the everything pony
who would really much rather eat all day
Another ride down
I finally got the guts to try another ride. This healing process has just been so slow, and when I set myself back a few weeks ago I’ve been extremely hesitant to really do anything. Monsoon weather has been upon us and while I’m loving the rain, clouds, and humidity, it makes me a walking weather station, too. The barometric pressure makes my back ache like crazy, and if my neck and left ankle decide to hop in on the pain-train, then I confidently tell people we will have rain in no more than 2 days (literally have done this about 3 times now, and all 3 times we’ve had rain haha).
When it aches that badly, I really just want to lay down and snuggle with the dog. It is extremely uncomfortable. But, I also have to figure out what pain it is, if it requires heat, ice, or movement, and many days I’m too tired to really figure it out. Recently though, I wasn’t keeping up with my exercises as thoroughly as I should have, and my PT knew it. So he gave me a bit of an ultimatum when I asked if I could ride. It helped to kickstart my brain into just doing the exercises, to where mucking stalls actually made me feel better instead of making my back feel so fatigued that my legs would shake. That, more than anything made me think that maybe I could hop on again.
And you guys, I feel so positively about it! I only walked, and maybe a little less than 10 minutes since my back felt a bit spasmy as Amber and I were walking, but it was great! My back hurt a little because it just felt so normal again to ride that I’d forget to really engage my core to keep it steady. When I hopped off there was no numbness and no tingling in my legs! Last time, while my back felt better during the ride, I still got a bit of numbness in my legs that thankfully worked itself out within the hour after I’d done my exercises. So it is a huge improvement for sure! I iced it and was a little sore, but that was muscle stiffness thankfully – my actual disk and bones felt super normal! It was also very off-putting to feel normal and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop haha.
Thankfully, it never did, and the next day I was even able to muck without pain during or after. Before, mucking two days in a row was extremely painful.
Amber was bestest girl as always, but definitely gave my mom and I the side-eye as we were tacking up haha! Despite still enjoying work and wanting to be out, she’s embraced this whole retirement thing by now and doesn’t really want to do all the things anymore. Which is fine by us! I certainly can’t do much more than walk at the moment, and I’m trying to get my mom to do more with Amber since Whisper isn’t totally rideable at the moment. My mom doesn’t need much, so Amber not really wanting to do too much is also absolutely perfect for her.
She was an angel for my mom and took very good care of her. She stumbled a little, and my mom got a bit off-balance but nothing to worry about, and Amber still stopped to make sure she was okay. Okay, it really was more of an excuse for Amber to stop working haha, but I’d still much rather a horse do that with my mom than anything else! My mom laughed it off and Amber went forward willingly again, an easy trot for my mom to be able to ride. I know my mom really misses riding – we both really do – so I’m hoping that as I recover and try to ride more I can convince her to putz around on Amber and have some more fun. Whisper is still recovering from a nasty crack in her LF, and I know my mom is continuously disappointed when Whisper jogs off lame. So hopefully she can have some fun on my girl while we’re all getting stronger.
Oscar is still bestest buddy, sleeping adorably and being his usual protective self. Well, except for that time he bit a groomer *facepalm. They were way nicer about it than I thought they’d be, but they also know the circumstances so have been very forgiving that it’s just been a lot for poor Oscar. I ran over to get him out of the cage again – he’ll go in very well, but after that no one but me seems to be able to get him out of the waiting cages – where they were very nice and allowed me to schedule an express groom. That way, he doesn’t get put in a crate, and he was a very good boy with no shenanigans when he was done with the express groom. He looked very handsome with the most perfect bandana ever.
I am also very excited – and very very very relieved – that I have only one week left of school! I am so looking forward to my weekends being my own without being overshadowed by the need to do schoolwork.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading a very boring update!
4 Comments on “Another ride down”
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the everything pony 
Love that photo of you and Kaluha! And Oscar is looking as handsome and cute as ever. And so glad you got more opportunity to look between Amber’s ears. For those of us who love it, there is just nothing like being on the back of a horse. Such a marvelous privilege, maybe even more so when we are managing health issues for ourselves or our horses. And I am totally with you about the body as a weather forecaster thing. My arthritic foot starts tweaking like crazy when it gets wet and humid. Anywho, all that to say that I enjoyed reading your update!
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Awww thank you so much! I certainly missed sitting on her, that’s for sure!
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Love the photo of you and Kaluha! And yay for getting a ride in! I’ve been struggling to ride the last couple of weeks between the heat and migraines. The heats better (today, of course, is humid again), but vestibular migraines really make things hard. I don’t want to do anything when I’m dizzy. So I’m slowing down for August and if I get on 1x/week, great, and I’ll pick up again in September and hopefully I’ll feel better. Goals but no pressure. If I don’t feel better, another med change? Don’t want to think about that one…
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Health issues horribly slow us down, and I completely understand about not wanting to ride. It’s been so horribly hot here that I think I’ve actually had summer seasonal depression – it’s just so miserable that I don’t want to do anything. And yeah I second slowing down! Sometimes that’s what we have to do ❤ I hope you feel better soon!
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