Trying to Get Riding Fit with MS at the Speed of a Snail

[Jackie_Cochran]

I just called Debbie about my next lesson.

Please give Debbie jingles, she came down with pneumonia. She won’t be able to give me a lesson this Wednesday for sure, and we both hope I can have my lesson next week.

We had plenty of time to discuss my problems. I asked about her Western saddles. She told me she thought the best saddle for me and MJ would be her trail riding saddle, if it reasonably fits MJ.

Right now our plan is that she will lead MJ around as she checks all the problem areas of the ring with MJ wearing my combination Light Rider bitless bridle with my Fager Adam leather bit. The Light Rider has a set up for a lead rope from the noseband to the throatlatch, useless for tying but really good for just leading the horse around. That way we can all meander around the ring, checking the corners, path by the ring fence, and all the places where the sand collects water like around the jumps. That will give MJ a chance to check out thoroughly everything around the riding ring.

I also warned her that I would need someone else to help me get my right thigh over the cantle when mounting and dismounting. One of the ladies cleaning the stalls can help out there.

Debbie is under treatment for her pneumonia and hopes that she will be well enough by then.

[3PonyFarm]

Jingles for Debbie! I hope she feels better soon.

[RMJacobs]

Poor Debbie! I hope she gets over it quickly.

Rebecca

[Jackie_Cochran]

Since both Debbie and I are not physically up to doing a riding lesson today I just rode my Home Horse. I lasted 8 minutes. To make up my reduced endurance I managed to mount without many difficulties, and I was able to dismount easily, so long as the HH was tilted back so the cantle was lower. My DH was helping me mount and dismount by steadying the Home Horse in front to reduce the side-to-side motion and by keeping an eye on my side-to-side balance.

I am now on two doctor “prescribed” drugs, the OTC Aleve (naproxen) and generic Lyrica (pregabalin,75mg.), this is in addition to my Dronabinol 10mg once a day.

I have had minor difficulties with how these drugs affect me, involuntary lower leg jerks with the naproxen and difficulties with my side-to-side and front-to-back balance both standing and walking from the Lyrica. Lately I NEED my wheeled walker to walk securely though I can manage with two canes, a quad cane on my right and a regular on the left. I can do a very short walk without any equipment but I teeter and shuffle with no feeling of security and resulting with lasting pains down my shin and wandering pains in my thighs. Even with my canes or walker when I try to straighten my back and be erect my body starts to “fall apart”, unable to find a balance point.

My side-to-side balance riding the Home Horse was excellent when I stayed still, and I returned to center balance after I “walked” (on a horse it would have been a really slow and pokey walk with no push from the hind legs.)

At a “walk” I mostly stayed around center. Occasionally my balance gave out on my left side leading to the HH leaning to the left, and I had to use my core muscles to get back to center.

Usually I never use any far infra-red therapy stuff when I ride because it heats up my CNS and I cannot move well enough to ride in the Forward Seat. Today I used the far infra-red radiation therapy gear to help with my various remaining pains, my Fenwick neck gaiter, BOT neck dicky, Fenwick long shorts, Incrediwear long shorts. and the BOT leg sleeves. Since this ride was in my air conditioned home I did not overheat. During my lessons in the heat I will not use my BOT leg sleeves or Incrediwear long shorts.

I practiced the chair seat, with my seat bones in the center of my saddle I tried to be erect but ended up leaning forward slightly. My lower leg was very different from riding in the Forward Seat, my knee was relaxed, my lower legs hung down vertically, my feet were flat on the platform without much weight on them, and my heel was directly below my knee. I depended mostly on frictional grip aided by gravity pulling my seat down in the center of the saddle. When I rode that way I was able to keep my side-to-side balance centered. My front-to-back balance was to the rear.

I hate that my weight will be concentrated on the back where the spine is less supported from below. The only way I can ameliorate this is by keeping my seat bones as far forward in the saddle as possible, today aided by me leaning forward a tiny bit.

Since this has been the basic riding seat for thousands of years I don’t feel too bad about it. Using that seat did not prevent good riders from getting superior results from their horses (of course bad riders made their horses suffer on their backs and mouths, causing resistances and misbehaviors.) I can be a very good rider at the walk using this seat at the walk and slow to regular trot until I get my body strong enough to ride more Forward (forward, forward, always forward, bold riding!)

[Jackie_Cochran]

There is something else I changed. Since I have had increased urinary leakage I switched to using a Poise 6 drop long pad instead of the pad I use for riding, the Poise 4 drop pad.

It is just too uncomfortable for me to ride the Forward Seat for slow riding with the Poise 6 drop pad. But riding in the chair seat I could “ride” comfortably with this pad. This removes a source of stress from my riding, bigger leaks will be contained to the pad instead of flooding in my tights and spreading over the seat of the saddle.

[NaturallyHappy]

Would a back brace help stabilize you???

[3PonyFarm]

With as hot as it has been, it is probably good to ride the home horse in the a/c. I thought I was going to melt today.

[RMJacobs]

I’ve been using pee pads for a long time. I buy CVS’ brand from them, as they are a lot cheaper than Poise, and I think they are just as good. They have quite a variety of thickness and length. I use the medium thickness, long pads.

Rebecca

[Jackie_Cochran]

We just got the phone call from our pharmacy.

My dronabinol came in!!!

Now to transition back to my regular medicine, and hopefully be able to stop the newer drugs.

This has been a very painful episode for me, physically and mentally.

Now I will get to rebuild my stock pile slowly for the next time there is a shortage. I am so glad that I read those books about long term illnesses 40 years ago telling me to always have a reserve built up for things like this.

Now begins the slow build-up of my limited physical abilities.

I will be building up my dronabinol daily dosage gradually, starting back to 20 mg. a day then after a while back to my full dose, which I have not been able to do for months.

I just hope my fibromyalgia disappears again too. THAT has been horribly painful.

And I will be able to stop those prescription/doctor recommended OTC medicines too, the ones that make some of my MS symptoms worse.

I am so happy about this! Maybe I will be able to ride Forward Seat again too and make MJ happier with me.

[RMJacobs]

I am so happy it came in! I hope it helps a lot, being able to do a full dose.

I try to stockpile my biologic. It’s hard given the limits on deliveries, but I’m so lucky to be on a manufacturer’s program at all. There’s no way I could pay for it otherwise, as no Medicare Part D plan covers it.

It was a lot easier to stockpile when I was on employer insurance. I built up quite a stock of Humira back when I was on it, and ended up giving it to a friend who had a long wait to get it after she moved back to Canada from the US.

Rebecca

[Jackie_Cochran]

Shannon came by this morning.

I managed to ride the Home Horse for 10 minutes. I did a slow walk mostly, with plenty of balancing with my feet flat on the platform. Again I was doing the modified chair seat, with my lower leg vertical and my feet flat without any extra weight in my heel and keeping my seat bones in the lowest part of the seat of the saddle. I even did a few seconds in 2-point.

Shannon said my side-to-side balance was fine and my back-to-front balance was better even when I did the 2-point.

Then I picked up my stirrups, still trying to stay in the chair seat. My feet were way in front of me while I tried to keep my feet flat. Then something interesting happened. When I put weight in the stirrups by bracing against the stirrups the HH stopped its front-to-back movements and I got balanced, according to the bubble balance, from front to back and my body was stable, this with my feet still way in front of my knee (my heel was directly below my knee.) I was surprised because I had expected to end up violently going forward like I was going to face plant, but instead this increased my stability on the HH.

This got me very tired, and I am still tired 7 hours and a nap later.

[3PonyFarm]

Good workout!

[Jackie_Cochran]

Shannon came out today so I got to ride my Home Horse.

I lasted for 20 minutes!!! That was mostly at a walk though I did do a posting trot for 10 posts. Posting is more challenging with my feet out front so that my heel is directly under my knee.

I also managed a complete circle almost on the rim in both directions.

I have been having problems with my balance when standing and walking, but amazingly I had zero problems with my side-to-side balance on the Home Horse. Since I was doing a chair seat my weight was NOT balanced from front-to-back.

[Alterwho]

20 minutes! That’s fantastic! I’ m glad to hear you are starting to feel better

[3PonyFarm]

The home horse was a great investment! 20 minutes is great!

[Jackie_Cochran]

Since Debbie is out of state I could not get my lesson this morning.

My DH helped me with my Home Horse instead.

I lasted 16 minutes today. I was a lot more active on it than I was on Sunday. My “walks” were a little bit faster, I posted 15 times twice, and my rest times were shorter. I was trying to aim for 20 min. again but a nerve down the outside of my left leg, starting at my hip joint, decided to hurt. Fortunately my leg stopped hurting when I got off the HH.

I was practicing my “chair seat” again. I had DH take the bubble balance off of the platform so I could get my feet further forward so my shin bone was vertical with my ankle directly below my knee joint. This made posting very uh interesting, as I posted the HH horse was pitching forward and back, forward as my weight overloaded the “forehand” when I rose then going back when I sat down. This might be ameliorated on a live horse because the push from the hind leg provides the lift then instead of me doing it all by myself. Still this is something I will have to watch out for because it seems to me that the horse might find it irritating.

I also circled the HH around mostly on the edge of its platform 2x in each direction.

This made me tired enough to need a 2 hr. long nap.

I really need to raise the HH up so that I can use the bridle attachment so I can start finding out how this “new” seat will affect the actions of my hands.

[3PonyFarm]

I hope you can ride next week but at least you got a good workout.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Another pain reared its ugly head.

Under my lower left rib cage I have this pain now that goes down the front of my abdomen in a “strap” around 2" wide. The pain abates when I sit down and do nothing, I can still walk with canes, but if I use my left arm for support this muscle gets triggered and it is like my left torso simply collapses as I double over with the rather sharp pain. The pain does not happen every time I support my weight with my left arm.

I called my riding teacher this morning to cancel yet another lesson. I just do not know if my body would do the left torso collapsing thing while mounting or dismounting. I asked her if she had a horse that was shorter and who was very unreactive to beginning riders, explaining that one of my pain medicines had led to uncontrollable leg jerks. No big problem for me, I can move my leg away from the horse’s barrel but horses do notice things like this.

Yeah, she does have this horse though the horse, Cinnabar, is around 14.3 (I had hoped for sub 14 hands). Several years ago she had put me up on this horse and I asked to move on to another horse. His preferred speed is around 2 MPH and he sees no need to go any faster no matter how much leg is used. My comment to Debbie was that her stable NEEDS a horse that does not want to walk faster than 2 MPH and is non-reactive to leg aids for walking faster, but at that time I really needed a horse going around 2x faster to help me with walking on my own two feet. Also a 4MPH breeze cools me much better than a 2 MPH breeze.

And now I NEED a non-reactive horse whose preferred speed is 2 MPH or slower, and Cinnabar is still there being used as a lesson horse. I am very fortunate that he is still there. I will just have to deal with the weaker breeze from him moving through the air. I will not dare wear my ice vests, I do not think that this particular spasming muscle would like to be ice-cooled. I will have to figure out the shirts, because my rib cage right now DOES NOT LIKE bras at all, if it was winter there would be no problem but the modern summer riding shirts show just about EVERYTHING.

Debbie was very understanding about my new physical problem. She told me not to worry about riding at her stable, that she WILL work with me to get me back riding, even if she has to get some of her stall cleaners to come out and help me mount/dismount.

I hope my new “double bridle” with the Light Rider noseband and the Fager Adam leather snaffle bit fits Cinnabar. If it does this will help me with my boredom from just going around the ring at a slow walk. It has been over a decade since I rode in a “double bridle” like this, I rigged one up consisting of my ancient Jumping Cavesson bridle with a snaffle bit hanging from a bridoon hanger to convince her that the rather reactive “did not suffer fools badly” Arab gelding I was riding then could be controlled with a bitless bridle so I could use my then new Nurtural bitless bridle on him. I wish that this Arab gelding was still at the stable since he NEVER misbehaved with me since I took great care to never hurt his mouth, in fact he saved me from falling a few times when he reacted to something and my seat sifted enough to set me up to fall.

I do not know if I will make it to my lesson next week but at least I KNOW that Debbie is on my side.

I rode my Home Horse twice since I fell off the horse. Both times I was hurting worse the next day, in fact my ride on the HH when I did the circles on the rim triggered this muscle into spasming, and my last ride on it was definitely not good for this muscle.

I am so tired of hurting every time I move. I am taking the pregabilin, naproxen and using the Voltaren gel for my pain. These just dull the pain, especially the pregabilin, but even if I do not feel pain all the time this muscle spasm happens and it HURTS in spite of the pain medicines.
.
I went to my PCP about this pain. He had X-rays taken of my lower left rib cage. No broken bones, no cracks in my ribs, all the X-ray interpreter saw was my healed ribs from the time I fell off the OTTB Coach a few years ago.

Sorry for my tale of woe. I miss riding and I miss the horses.

[NaturallyHappy]

I’m so sorry, Jackie, I really am. I am very empathetic. Drugs don’t help w my pain, either, and I also am not riding right now because I can’t control my neck and balance. Your posts always encourage me to keep trying. I admire you greatly.

[3PonyFarm]

I am so sorry you are dealing with this new pain. I hope you can get some relief for it and return to riding.