Spits participated yesterday in the classification of style jumping in Mechelen, which took place in Azelhof.
Together with his pony stallion Hightrick they won this qualification. Furthermore, we will go ta Azelhof this weekend for matches in the Silver League. On Friday, Patrik likes to be replaced as a rider because he wants to bring his Whitney back home from Frankfurt.
On Saturday and Sunday Patrik will at Azelhof. On Sunday, he forms a team in the Darco Cup, along with his sons Marnick and Thibeau. They each ride with a son / daughter of Va-Vite, Thibeau rides a daughter of Whitney (Vicenza Rosa), Patrik with a half-sister of Whitney (Vichy DH Z) and Marnick a cousin of Whitney (Vittangi, son of The Symphony Laubry, and half-sister of Whitney). So that's family in all kinds of way!
