the everything pony
who would really much rather eat all day
Sidelined
Since my last post there really hasn’t been much that’s been going on, but in an effort to get back into blogging a bit more frequently I’ll do a bit of a recap. It’s been a long waiting game for many things the past few months, but I’m excited for everything moving forward finally.
The beginning of February I managed to hurt my back…while sleeping. I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen until I’m 40, not 30…. But, that’s how it goes I suppose haha. It was extremely painful, and I could barely walk without limping, and standing and sitting were also off the table. It improved until about 60% and just plateaued, and I was very glad my chiro was just as miffed as I was about why it’s not been getting better. I’ve been super anxious about it in the last few weeks since it’s chronically painful.
Thankfully, after x-rays and an MRI, we finally know why it’s been hurting so badly and has been taking longer than anticipated to heal: I have an annular tear in the L4-5 intervertebral disk and degeneration in the facet bones, causing pressure on the sensory nerves and lessening the space for my nerves to exit, causing the sciatica I’ve been experiencing. While this isn’t good, and is usually seen in someone 15 years older, this certainly doesn’t mean I have to stop riding (which I’ve actually been very worried about). If anything, I need to keep up the exercise, get the surrounding muscles and tissue stronger to help protect that area, and riding will certainly help with that. I’m just going to take it slow building up muscle, but I am extremely relieved that I can continue riding and that it will help. I’m just going to be taking it slow since annular tears take around 6 months to heal, so I won’t be riding since I don’t want any repetitive motion to make the tear worse. I want to give this tear as good a shot as it can get to recover so that I can ride in the future. If I continue to have pain I may need a few injections, but thankfully it’s looking pretty manageable for the foreseeable future.
Work is finally turning a corner too. For the past year I’ve been trying to talk to my management about changing my hours, or getting the workload I was promised, or moving in the direction of IT since that was the plan last year, and I’ve been turned down and brushed off every time. But at the beginning of the year I got a fantastic opportunity to do part-time IT work amidst my other duties that I perform. It created a lot of tension unfortunately, so I’ve felt the backlash from my management on that. But in the short time I’ve been there I’ve learned a lot, and it showed me that IT was definitely a direction I’d rather go over what I have been doing. And as of last week, that manifested in a full-time offer in that position, and I accepted it.
I’m really excited to be able to start doing that and be challenged to do more. I’ll also have huge flexibility to my schedule and hours, and likely will not be working any more 10hr days – thank god – unless absolutely necessary. I’ll also no longer be working with my increasingly toxic coworker, and for the most part will be working by myself which as an introvert makes me very happy haha. I’ll have a lot to learn, and will be hitting the ground running, but I’m eager to prove I can do the job.
I’m also nearly done with my IT degree – graduation date set at October 1, 2022! And then I’m never doing school ever again haha. This degree has been good, and certainly has helped me a lot, but at this point I think the school of YouTube and certs will be more beneficial lol. And while I say that, there is the potential that the position I’m moving into will want me to get a masters, which….hoo boy haha. I really don’t want to, but I’m not going to fully say no just yet. If I’m going to have two horses, potentially show, maybe move in the next projected years… it may just be worth it.
Which brings me to my next puzzle piece – horse #2. Now that I’m cleared for riding again, will have a much more flexible job, and will not have school after the end of August, I’m starting my search for horse #2. My back is going to limit me a little in what I might get, but to be honest I never really planned on buying a horse with a lot of athletic talent. I want to be proactive with my back so I can ride for many years to come, and this has also changed my preferences to look for a horse that’s a little more finished than I was initially thinking. I’ve joined a lot of sale pages recently, just looking at what I like and what’s on the market. Once I can get back riding with my trainer I’m going to have her look around for me as well. If you guys have any page suggestions for me to look at please put them in the comments! I’d love to check them out!
If you guys have made it through this far, thank you for reading my very mundane update about what’s been going on. Thankfully, Amber, Whisper and Kahlua are all doing well, as are Oscar and Zeus. As much as it sucks not to ride and Amber does want to get out, it’ll be more beneficial for me to rest up a while longer before I actively try to ride again. I’ll try to put out more updates on Insta as well since I haven’t been blogging much at all.
I hope everyone has been doing well. I’ve kept up reading many blogs but haven’t always commented, but I’d love to know how everyone’s doing!
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the everything pony 
Glad life is heading in the direction you would like to go. Very cute dog pix too, BTW. As far as your horse search goes, you might like to add local horse rescues to the pages you already browse. My local rescues have a lot of project horses, but they do sometimes have finished-type horses whose owners have fallen on hard times and need to rehome. In any case, hoping your back continues to heal smoothly, and you will be in the saddle soon!
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Thank you ❤ Thanks for the suggestion on the local rescue! I do donate to them all the time and take a look at their page, and unfortunately they do not have the types I’m looking for. And yeah, my chiro actually wants me to ride, but I’m a little cautious so I’m still waiting a bit! I am very excited to get back to riding soon!
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