The Remarkable CF Jimmy Neutron

Arabian Horse World

The Remarkable cf

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hen we watch a remarkable performance by an amazing horse and rider, we often don’t know the back story. At the 2017 U.S. Nationals CF Jimmy Neutron (Baske Afire x Shes A Mystery) and Katie Burr put on a clinic in the Half-Arabian English Pleasure AAOTR 19-39. What none of us knew during their spectacular

performance was that the horse was defying all odds by even attending the show.

After a disappointing end to the 2016 show season, 2017 began at the Scottsdale Show in February, and it looked like it would be a banner year for Katie and “Jimmy.”

Burrline trainer Sharon Blendinger says, “We took him to Scottsdale this last year and he and Katie did great. She could put him where she wanted to, and she managed him well, so we were excited for the coming year.” After the Scottsdale show Jimmy went home to their farm in Temecula, California, and was turned out in a grass pasture daily for a well-deserved break. The plan was for him to go back to work the first of June to get ready for the U.S. Nationals.

On May 26, 2017, Jimmy was discovered colicing severely. “At about 5:00 AM one of the guys who works for us started feeding and found Jimmy in a really bad way,” Katie says. “Thankfully he probably found him not long after things had started.

Jimmy was violent in his stall because he was so painful. We quickly got him to the San Luis Rey Equine Hospital. Dr. Korin Potenza owns the clinic with her husband, who is also a veterinarian. She told me that they needed to perform surgery immediately.

His abdominal tap was very bad. She forewarned me that it would be a long difficult 112 b ARABIAN HORSE WORLD b JANUARY 2018

recovery, if he survived the surgery. And she explained that the next couple weeks were going to be touch and go. Seven hours went by before I heard anything. I was calling and texting trying to find out what was going on because it was taking so long. They had to resect and remove about sixteen feet of his bowel. Based on what I was told before the surgery, and the fact that he was a ten-year-old cribber, I really doubted he would survive.”

Normally after a long and difficult colic surgery, the horse shows the effects, but Dr. Potenza told Katie that Jimmy came out of the anesthesia and jumped up like it was no big deal. “She warned me not to get too excited,” says Katie. “But she had never see a horse get up from such a long surgery like nothing had happened. Not long after that Dr. Potenza said that he looked and acted so good she would never have guessed that he’d had so much of his intestine removed. A week later she told me he could go home; originally, she said he’d be there a long time. But I decided not to bring him to the farm because San Luis Rey Equine also has a facility where they do rehab and race horse conditioning near their equine hospital. They have an aqua-tred and people who could hand walk him three or four times a day. And they have around-the-clock care. I explained to her that he does better with work and activity. At home he can’t go on the Preceding page, below, and

walker, he can’t be turned out and he would be unhappy. So I decided to leave him there

facing page: Katie Burr and

for his ninety-day recovery. I was mainly concerned about them keeping Jimmy busy

CFJimmy Neutron (Baske Afire x

because he can be so obnoxious when he is idle.”

Shes A Mystery).

CF Jimmy Neutron — National Championships

2017 U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure AAOTR 19-39 2015 U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure AAOTR 19-39 2013 U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure AAOTR 19-39 2012 U.S. National Champion Half- Arabian English Pleasure Maturity 2011 U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure Maturity 2010 U.S. National Champion Half-Arabian English Pleasure Futurity

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Jim Stachowski and Jimmy Neutron at the 2010 U.S. Nationals.

“When I heard Jimmy had surgery and that it was an entrapment of the small intestines, I was deeply concerned,” says Katie’s veterinarian, Chat Kleinpeter. “That is a critical colic emergency. A lot of horses aren’t operated on quickly and expertly enough and they don’t make it through the surgery. For this horse to recover and then reenter training in a very short span of time and then do what he did at the U.S. Nationals is remarkable. He is truly a competitor. This guy likes his job. And he really rises to the occasion.”

Jimmy returned to the farm in late August, and after Labor Day he was started back under saddle. “After we returned home from the Fall Santa Barbara Show, I decided to get on him to see what we had and I began cantering him a little bit,” said Sharon.

“We put him on a program where I cantered him a couple minutes longer each day to build up his stamina. I never trotted him.” Katie adds, “At that point it was my dad who thought we should consider taking him to Nationals. He pointed out that we were leaving October 14 and that we shouldn’t count him out. Because of the rehab at San Luis Rey Equine, Jimmy hadn’t lost any muscle tone.”

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By the end of September Jimmy was doing about ten minutes of cantering. In the beginning of October after he had been working three weeks, Sharon suggested that Katie get on him and try a little trotting. “He was terrific,” says Katie. “My farrier Jim Sproles suggested we put show shoes on him. The next day there was no doubt that my horse was back.” Sharon adds, “A couple weeks before the show I put the full bridle on him, and then he was in full on show mode. He knows.

“The day before we left for the show was going to be our decision day,” continues Sharon. “Katie warmed him up a little at the canter. Alonso gave a couple of loud whistles and he trotted like I had never seen him trot before. And I told Katie that, ‘I believe that if everything is going well you need to give it a try, because you might not get the opportunity next year.’” Katie described the ride, “He was like a house on fire. He was unbelievable, so I decided to take him.

“Once in Tulsa, I told Sharon, ‘I don’t think this is our horse. I hope he is okay.’ He bites everybody and he is a nightmare to deal with. But at the show he was so calm that I was afraid that something wasn’t right. He wasn’t his normal obnoxious self. His class was Wednesday. I took a lesson on Monday and just trotted once each direction of the arena.

He was phenomenal. When they were getting him ready for his class on Wednesday he didn’t move a muscle in the cross-ties. Normally he is all over the place and his manners are terrible.” Apparently, Jimmy felt fine. He was focused.

Although Jimmy seemed to be doing well, Katie and Sharon were concerned that with all the time off he would not have the stamina to last through a long and demanding class. “I was so concerned because he had only been back to work three and a half weeks,” says Katie. “But when he trotted up that ramp I knew I had a lot of horse. When we went to reverse I thought that he would run out of gas in the second direction. But he was so good we could have gone a whole additional class. When we lined up he had hardly broken a sweat. He wasn’t even breathing hard. Out of the seven years I’ve shown him, this was the best by far. He was the horse I was hoping to show the entire time I have owned him. And it happened after all that he had been through, and with very little preparation. It all came together in some strange way. In the line-up, I had tears, because just a few months earlier Jimmy nearly died. I’m glad I listened to my dad.”

More important than another National Championship with a great horse, Jimmy’s ordeal affected Katie deeply. Her perspective on showing him completely changed. “After Jimmy’s surgery, I felt a greater appreciation to be a part of his journey rather than focusing on a prize. I would have been fine with leaving him home. I was just grateful he was still with us. But I knew he wanted to go. Jimmy knows when it’s October. It was really his choice to show. Jimmy has as much heart as he does talent, if not more.

I thought we were at the end of his career last year. Now he feels like a different horse.

Maybe we are just getting started.”

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