Contessa by Captain came to us in 2003 as a nine-year old. We took her over from a student who had to relocate for professional reasons and no longer had enough time for her own horse. Because Contessa had spent most of her life with him, she grieved that loss for a very long time. We trained her to Level L and I did a bit of competing with her. At home she was a little house mother, but on the show grounds she shone brilliantly. She served us well as a school horse when we moved to the Neurod Equine Center. Unfortunately she was not completely healthy; she had severe respiratory problems and possibly Cushings, although that was not definitively diagnosed. At that time, diabetes in horses was still undiscovered. We tried for a long time to get a grip on the problem, but her quality of life declined, as did her will to live. In 2007, during an episode of colic, we decided to set her free of her suffering.
