By Jen Truett
When I traveled to Holland in 2016 to shop for young horses, I was searching for a couple of clients and myself. I had no idea I was about to meet the horse who would change my life.
At the first farm, I’d already looked at several horses when I returned to the barn to find two more youngsters waiting in the cross-ties. One was a beautiful black stallion. The other was a bright chestnut gelding with the biggest, googliest eyes and longest eyelashes I’d ever seen.
I walked straight over to the chestnut and was immediately smitten. He was only two-and-a-half years old and unstarted, but everywhere I walked, he turned his head to follow me, watching with those cheerful, curious eyes.
When we took him into the paddock, I was blown away. I’d never seen a horse move with such elasticity. His feet seemed to have springs, and his body flowed like water. He could gallop with his knees practically above his ears while dragging his nose through the sand, spin around in a corner, and head the other direction without losing his balance. I instantly knew this incredible athlete was meant to be my dance partner.
I named him Absolute Dream, affectionately known as Dreamy. He was every bit as talented as I’d hoped, but he could also be quite the kite! My longtime coach, Olivia LaGoy-Weltz, nicknamed him “electric noodle” and “rocket Gumby.” Steering, stopping, and finding a consistent tempo were considerably harder than teaching him the movements! He progressed naturally through the levels and has always adored an audience.
Dreamy’s talent earned us a spot in the USEF Emerging Young Horse program while competing in the Developing Prix St. Georges. It was a valuable experience, and Olivia and I continued balancing his tremendous athletic ability with his emotional maturity. After he aged out of the young horse program, we focused on developing his confidence and relaxation at his own pace, without unnecessary pressure.
At six, we started teaching him piaffe in-hand. During one particularly memorable attempt, he literally picked up both right legs and promptly fell over into the bushes! 😆
By nine, Dreamy finally figured out how to coordinate all those springy legs into piaffe while warming up for his first Intermediate II, and suddenly, he had it! In March 2024, at ten years old, we made our Grand Prix debut. By late August that summer, our freestyle scores had climbed from the low 70s to an incredible 80%! We were ready for the Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championships, and I couldn’t have been more excited.
But ten days after earning that 80%, Dreamy was on the operating table at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, fighting for his life.
He suffered a small intestinal volvulus (twisted bowel) requiring emergency colic surgery. His initial recovery looked promising, but just as we were preparing to bring him home, his surgeon became concerned. The following day, Dreamy underwent a second emergency surgery. Afterward, the surgeon explained that another recurrence could force us to make a life-or-death decision. Suddenly, I didn’t care whether Dreamy ever performed another piaffe or passage. I just wanted him home safe.
Following the second surgery, Dreamy developed a fever approaching 105 degrees. For days, the veterinary team couldn’t identify the cause, despite him eating, drinking, and acting relatively normally.
That’s when his wonderful surgeon brought out the rubber chicken!
Apparently, the hospital hangs a rubber chicken over the stalls of particularly unusual cases. According to hospital folklore, it brings the horses some healing juju. Call it superstition or excellent timing, but shortly afterward, Dreamy’s fever broke, and a treatable staph infection appeared in his incision. For the first time, I allowed myself to believe he might come home.
After 23 days in intensive care, he finally did.
Bringing Dreamy home was an incredible relief, but he certainly didn’t look like the magnificent Grand Prix athlete we’d sent to the hospital. He was painfully thin, weak, and still dealing with an infection in his second surgical incision that would take nearly three months to resolve. That infection also left him with an area of thinned abdominal wall, creating a bulge on the bottom of his belly that we affectionately named George.
The name came from the Abominable Snowman who wanted to hug, squeeze, and love his little friend and call him George. Some might see that bulge as a permanent reminder of everything that went wrong, but to us, George represents everything that went right. We still had our boy to hug, squeeze, and love, and that was worth celebrating!
Of course, bringing him home was only the beginning of another uncertain journey. Would his digestive system stabilize? Could he rebuild his strength? Would he ever enjoy working again?
I also questioned my own future. We’d spent seven and a half years developing an incredibly intimate partnership, and Dreamy was the most extraordinary horse I’d ever produced. The time, financial commitment, and emotional investment required to develop a Grand Prix horse are enormous, yet these magnificent animals are so fragile. Could I really put my heart on the line like this again?
Ultimately, the answer was absolutely yes. The relationship, trust, communication, and beauty of dressage as both a sport and an art form are worth those sacrifices. Dreamy’s experience reaffirmed why I love what I do.
His rehabilitation required patience, careful management, and an extraordinary team. Dreamy also has myofibrillar myopathy (MFM), adding an additional layer of complexity to maintaining Grand Prix-level musculature. We carefully manage his nutrition, forage, workload, and comfort, always listening to what he tells us.
Gradually, my goofy, bouncy boy came roaring back.
In 2026, Dreamy returned to Grand Prix for the first full season and earned the highest scores of his career, including 73%! When I realized we might finish among the top five Grand Prix horses nationally, I could hardly believe it. We ultimately became the 2026 Adequan®/USDF Reserve Grand Prix Horse of the Year, with a median score of 71.304%! It took days to appreciate the significance of joining some of the country’s most accomplished Grand Prix combinations.
At the Great American/USDF Region 4 Dressage Championships, we won both the Grand Prix and Freestyle, qualifying for the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. It was unexpectedly emotional.
Dreamy had struggled with a stone bruise at home just two weeks before the show, leaving us with only four training rides beforehand. Once at the National Equestrian Center, he found the deep footing challenging, and our scores were lower than we’d hoped. The trainer in me wanted better performances, while the horsewoman in me was overwhelmed that we were there at all. The last time we’d qualified for regionals, instead of competing, Dreamy had been fighting for his life in a hospital just ten minutes from the Kentucky Horse Park, where I was coaching my students.
Perhaps that’s another lesson he’s taught me: success doesn’t always feel the way we expect, and sometimes we need to appreciate how far we’ve come.
One unexpected gift from Dreamy’s ordeal has been helping other horse owners through similar experiences. Through our company, Savvy Horse Products, we became the exclusive U.S. distributor of VETOFLEX abdominal support belts, which we discovered while searching for a better postoperative compression solution for Dreamy. I now speak with owners navigating the fear, exhaustion, and uncertainty of colic surgery and recovery. Sharing our experience, offering practical support, and giving people hope has brought something wonderfully positive from an incredibly difficult experience.
That’s what I hope others take from our story. Don’t give up simply because the path becomes uncertain. Not every horse will return to competition after devastating physical trauma, but a meaningful, happy future may still be possible.
Dreamy is now twelve, and I feel we’re just getting started! I hope we have many more years of dancing together ahead of us. We’re looking forward to further Grand Prix development, and hopefully making our CDI debut this winter in Florida.
Most importantly, I hope people watching Dreamy perform recognize his joy. People often comment on how happy he looks in the arena. He genuinely loves his job, and I believe developing horses as individuals, respecting their personalities and opinions, is what makes these partnerships so magical.
I’m endlessly grateful to Lenny, Olivia, Anna Marek, our veterinary and care teams, and our support team at Dancing Horse Farm, who helped make this possible.
As we head to the 2026 US Dressage Finals, I want to ride well, be competitive, and savor every moment with my goofy, googly-eyed electric noodle, now the Reserve Grand Prix Horse of the Year! Just two years ago, I didn’t know whether he’d even come home.
And the very best part? We’re nowhere near finished dreaming.
