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

[Jackie_Cochran]

I’m not going to ask for this, it is my idea and as far as I am concerned it is for my benefit.

Besides Debbie does not charge anywhere as much as most hunt seat lesson stables do for boarding, training or lessons. I really appreciate her keeping costs down for us not-so-rich riders while taking excellent care of the horses. They are well fed, her lesson horse’s hooves are taken care of, veterinarians are called when needed, the stalls are cleaned daily, the water buckets are cleaned daily, etc… I would have no hesitation at all with boarding my horse at Debbie’s stable because it would be well taken care of. Debbie treats everybody’s horse like it is her own personal horse.

I have been reading on the Forum all the posts about the costs of boarding and taking lessons. I would not be able to afford to take lessons at a lot of these stables. Since Debbie is the best riding instructor I’ve run into in over 50 years I think I am getting the deal of the century riding there. Most hunt seat barns that take good care of the horses seem to charge over twice what Debbie charges. She has developed her system of running a large lesson stable and it works without putting her boarders or students in the poorhouse, while the horses at her stable are well fed (some are too well fed), turned out daily, and properly taken care off (feet, worming, emergency vet visits, chiropractors, massage therapists, etc…) Land does tend to be cheaper down here than up north so that is part of the reason I can afford to ride with her.

Besides if lesson riders do not help a stable it can disappear because the person who runs it cannot afford the costs any more. So over the years I have donated stuff I no longer need, taught Debbie what my other really, really good lesson teacher taught me as well as theory, and if she needs to cancel my lesson I accept it. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have found this lesson stable and I never plan to leave it.

AND the HH will be there for my lesson when it rains or is too bitterly cold to ride out in the ring. Win, win, win!!!

[NaturallyHappy]

Got it!!! Thank you!

[Jackie_Cochran]

I woke up this morning with my left hip hurting from bursitis from my HH lesson yesterday. All day I have been sitting on my BOT mattress pad and a folded up Fenwick lap blanket and my hip feels a lot better.

I was daring this morning. Instead of resting a day after my rather long session on the HH yesterday I decided it was time to double the time I spend sitting on my ASC. I did a whole minute today, and I hope I am not being too ambitious for my body. Tomorrow I will ride my HH again, hopefully for at least 7 minutes, maybe a minute or two more. For me this may be pushing myself too fast, but since I no longer have to sleep an extra 2 hours for each session on my HH I am encouraged, 15 minutes of extra sleep takes a lot less time than 2 hours. I hope someday soon I won’t need any extra sleep.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Today it is obvious to me that the one minute on the ASC was too much.

I did 7 minutes on my HH this morning, I felt exhausted immediately and I am still very tired.

I guess I better back off yet again.

Nanometers, not millimeters, this is going to take me so much time.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Shannon came over today for our joint exercise sessions on the riding simulators.

The last time I got up on the HH it was swaying to the left side horribly. I finally got on the floor with the level and the floor is not all the way horizontal. So I shimmed with little shims, stuck right against the semi-spherical base until the bubble balance showed the HH platform centered in all directions.

This worked much better. I actually found a place that was centered in all directions and stable, finally, when I rode the HH, and I could still move it with my seat and feet.

My first session was just on the Western pad. I was going to go 5 minutes, checked my watch and since I was almost at 6 minutes I stayed on. I was doing my usual sitting still and balancing, “walking”, 2-point and “posting.” I got tired.

I rested about an hour while Shannon put the dressage saddle on the HH and rode it for quite a while, experimenting with taking the HH to the outer limits of the shims I have under it, “walking” and otherwise working on the core. Then she got on the ASC for almost as long, she really likes sitting on the ASC since she does not like sitting still.

Then I rode the HH with the dressage saddle for the first time, but I did not pick up the stirrups. I could still get to that point of balance where I was stable, and I did my usual “riding” with my feet flat on the platform. I was planning on 5 minutes but when I thought to look at my watch (I had it on the stop-watch function) I had been on it for 8 1/2 minutes.

So today I made it almost 15 minutes on the HH all together. Of course I am tired, my gut muscles still feel exercised, my neck hurt for a while, and I am amazed I made it so long.

Earlier my shims under the HH had been sort of to the outside and I swayed everywhere all the time. This time I stuffed them way under and I finally got to a balance point. At no time was I swaying way out to a side, my seat remained centered front-to-back, and I felt a lot more secure. I just hope my body remembers finding a balance point when I get my lesson on Wednesday on MJ, I am sure that he would appreciate my upper body staying in one place vertical above his back without my back collapsing.

I hope I won’t have to sleep 10 hours tonight, but if I do need that much sleep it will be because I earned it by doing so much more.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Yesterday it became obvious to me that I did too much last Sunday, and the 2 minutes I spent on the ASC yesterday morning.

I woke up tired but did not oversleep. Then I sat on my ASC and it was downhill from there. As the day passed I became more and more tired. This morning I overslept an hour, I just could not get myself to get out of bed.

Frustration. Just a few minutes of activity can wipe me out for days.

Tomorrow I get my riding lesson. I am resting up today.

[3PonyFarm]

I hope you have a nice ride!

[Jackie_Cochran]

I had a nice ride–that illustrated to me how doing my riding simulators, at least the two I own, do NOT replace riding a real, live horse.

At least my riding teacher complimented me about my hands, at this stable I think I am in the top 3-5 riders as far as hands are concerned, at least at the walk and sort of slow trot. She was having a problem with the hands of one of the college students that ride there while approaching a jump, asking me how to correct something that was getting under her skin. I had no ready answer but promised to look in my books.

She liked my tale of the two jumps in one lesson over 40 years ago where my then riding teacher told me it was time to do what is now called the automatic release, keeping contact over a jump. My first jump trying it in the lesson I kept my normal contact and got firmly corrected. So the next jump I worked at advancing my hands more (instead of just following the horse’s mouth), describing my contact over the fence as keeping contact with a cobweb. That jump got my riding teacher’s approval.

Sometimes with horses who have trouble with normal riders’ contact is to get the contact so light that it feels like the reins are a single strand of a cobweb that I am trying not to break. The first horse my current riding teacher put me up on required that light type of contact, after a few weeks that horse decided he could trust me with real contact.

Her description of what the rider does sounds like videos I’ve seen of top riders jumping 4 to 5 feet, raising the hands maybe two strides before takeoff as the horse raises its head to measure the height of the jump. Debbie’s jumps usually are no higher than 2 feet, so the horses are not raising their heads high as part of their normal jumping.

I remember back in the dark ages being told that it was not a real jump under 2 1/2 feet since the horse could elect to just trot over the darn thing. I felt so accomplished when I got up to 3’6", and I felt so inferior since I could not handle 4’ high fences which were required in the vast majority of hunter classes for adults. Back then I was in the kids category as far as my jumping was concerned, nowadays it really shocks me that people seem to think that 2’ jumps are HIGH, 2 1/2 feet really high, and they boast of jumping 3 feet, a height that I could not wait to surpass.

When I have more energy I am going to dig out “How a Horse Jumps” by Vladimir Littauer. He took 16mm films he had and critiqued these jumps (one jump was FIVE FEET) and I will look closely and try to come up with something.

I have not jumped even 1 foot in over 30 years. I sure wanted to when I started taking lessons from Debbie but finally realized that it would be dangerous for me and not fair to the horse to try to jump with my rotted out nervous system from my MS. Debbie and I agreed that in an emergency I could probably make it over a 2’ jump without harming the horse but it sure would not be pretty.

[3PonyFarm]

I am glad you had a nice ride. Give your horse an extra pet from all of us next time you are at the barn!

[Jackie_Cochran]

It was raining today, and yesterday, so Shannon came to my place to “ride” where it was dry.

I got up on my HH 2 times, the first time for 5 minutes and after resting half and hour I “rode” it for 7 minutes (I lost track of time.)

I used my ancient Crosby saddle. The first time I forgot to put my feet in the stirrups most of the ride, I was mainly concentrating on my side-to-side and front-to-back balance. Most of the time, except the first few minutes where the HH was “leaning” back, Shannon said I was in balance, as proven by the bubble balance. The last minute I got into 2-point and I got tired.

I rested about a half hour and I mounted up again, this time I remembered to put my feet in the stirrups when I got up. Today I did not need help to pick up my stirrups, for the first time. I started 2-point pretty early, got tired, sat back down, rested, then got up into 2-point again. At first I was swinging forward then I got centered. The rest of the times I got up into 2-point Shannon said my balance was good.

My thighs got tired. I got tired. At least I exercised the muscles I need to do 2-point.

Shannon took advantage of my resting periods to ride the HH and sit on the ASC. She is trying to rebuild the muscles that dwindled during her down times from her botched operation. Her butt gets sore because everything that cushioned her seat bones wasted away during those 6 months of inactivity, sometime I should get a BOT or a thick sheepskin saddle saver. Old jumping saddles seats can feel harder after over 40 years of being used or just sitting on the saddle rack.

My plan for the future with the HH is to gradually increase the time I stay in 2-point, in balance and not swaying. When my thigh muscles get stronger I will add posting, working on keeping balanced. On horseback I am posting fine as it takes less energy with the impulse from the horse’s hind legs pushing me up. On the HH I have no push and my muscles have to do the movement all by themselves.

But it will take a while, and I will probably have to take a lot of naps for extra sleep before I get to feeling confident that I can stay up in 2-point for more than a minute or two.

Wednesday looks good for my lesson, maybe MJ will have a bit more oomph than my last lesson.

Oh, I noticed something odd yesterday. I had to scrub dried mud off the BOT exercise boots, the Fenwick pastern wraps and the Fenwick leg wraps I used for my lesson last week. The exercise boots and pastern wraps have neoprene in them. I wore rubber gloves since my skin breaks out so badly when neoprene touches it, just handling them, even with gloves, my body starts itching. Halfway through my brain sort of changed and I started slipping into rages (luckily nobody else was here), all completely imaginary, of imaginary situations that have never happened to me, sometime in the far future. I had difficulty controlling my thoughts, fortunately my brain got back to normal around 30 minutes after I cleaned these boots.

I NEED exercise boots and pastern wraps that don’t use neoprene. Neoprene is used in a LOT of stuff nowadays, things that had never occurred to me, like medical gloves for people who have latex allergies. The itchy skin and the poison ivy like breakouts on my skin are sort of bearable, but I worry about the sudden uncalled for rage.

You know how people just are getting worse and worse about people they don’t agree with? I am now wondering how much these problems are worse nowadays because people have allergies to all the modern chemicals we have to deal with in products we use daily. I felt like I was in a steroid rage, like when I was taking 960 mg of prednisone a day for 5 days for MS exacerbations decades ago. It can be hard to stay calm when ones brain want to strike out for no reason at all.

A lot of horse products are made of neoprene or have neoprene in them, especially braces for the lower legs. Does anybody make non-neoprene exercise boots?

[Jackie_Cochran]

I rode a lot better today for my lesson. Debbie was pleased and MJ was pleased even though we forgot to put on his boots.

When I got to the stable MJ was already standing in the washstall, looking like a breaded veal cutlet including his head. Debbie was busy cleaning a stall so I “curried” him with the StripHair and the Haas Schimmel brush. I was pretty tired when I finally got all the dried mud off of him. I tried the super gentle New Generation curry comb at the bottom of him girth groove because I could not get all the dried mud loosened otherwise, and MJ made sure to non-violently tell me that HE DID NOT LIKE THAT, thank you very much.

As far as answering Debbie’s question last week I came on here (thank you all you COTH posters!) and used two books by Harry Chamberlin, “Riding and Schooling Horses” and “Training Hunters, Jumpers and Hacks”. “Riding and Schooling Horses” is quickly becoming my go to book for new problems. Did you know that “Riding and Schooling Horses” is essentially the U.S. Cavalry Manual “Horsemanship and Horsemastership, Vol. I”. Pure cavalry, good, good, good horsemanship and riding from when the US Olympic Equestrian competitors were cavalry officers. I also brought out “How the Horse Jumps” by Vladimir Littauer, she was very impressed by the pictures, every frame from 16mm movies, showing horses at a full gallop jumping 4 to 5 foot high jumps from a full gallop in fields. Her comment was “this is the real deal.” She just needed to see something different that the now usual plodding around in the ring jumping much lower jumps on bigger horses.

We discussed the driving rein, and I had Debbie move my arm (off horse) as I did my normal contact (pretty easy to move my arm), my hard hold on the reins I sometimes use on a very resistant horse for a little bit (it was very hard for her to move my arm), and contact with the driving rein (pretty easy to move my arm.) I hope Debbie can get through to this rider, after all the student is on one of Debbie’s horses, in Debbie’s ring, with Debbie as the teacher, so she, the student, stops “strangling the horse” causing much distress and misbehavior from the horse.

At first MJ did not want to move out. Interestingly he did not demand that I get up into 2-point so his back probably felt OK-ish. Once Debbie got her daughter to bring out the forgotten BOT exercise sheet MJ started moving out some. I trotted him several times, one time almost all the way around the ring as we weaved around the jumps with a change of diagonals and direction. He warmed up some more and gave me a better ride. All in all he did pretty well for a 30 year old lesson horse. He even backed up decently, for him.

I finally found something I can probably use instead of his BOT exercise boots and Fenwick Pastern Wraps, both with Neoprene in them. Instead of exercise boots the Incrediwear Equine company puts out exercise bandages and a hoof/fetlock/lower cannon pull on knit “boot”. I e-mailed the company and they said there is no neoprene in these products. They are expensive, it has been over 40 years since the last time I had to put a leg bandage on a horse, but I cannot find anything else. Debbie agreed to teach me how to correctly put on the rolled up bandage on him, I am sure that some things are different than 40 years ago when we used cottons. I begged Debbie to take my neoprene horse boot out of my hands so they would no longer be in my house. I am tired of itching a lot of the time. She took them since she has no problems with Neoprene and someday there WILL be a horse that needs them.

I had rested since last Sunday and Debbie said that did me good. I am tired right now but not exhausted. I had a decent ride today in spite of my MS and MJ being an ancient horse with creaky joints.

[3PonyFarm]

Get some rest! So happy you had a good ride!

[Jackie_Cochran]

I did too much yesterday, probably because I got all that dried mud off of him. I am sure that the more frequent and longer trots did not do me any good either as far as not getting too tired.

I overslept this morning, I am still quite tired, and I am thinking about doing NOTHING the next few days.

[3PonyFarm]

It is good you are aware what your body needs and how to manage it. I hope you feel better after some rest.

[Jackie_Cochran]

My grandsons visited last weekend. I don’t get as much sleep with 4 extra people in the house especially as one sounds like a pygmy elephant running around the house. I did not have Shannon over, and I did nothing at home until my lesson on Wed. I just lay around resting. My lesson was just at a walk because MJ had lost a shoe (the blacksmith arrived half-way through my ride.)

Yesterday I decided I had rested enough and sat on my Anywhere Saddle Chair (ASC) for two minutes. Of course that made me sort of tired so I rested.

Today I rode my Home Horse for 5 minutes. I had removed the stabilizing shims so my eldest grandson could have some more fun on it so it was less stable. When my husband told me I was centered side to side according to the bubble balance I felt like I was leaning to the right, and my right stirrup leather felt longer even though I have the insole in my right boot. I had bought a pair of Ariat Terrain lace up paddock boots and I cannot zip my half-chaps all the way down. I guess I’ll have to put my half-chaps on before my boots I can zip them down all the way.

I did a little bit of “walking”, checking with my husband to make sure I returned to center. After a minute or two I picked up my stirrups, got re-centered, and played around with trying to find center again. My sense of balance just does not work, I feel like I am leaning so darn far to the right when the HH platform is level according to the bubble balance.

At least I am using my riding simulators some. After sitting on the ASC and riding the HH I feel increased muscle tone around my waist.

[Jackie_Cochran]

Shannon came over today and we did our usual with the riding simulators. When my grandsons were visiting I took all the shims around the HH base out. This morning I just put one back in, a small one to get it level rather than having the bubble off a little bit to one side. We used my Crosby PDN Wide Front saddle.

My first ride was a little bit over 5 minutes. Without the shims it was a little bit harder to do my side-to-side balance well, but I finally got it and like before I felt like I was falling off to the right. When I tried a 3-point seat the HH swung forward. I got off without much problem with Shannon’s help.

Then I helped Shannon mount and I did something new for these weekend sessions, I went and sat on the Anywhere Saddle Chair for 3 minutes, one minute longer than my usual ASC sessions. Then I collapsed while Shannon rode some big circles and when I told her that Chris, the inventor, had suggested “writing” the alphabet she went ahead and did the whole alphabet. I was impressed, I have not gotten beyond maybe three letters.

She rode for maybe 20 minutes while I rested, then she dismounted and helped me back on. I was tired from my first ride and doing the ASC, but I made it almost 6 minutes. I “walked” and worked at returning to center, I tried and failed to do 2-point (it was easier with the front shim under the HH), I did the 3-point swinging forward. I was pretty active on it, for me, and I got tired. It was much harder for me to get off, I am glad Shannon was there to help me!

Then I collapsed while Shannon got in her session with the ASC, and she was really exercising her core muscles with it! Me, I just sit there on it moving a tiny bit, Shannon was using it to its limits of motion.

We both felt like we got exercise. After lunch I had to take a nap and I had already overslept 30 minutes this morning, so that is over an hour of extra sleep for me. It took me 8 hours to get enough energy to type this.

At least I worked some of my riding muscles today.

We both felt like we got exercise,

[BrownDerby]

@Jackie_Cochran

I did too much yesterday, probably because I got all that dried mud off of him. I am sure that the more frequent and longer trots did not do me any good either as far as not getting too tired.

I overslept this morning, I am still quite tired, and I am thinking about doing NOTHING the next few days.

Overslept? What is that? In my dreams.

Just kidding @Jackie_Cochran – You keep on doing you and do you. When I get stuck I ponder what would The Capitan do. Imagine some of the stuff he saw out in the field. Best of luck.

[Jackie_Cochran]

I had my lesson today. This morning I had pretty big problems getting little stuff done, like getting zippers started correctly, getting laces through holes, and getting the ends of my spur straps through the buckle. I am usually not this clumsy! I was also staggering around a bit.

So when I got to the stable I warned Debbie that I was not at top form.

After getting super upset in the wash stall (there was a horse in the other wash stall getting clipped) we were not expecting him to be very cooperative during my ride. I had to dig out my Halter Buddy and put it on, he quieted down a tiny bit, enough so it was not dangerous for me to groom him.

I changed some stuff on MJ today. Instead of my combination of BOT exercise boots and the Fenwick Leg Wraps and Fenwick Pastern Wraps I used the Incrediwear Equine Circulation Hoof Socks (the Incrediwear stuff has that wonderful far-infrared radiation). MJ was not too sure about this change. He never had to pick up his feet for his exercise boots, where were they? WHY did we want him to pick up his feet when they had already been picked out? WHERE WERE HIS BOOTS???

Debbie’s wrists were bothering her. I was just too unsteady to try. Her daughter Sam put his hoof socks over his hoof (avoiding the clenched nails of his shoes), and when she got them stretched out over his pastern, fetlock joint and up over his cannon bones these hoof socks extended all the way up to his knee. I had gotten a pair of the Incrediwear leg bandages but since the hoof socks went up to his knees Debbie agreed with me to try them without wrapping his legs. Then Debbie put on his new Incrediwear Circulation Neck Sleeve (we had left his BOT poll cap off though he still wore his Fenwick Face Mask with Ears). She had to undo the cross ties and work the Neck Sleeve up over his eyes and ears before it was on his neck. He was not too sure about this process, but once it was on he started relaxing a bit and looking more cheerful.

We still used the Fenwick Western Pad, the ThinLine Contour pad and the Smart Therapy exercise sheet.

I had a good lesson in spite of my morning klutziness. Debbie praised my riding (not always guaranteed, lol). MJ was not terribly sure about the Hoof Socks when he started moving but something was working, except for a few of the turns in place I did not feel his front legs flinching at all. He did not extend super well because his front legs felt ODD to him, but he got better as the ride went on.

My work on the HH and ASC certainly paid off today. I did not have to recenter his saddle at all because the HH is training me to find center. My endurance is better, instead of maybe one or two rather short trots I did 5-6 much longer posting trots. I even sat his trot some since his downward transitions from the trot to the walk were SO MUCH SMOOTHER. He jarred me some but I could deal with it for a short distance. MJ had no problems with my contact whether I used either bit or both alternating closely. He had absolutely no problems when I kept contact with just the curb bit, if anything I got a feeling of relief.

Debbie remarked that I was smiling a lot more than usual. I was surprised because I started off so badly today and I was feeling rather tired. I suspect part of the reason I was smiling was that MJ had nothing on him that has Neoprene in it, so I was not breathing tiny Neoprene particles (I am allergic to Neoprene.) I also think that MJ was broadcasting how much he LIKED his hoof socks and neck sleeve.

When we untacked MJ he refused to cooperate with Debbie taking off his hoof socks. She approached, he looked at her, and “said” “no you are not taking these wonderful socks off!” Sam had to get them off after a little discussion on how MJ was going to pick his foot up and hold it up so she could slip them off over his hooves.

Debbie is all for me continuing using the Incrediwear stuff on MJ since the results were so positive for my lesson.

I ended up giving the Incrediwear leg bandages to the stable. Debbie was not too sure she would use them, but when I offered them to Sam she grabbed them (Sam runs the barn’s show program). Sam’s daughter has another pair of bandages that get cold when wet that she uses on “her” show horse, but they are doing a bigish show at the barn this weekend and it is nice to have an extra pair in case another horse needs them.

So all my work at home on my riding simulators seems to be paying off for me. Once we got rid of all the Neoprene on MJ’s previous gear I got positive results from my homework!

The Incrediwear stuff is more expensive than the other far-infrared radiation stuff, probably because it is made in the USA. I will be saving up more money to get other stuff for MJ and some stuff for my aching joints. At least it does not have Neoprene which apparently been affecting my endurance and my ability to ride well for years.

[3PonyFarm]

Do you have a picture of MJ? He sounds like a sweetie!

[Jackie_Cochran]

It may take me a while to get his picture and get it on here.

I am a technological troglodyte after all.

He is a sweetie, and like a lot of elderly beings he is sort of conservative in his viewpoints. At least if something new feels GOOD he is all for it even if it is new.

Lately he has opened up and is much more willing to share his opinions about stuff. Sometimes when Debbie and I talk he gives us a little snort of agreement for certain statements, not every statement just some of them. For once in his life people are LISTENING to him and his opinions and he likes that.

Since he is 30 years old he figures that his opinions are worth as much as ours are even if we are from a supposedly superior species.