Donna Richardson sadly withdrew Jazzman from the Grand Prix Freestyle competition that is part of the U.S. League Finals and U.S. Freestyle Championships after the 16-year-old gelding came down with a fever of 104.

Richardson believes that Jazzman, a Dutch Warmblood by Arnethist, wasn’t well during Saturday’s Grand Prix for the U.S. Freestyle Championships. “I probably shouldn’t have even ridden him yesterday but I did because I didn’t know. That’s when you wish they were like humans and could say, I don’t feel well today. I’ve got to hand it to the horse, to do a test like that with no spurs when he was probably feeling crappy. He tried. He tried to please me. He’s always done that. I love that horse,” said Richardson as tears filled her eyes.

Richardson, of San Marcos, California, was clearly disappointed. She considered them a long shot for the U.S. team for the upcoming World Cup in Las Vegas, but said she and Jazzman had both worked so hard to come back from injuries and she wanted the world to see just how good is her horse during Sunday’s freestyle.

“He had two and a half years off due to a suspensory injury. I brought him back and we qualified for this Championship on our scores at the beginning of the year last year when he wasn’t even at full strength. Now he’s at full strength and I thought, ‘now I’m going to show what this horse can really do.’ I’m really disappointed that we couldn’t do our freestyle because his freestyle is really good. I mean he’s been getting 71 with his freestyle,” Richardson said.