And then a few weeks later my life drastically changed again. I fell, badly. I’ve fallen off a horse a hundred times; in one of my earlier competitions I came off Spooky at an 18 inch cross rail and dislocated my elbow. That was when we learned I am deathly allergic to opiates. One drop of Demerol in the hospital and I had a Grand Mal seizure and was in a coma for three days. But this time was different. Since I qualified for nationals in the Medal, Maclay and USET, Janie decided I needed a new horse: a better, more reliable jumper who would see me through to place at a national level. She found Cotton Club, a 16.2 hand jumper who was game to jump whatever was in front of him, and subsidized his lease for us. Nationals were a month away when Cotton rolled up to the barn, and I had a lot of work to do to get us ready to compete at Madison Square Garden.
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