Adding to the pair’s bad luck is the fact that Richardson broke her elbow six weeks ago and had to give both herself and Jazzman almost a month off. “I was hurrying to watch the Super Bowl and I was jumping out the back of the truck and I fell off the trailer. Two weeks ago, I got back on him again, and just one week ago, I really started working him. He came back so well and was doing really, really good,” she said.

The Wednesday before the Burbank show, Richardson schooled Jazzman at home and said he felt fantastic. “He was eager and really wanted to go, but then the day before the show he didn’t quite look right, but it wasn’t anything you could put your finger on,” she said. On Friday, Jazzman seemed to have recovered, but during Saturday’s Grand Prix ride the “fizz, the bounce just wasn’t there. “ Still, the pair turned in a clean test, but it lacked energy, earning them a final score of 63.833 percent.

By Saturday evening, Jazzman wasn’t eating well and by Sunday morning, it was clear he was ill. “He started really pawing this morning and so we had the vet out. Turns out he had a temperature of a 104,” Richardson said. The veterinarian believes the horse a virus from which he’ll quickly recover with some rest.

Richardson has already entered Jazzman in the Del Mar CDI and she’s looking forward to showing people then what her horse can really do. Although he’s 16, Richardson said Jazzman has a lot left in him. “I look at him as a low-mileage 16. He spent two and a half years of his life just grazing in the pasture. Actually, I’m rather low mileage too.”