Well today was the last day of waiting, sort of.  Tomorrow, sometime between 4 and 5 pm we should know who the 5 riders will be. 

Last night was not a good sleep night.  There is a mouse (there seems to be a personal mouse for each room, they come standard at no additional fee) that keeps visiting us at night.  Last night the mouse was feeling very much at home.  He was crinkling wrappers.  I threw a towel in his direction at one point.  This morning I saw what he was up to.  He had taken the Coconut M&M wrapper and carried into my sheepskin lined boots and shredded it inside the boot,making a super cozy nest.  Bastard.  It was almost cute except for that my boot smelled like mouse!

Today was a bummer for us.  About a week ago Smitty hurt himself somehow either in his stall or in his turn out.  It was a hind end lameness.  We noticed a small lump on his hind end that was never there before.  It is up in the large muscle area of his hamstring. 

Smitty seemed to be doing better day by day and the vet was not too concerned about it so we waited for it to get better.  Jeremy iced, lasored and even took Smitty to the hyperberic chamber two times to try to help it heal up the best we could.

Yesterday the horse looked perfect before, during and after his ride.  It was the first day since it happened that Jeremy was feeling better about it. 

This morning when we trotted Smitty he was just as bad as the day it happened.  Jeremy knew that he could make Smitty sound with warming him up but he also knew it would not be fair to Smitty, the team or himself to do this for our final trot out on Friday morning.  It was very improbable that Smitty would be able to go 100 miles in 10 days looking the way he does.

Jeremy went to Becky and formally withdrew Smitty today.  There is no point in hoping for soundness, making the horse appear sound and then having a very questionable horse at this level, especially at the speed that is needed here.

After this we did our barn chores and headed back to the hotel for our Ariat fitting.  We all had to try on jeans for the opening ceremony uniform.  After this we took off to hang out alone.

We decided to see a movie that Jeremy had been wanting to see, The Sorceror's Apprentice.  Jeremy also was craving ribs so we went to Tony Roma's and had great ribs.

After that we headed back to Shaker Village.  When we got back Dan, the grounds manager was getting ready to go out running.  Instead of sulking in our room Jeremy went with him at the last minute.  I ran down to the barn, literally, and pulled Sam's mane.

While I was at the barn I hung out for a bit with Grace, Michele and Jan.  Then I helped Lindsay and Susie bring in the horses for the night.  I am now back at the hotel getting ready for bed.  Hopefully the mouse doesn't show up tonight.

Keep your fingers crossed for Sam tomorrow.