Hi, I have had fibromyalgia for last seven years. Although I do not post often, I read the Coth just about daily.
Although fibro brings me aches and pains (I am currently nursing a sprained ankle I don’t remember spraining) my horses allow me to have mobility and they keep me fro wallowing in fibro fog or malaise. I have a 17 year old arab mare and a 10 year old spotted saddle horse.
Thanks for bring this board about!!
I am so excited that they added this forum! I am a special education teacher (k-6) and I also have volunteered and done internships with different therapeutic centers. I also teach lessons and one of my students is a 7th grader with an auditory processing disorder. I have wanted to be a full time therapeutic instructor pretty much since I knew it existed…but the opportunity hasn’t come along yet. Still praying for it!
Hi, Im Cathy, age 49. I have severe spinal stenosis, 3herniated discs, degenerative disc+ joint disease as well as much nerve damage which presents as numbness, sometimes no feeling at all in one leg, rarely both. Also have diabetes. Just started riding a yr ago or so after a 12 yr break. Doctors tell me I can’t ride, but Im stubborn. I haven’t been horseless for 40 yrs.
RN chimes in!
I’m just a decrepit old nurse with the usual decrepitudes of age & my profession & lifestyle!! I’ll be lurking here so ya’ll watch out!!! :winkgrin:
My particular interest here is chronic pain and the psychological aspects of fear with riding. I have some experience with some of the things you’ve mentioned. I want to be a positive encourager to anyone trying to deal. We all seem to get good medical advice but the emotional aspects or psychological aspects always seems to be neglected.
Wateryglen is 57, formerly morbidly obese (weight loss surgery/lost #200) with multiple medical issues & orthopedic stuff. Phoey to all of it!!
JUST DO IT!!!
My motto? Stop whining, shut up, take your pills and RIDE!!! :D:D:D:D:D
[QUOTE=wateryglen;4427699]
Wateryglen is 57, formerly morbidly obese (weight loss surgery/lost #200) with multiple medical issues & orthopedic stuff. Phoey to all of it!!
JUST DO IT!!!
My motto? Stop whining, shut up, take your pills and RIDE!!! :D:D:D:D:D[/QUOTE]
I love you :lol:
I’m Eileen and I’ve been hearing impaired since birth. My impairment was not discovered until I was in grade 1 when we were learning phonetics. This was back in the 60s, so there were not a lot of options for kids like me.
When I was 26 I noticed a huge drop in my hearing abilities. Several audiologists later and I was told that I read lips and body language. Had no clue I did this at all. I was fitted with hearing aids and went on my merry way.
I wore them for 5 years. Hated them. I found they didn’t help much at all and that I got along better relying on lip reading et al. So, I stopped wearing them.
I’ve been told that I should be deaf by the time I am 60. I’m 48 now and don’t see that happening even though I only have 15% hearing in my left ear and 25% in my right ear. I just read lips too well 
Reading lips and body language is a hoot when you go out for dinner with a bunch of people and “eavesdrop” on a conversation three tables over. Especially if you relay said conversation to your fellow diners
The hearing impairment IS a problem with riding, however. I cannot hear my instructor nor is she close enough for me to lip read. So I use walkie-talkies on VOX. Hate that
I have a wonderful 9 year old Lipizzan mare that I hope to compete in dressage. She just lost an eye to a long illness, so we’re more of a team than we were before. She’s my ears and I’m her eye and together we’re gonna go FEI
Eileen
I’m Amy, I’m 28 and I enjoy long walks in the woods… wait.
I volunteered for a local Equine Assisted Therapy program for a brief stint many years ago and LOVED it, and I just married a physical therapist (saturday!) who is very interested in learning more about horses and their use in therapy. He’s prepared to start a program the minute we have a farm :lol:
I also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is no where near as bad as it was in my youth. However between the CFS and a lot of abuse, my joints are all sorts of messed up, especially my knees and neck.
I’m currently leasing a lovely old trak-x mare who is kindly teaching me how much I suck at dressage. Someday, when my dressage doesn’t suck so bad, I will return to eventing.
I’m Stephanie from NC, and while I don’t think my condition has a name (at least not one I’ve heard) it basically amounts to all of the bones in my sacroiliac and hip joint grinding together constantly after a pelvic break didn’t heal correctly. I also jammed my spine, which is straight instead of curved. It leads to constant, teeth-grinding pain, an inability to sit or stand for very long, or bend at all. And yes, I managed to do all this to myself in the span of one riding lesson. 
That happened in 2002, and I managed to keep riding until 2004, at which time it became too painful, and I required help mounting and dismounting. Prior to that, I mostly lived in Hunterland, with occasional forays into western pleasure, eventing, and dressage.
Hi everyone, I’m an instructor for Therapeutic Riding at Narha certified center Maryland Therapeutic Riding. I also lease my QH gelding to them for use in lessons. I’m so very glad that the Chronicle decided to start this forum for all of us to have the opportunity to exchange ideas and information.
Look how many of us are making connections where we didn’t know each other before. Wonderful!
I started volunteering with severely MR & physically disabled children two days a week in the summers as a pre-teen.
I’m in Law Enforcement, with specialties in Crisis Intervention, Hostage Negotiation and Critical Incident Stress.
I have done Special Olympics in the past, and work with children of families in the homeless shelter system and special adults with horses.
I am praying for a Wounded Warrior program to start up.
Several years ago I had an accident that left me with a degenerative hip I work around and ignore mostly these days (Thank you Heather Moffett & the Fhoenix saddles for getting me back into full riding/training!) Two years ago I was double barrelled kicked in the chest, and have a herniated C4, and degenerative disks T8/9, 9/10, 10/11. In many/most saddles I end up with sciatica and my right foot goes numb.
It has been both frustrating and enlightening to suddenly be on the other side of it, after teaching those with physical challenges for almost 35 years… :sadsmile:
I have peripheral neuropathy in my feet (sometimes my left hand if I lean on my elbow too much), but it’s more of the numb-pain type rather than just numb, which – given a choice (of which we have none in such matters) – I prefer. The pain is tolerable.
For reasons I don’t understand at all, it doesn’t affect my riding. Even the numb-pain doesn’t happen with my stirrups, even though I can feel the pressure of my feet in them. And my feet actually feel better after I ride. I do sometimes feel unstable when I’m standing still, on the ground – but not when I’m moving. It’s weird. But at 50 yo, I consider myself lucky that this is the worst of my problems.
It affects my driving a car more than my riding. I just can’t sit on the highway going at a constant speed for very long or my right leg starts to cramp. Yes, I know, figure out the cruise control. I’ll get to it. For now, I stick with back roads where I can change speed and shift my foot around.
I am not with any programs but I have taught lessons to children with disablities.
Mainly autistic and dyslexic…
I am in citrus county FL and if anyone has programs that need some help let me know:yes:
My sister and I have Ehlers also… very interesting :yes:
Hi
Let me introduce myself. I read the dressage column faithfully as there seems to be a lot of great info posted. Two years ago I had a stroke and lost a lot of my balance. Today I am selling my still green-to-canter Belgian cross.
I feel a sense of failure in myself listening to everyone above in their stories . I cannot seem to get this horse trained, even having instructors.
He also has a big spook and run in him that scares me to death. 
He has run off me in the back track a bunch of times and now I am afraid.
I am 55 now, and getting a bit creaky on top of the stroke. My boy has misbehaved out back of the barn too many times for me to trust him anymore and I’d like to ride there. After all, being at THIS barn means using all the facilities and we do not have an indoor.
Once I get him sold, I may either take lessons for a while or drop out of riding. I can’t decide. I’m so stressed between work(another story) and riding (which was fun).
However, I guess I am looking for tips to handle loss of balance. Plus some lack of feeling in my right hand/side.
DO NOT FEEL LIKE A FAILURE. You need a horse in which you can have confidence, and it sounds like your Belgian is young and green.
I do find that my time at the barn is a fabulous de-stressor. I don’t have to ride (though when I do, I end up feeling even better). When I get to the pasture gate and (in this weather) he’s calling to me, and snorting, it just makes me laugh.
Balance is key. What has helped me enormously is Pilates and Yoga, to increase my core strength. I started Pilates a year before the Yoga, and I was amazed - even though I am not very supple, that has greatly improved, and my focus and balance were way past what I thought they were, which was very encouraging.
Even better, with the right instructor, there are modifications to any of the exercises, so that you don’t do any further damage, only help what you have.
Hannah’sMom–do not get on yourself.
We don’t just not match some horses mentally, but PHYSICALLY it ca be an issue too! More than once my teacher told me my guy was ‘not an easy ride.’ Of course, I disagreed. Then I started his son, and realized how much easier his son was. Just a better ‘fit.’ That has nothing to do with being a failure, it just has to do with the fact that the match between horse and rider is probably the second most intimate match on the earth… think about it.
And I feel like a complete failure when I whine about my aches or fatigue and then I read about people out there DOING it … so many…
So we all make comparisons–but then we ask if we’re doing anything to make those comparisons bother us less… and you are. That in itself is an accomplishment.
My Belgian Cross is 9. When I bought him at 4, he had very little training. I had a very good instructor, but I did all the riding. Foolish of me now to think about this. He needed someone on him, not just me who was not a trainor.
I found riding to be a great de-stressor because when I rode, I was “in the minute”. Now I am struggling all the time, too much outside hand, use more inside leg, why won’t he push over? grrrrr maybe more inside hand and so on.
And of course my guy won’t listen to me does what he wants. I give up!
I love doing Pilates but just don’t seem to have the time. Between riding and work, I have no time left in my day. I might have to ride less and maybe it won’t matter since I don’t enjoy it as much anyway.
thanks for the kind words, Pintopiaffe and Dressagegeek.
Hi I’m Marci and suffer from severe OA of the knees, feet, and now its moved into my hands. Plus an old back injury where I crushed a vertabra in a horse back riding fall.
My Chiro told me he thought I also had fibro, but with no health insurance no diagnosis of this.
I have one older Arab mare, Shadow who is 23 and will probably be looking into a gaited (or at least a smoother) horse. I mostly trail ride for fun, but would love to try some endurance riding someday-but not on my bouncy beast. LOL:winkgrin:
I’m just a mess!
Okay, where the heck is Whicker as I am here revealing all of my secrets?!?!?!
My name is Elizabeth, though everybody calls me Beth. I have had a compromised immune system for my entire life. My issues which affect my riding are severe asthma, myoclonus (which is kept under control with meds), and a progressive nerve disorder which is in the MS family, but I do not yet have visible lesions. The neuro does not want to do an LP b/c my body reacts very badly to anything it thinks is trauma. My nerves are what would be considered normal for an 80 year old…that isn’t the greatest since I am 31!
I rode hunters and did eq when I was younger. I started in dressage lessons to help me with an unbalanced, strung out gelding and I fell in love with it. Iwould love to compete again. I did a cliniv with Missy Ransehousen and she felt I would be a Grade 2 para-equestrian.
I am currently pretty much bedridden due to a riding accident. My nerves have been kicked into high gear, so I am rather immobile. I am staying positive and just hoping everything will work out. One thing I do know is that I WILL RIDE AGAIN and nothing is going to stop me. I don’t care if I have to be velcroed on. I will ride again!
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