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Absolutely! By “how dressage is supposed to be ridden” I meant only the crudest principles that are fairly universal. For example, any way of riding that allows my horse the balance and suppleness in her back that she needs to do the movements we’re working on at the moment is going to create sharp pain in my hip with every stride. No adjustment of stirrup length, core engagement, or upper body balance changes that motion-related pain. The alternative – tight and unbalanced – is not how dressage is supposed to be ridden. At least according to the comments I’ve gotten from judges over the years. :lol: Given how many fellow dressage riders with labrum tears have come out of the woodwork, so to speak, since it hit my radar I do wonder if the mechanical stresses involved in this sort of riding cause more wear and tear on some of us due to our joint morphology or tissue properties or more general mechanics. My horse is awesome, in my ever so humble opinion, and I’m not a terrible rider, so keeping going is not a question, much to the dismay of my ortho doc. :winkgrin: Whether we’ll both stay sound in harder work, however, might be.
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The reason for so many dressage riders with labral tears may be that people are trying to ride with too long a leg FOR THEM. If trying to ride with that very straight drop from the hip causes an impingement, there’s a recipe for labral tearing right there! I for one couldn’t ride that long, and by the same token could not kick higher than my head no matter HOW hard and long I stretched back when I was doing karate. My hips simply aren’t hung on that way. To know for sure, have a sports medicine specialist take a look at your X-rays; that may be most of the answer right there!
Google “Cadre Noir de Saumur” and take a look at the very jumper-like leg those guys ride with, up to and including the most collected movements. They get it all done with a very comfortable “balanced seat,” no extreme stretching required. What works for Isabell Werth doesn’t necessarily work for all of us, so try riding with a more hunt-seat leg and see if it makes a difference!
The point I was making earlier is it may NOT be the labral tear causing your pain. For one thing, an actual “injury,” in us as in our horses, has a certain expected healing time; one should have significant improvement doing what you’ve been doing–“stall rest” in effect. Idiopathic referred pain from the lower back, however, can disable one for YEARS without regard to a normal healing curve; because the consensus now is that it is not actually in most cases an “injury” per se. It would be a bummer to go through surgery for the tear, and find the pain still with you anyway. I totally understand if you are “decades younger” you’re not ready to give up riding, etc. any time soon. It’s just that the medicos are shooting in the dark most of the time, and you need to know that going in if you opt for surgery. Sorry the news isn’t better!
I think the damned humid weather’s a factor, too–more people than usual seem to be “achy-breaky” to the max these last couple of months.
I’m more interested in being able to drive home safely than in keeping my boss happy, though, so if it starts hurting I’m going to take off and suffer boss’s wrath on Wednesday. It’s my right hip, so if it’s ouchy the drive is not going to be fun.
Best of luck with the gig in FTC–that’s where I was before.