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

I had my lesson today. I woke up to dirty looking air and a code Red air quality warning for fine particulate matter from the Canadian wild fires. I just made sure to get to the stable a little early, I have zero problems with slowing down our activity level.

I was able to do some grooming today, lower front legs, mane, head and fly spray. While we were getting MJ ready Debbie started talking about seeing a horse who had a session with a Bemer blanket and that she was trying to figure out a way to afford to get one NOW for her stable. She figures it will pay for itself pretty quickly, especially if the horses need fewer chiropractic manipulations, massages and other equine therapies. Of course MJ LISTENED to her, thought about what she said, and half-way through the lesson when she started talking about it again MJ somehow or another got the message through to me that he wanted it used on him. MJ even had me point out to Debbie the area of his back where he needed it firstā€“around 1-2 inches in front of my seatbones when I sit in the saddle as close to the pommel as I can. I donā€™t know how he does it but MJ seems to understand English better than any other horse Iā€™ve ever worked with, and somehow he communicates to me and Debbie so we have an idea of what he wants instead of having to do a guessing game.

But anyway the bad air was not doing me much good. MJ was not sure about it either, instead of standing completely still when Debbie had to go check on something while leaving him in the middle of the ring MJ decided that it would be a good idea to exit the ring before we started the lesson at a slow walk (I had not closed the gate yet). I caught him without any problems before he got to the gate, which I then closed.

I mounted, I got my seat bones off the saddle but today MJ just did not want to perform that much. Considering the state of the air we had to breathe I donā€™t blame him at all. He did not have much impulse to his walk, I was back to alternating leg aids at every stride. We got a few posting trots in, not very fast, and I actually made it around the ring once. After that I was not good for much but with MJā€™s outlook today it all worked out.

Even though it was getting warmer every minute at no time did MJ ā€œtellā€ either of us that he wanted his SmartPack ceramic exercise sheet off. He was feeling stiff, he did not really get into moving today so we kept his exercise sheet on, but nothing got him into moving out. Let me rephrase that, we had done nothing to convince MJ that it was a good idea to move on out on such a miserable day. Isnā€™t he a smart horse for not wanting to breathe the dirty air deep into his lungs?

Even so MJ did not remind me that his lesson time would soon end at 25 minutes into my lesson like he usually does. Today we made it 35 minutes before I thought to look at my watch so at least I know I was not pushing him too hard today.

I asked Debbie if I should start wearing my ice vest for my lessons. I was not that great in the saddle today, and my right lower leg was constantly drifting back and I could not feel it moving back, something that is normal for me when it starts getting hot and humid. I really do not like wearing my ice vest since it is so COLD against my back, but when the temperature rises my body does not work well at all unless I am wearing an ice vest in addition to my other warm weather gear.

I got to see Debbieā€™s oldest granddaughter do some jumping schooling in the ring on her pony that she has almost outgrown. It is always a great pleasure for me to watch her schooling for a Hunter class, her horse stays at a steady speed, they meet their fences at exactly the right place for a good jump, and even the tight turns are united. I told Debbie it was truly a beautiful sight to see.

I hope the air gets better for my lesson next week. Today MJ just told me that the air was too bad to put forth any extra effort even though I was keeping my seat bones super light in the saddle. He is a wise horse!

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Iā€™m so sorry you are getting all that smoke and it affected your lesson. We had the smoke from the Alberta fires for a while, and it was miserable. I biked in spite of the warnings, and then spent the rest of the day coughing a lung up.

Rebecca

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When I went outside this morning the air was almost as dirty as it used to be in the D.C. area in the late 60s, before our government got serious about air pollution. I used to ride in that D.C. summer air pollution but I was a good bit younger.

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I had my lesson today. It is getting hotter down here, but at least the air looked a lot cleaner.

I wore my ice vest the first time this year. It did help some, along with my neck fan and technical fabric tights and shirt.

Last weekend MJ had done 3 W/T classes under a young girl rider (about 40 pounds). He started off stiff but improved during our ride. I had to ride in the crotch seat to get decent movement as his back had absolutely no desire to bear my weight, which he showed by sucking back every time my seat bones had any weight on them. After around 10 minutes he started moving much more freely and needed a lot less leg to keep going but he still needed me to keep my seat bones out of the saddle.

Near the end of my ride I tied up my bridoon reins and picked up contact with the curb reins only. I only used my ā€œcollectingā€ leg aids and I did not use my reins to slow him down. This was the first time we tried this with my in the crotch seat and he was not too sure about slowing down, though he did finally start to shorten his walking stride.

It took a lot of effort to keep my crotch seat as he went slower, so much more that my riding teacher noticed this. The slower walk felt different to me in the crotch seat than it does when I sit with weight on my seat bones, and MJ did not ā€œmoveā€ my seat back in the saddle as he usually does with the super slow walk.

Last weeks lesson in the horrible air really dragged me down, I did not have enough energy this week to ā€œrideā€ my Home Horse at all. I read about what vets said about horses breathing the smoke and I figured that I should also follow that advice for myself.

Lately, since I am trying to fully understand the book ā€œThe Rider Forms the Horseā€ by Udo Burger, I have started falling down the rabbit hole of horse anatomy (this book is mainly about riding dressage but I can use a lot of the information in it). I dug out all the horse anatomy books I have accumulated since 1963 and so far it seems that no single book has all the information that I need to build a ā€œ4-dimensional (3-D + movement)ā€ anatomically accurate ā€œmodelā€ of a horse in my brain.

I am trying to study my books around an hour a day or more, reading, looking at the pictures, looking at the pictures in another book, trying to understand how it all works together. I have to work at this, I am a much slower learner than I was when I was in my 20s that is for sure!

Modern equine anatomy books that go beyond the basics are EXPENSIVE so I am gradually trying to find re-prints of old equine anatomy books which are a good deal cheaper. To me it is often easier to ā€œseeā€ things more clearly from line drawings than from photographs when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of the bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments and how they attach to each other. This is challenging to me since I donā€™t ā€œvisualizeā€ very well so it will take me a long time to get to the point that I truly understand horse anatomy instead of just having a rough idea of how the horse is built.

I am now exercising my brain as well as my body. I just hope that me learning the nitty-gritty of equine anatomy will make me a better rider.

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Iā€™ve seen this advertised various places for $33:

Tedco 4D Vision Horse Model

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Iā€™m going to have to check out thay book!

ā€œThe Rider Forms the Horseā€ by Udo Burger is very good. It is not exactly cheap but I am glad I bought it.

One thing I noticed is that he says that the back muscles are for transmitting the forward motion from the hind legs, not carrying the rider. Burger writes that it is the muscles of the ā€œupper neckā€ that actually bear the weight of the rider and that the first months after breaking is to strengthen these upper neck muscles so that the horse can carry the weight of the rider without messing up the back of the horse.

In order to do so he basically prescribes the Forward Seat for Slow Equitation of Littauerā€™s book ā€œRiding Forwardā€, with the riderā€™s weight right behind the pommel, as far forward as the rider can go. So I hit my anatomy books after I told my riding teacher this trying to figure out what Burger meant. Right now I think he is talking about the cervical trapezius muscle among others. The thoracic part of the trapezius is extends just a little bit behind the withers (both parts are used to move the scapula too.) If the rider sits FORWARD then the rider stays on the thoracic trapezius muscle, if the rider sits back then other back muscles bear the weight of the rider.

Reading this I remembered all the posts on the Forums about horsesā€™ back problems and now I wonder if the riders started riding their horses for the first few months FORWARD if the horses would end up with fewer back problems.

I do know that MJ is not happy with me if I start off our ride with my seat fully in the saddle, and he is 25 years old.

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Sounds like it gives you good insight into your position. Well worth the money.

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I think we could all benefit from more knowledge about the anatomy of a horse and how their body works to carry us. Thanks for the reading recommendations!

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I got to ride Cider on Sunday, just at a walk. I still feel weak and worn out from the ride.

It was an ā€œOKā€ ride considering her arthritis. For my next ride I asked Shannon to put the Incrediwear Hoof Socks on Cider since they are long enough to go over the knee if they do not cover the hoof. Cider ā€œtoldā€ me by moving so gingerly that she really needs therapeutic stuff on her legs. If the Hoof Socks donā€™t work we can go back to the BOT exercise boots lined with the Fenwick leg wraps which worked pretty well earlier in that Cider was at least willing to move out at the walk some.

I was not demanding at all during our ride, of course I was really not physically there enough to be demanding about anything.

It was warm. I did not ride the full 30 minutes. When I dismounted I was super, super clumsy, my right leg had big problems clearing the cantle. I am so glad I got Cider the Fenwick long Western pad because it protected her loin from my right foot dragging over her loin. She just stood there patiently and did not cuss me out.

I am beginning to wonder if I would do better without my ice vest because this year I seem not to be very physically competent when I wear it.

It is supposed to rain here ALL WEEK so I wonā€™t be getting my lesson in and I doubt that Shannonā€™s grass ring will be rideable.

At least I have my Home Horse. I really need more time on it since my balance has gotten a good bit worse, my body keeps on wanting to fall backwards.

The air was not really ā€œdirtyā€ like during my last lesson but I could still see a yellow tinge to the sky. My lungs do not seem to do well with the wildfire smoke even though it was not as bad on Sunday. Covid-19 and my long Covid have not done any good for me riding horses.

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Maybe the time on the Home Horse and out of the smokey air will do you some good to help restore your balance.

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I did not get my lesson today, it rained a lot yesterday and this morning it was still raining.

So I rode my Home Horse with my DHā€™s help with keeping an eye on the bubble balance.

With my feet on the platform I was fine with my side-to-side balance. It took me a while to get my front-to-back balance. After a while I finally got both balances right at the same time. I always feel unbalanced at this point but the bubbles on the balance thingy do not lie.

Then I ā€œwalkedā€, posted some, got my butt out of the saddle, and then tried to mimic a sitting trot, minus the up and down jarring of course. After these activities I returned to the balanced point with some help from DH. Usually I was fine from side-to-side but front-to-back was harder.

Then I picked up my stirrups. Boy, the HH can do some wild swings back to front! When I finally got balanced according to the bubbles my seat bones were in the saddle. By that time I was TIRED and stopped. I managed to dismount all right as in I had no difficulties getting my right leg over the cantle when I had my left foot firmly on the floor.

At least this time I lasted 9 1/2 minutes from mounting to dismounted. Even after an hour nap I am still tired.

I wonā€™t get my lesson next week because Debbie has a summer camp going on. I really hope the weather cooperates with her so that the kids can have some fun riding. I do not know if Iā€™ll get to ride Cider, the rain has been falling every day and I bet her grass riding ring wonā€™t be all dried out by Sunday.

I am so glad I bought the HH, at least I can get into the saddle and ā€œrideā€ something when the Universe does not cooperate with me as far as riding a real, live horse.

Otherwise I am spending some time with my horse anatomy books, again mostly looking at the pictures and reading which bones the muscles move.

Did you all realize that the muscles (one on each side) that most riders sit on, the latissimus dorsi, go from an aponeurotic tendinous sheet/thoracolumbalis fascia from most of the thoracic vertebrae behind the withers starting at the 8th (?) thoracic vertebrae, going over all of the lumbar vertebrae, it goes over the rib cage in a triangular shape with the apex of the triangle hooking up with the inside center of the humerus on a little tubercle that it shares with another muscle? The latissimus dorsi flexes the shoulder joint and pulls the humerus/front leg back.

The muscle I am trying to get my weight on when I ride in my crotch seat is the thoracic part of the trapezius muscle, which goes from the back side of the spine of the scapula to the tenth thoracic vertebra. This part of the trapezius muscle pulls the scapula back.

The rear end of the thoracic trapezius muscles lie over the front end of the latissimus dorsai muscles over the spine.

Of course there are other muscles underneath these two surface muscles.

My anatomical explorations continue. I just donā€™t remember ANY of my books on equitation talking about these two sets of surface muscles which bear the saddle and our weight when we ride our horses.

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You are going to be an anatomy expert! Iā€™m glad you at least got to ride the HH.

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It rained most of last week. I did not get my lesson on Wednesday, and I wonā€™t get my lesson next week since Debbie has summer camp (those lucky kids!) Since it rained so much Shannonā€™s grass ring did not get to dry out much since it is as the bottom of a small hill.

So Shannon came by my house to help me on my Home Horse. I lasted a FULL MINUTE more than I did on Wednesday, yeah progress!

I seem to be balancing better on the HH, both side-to-side and back-to-front. Today I was actually able to be balanced with my seat bones lightly in the saddle when I had my feet on the platform. When I picked up my stirrups the front of the HH went DOWN, like I was landing from a 3ā€™6" jump or going down a rather steep slope. Since I do not have the horseā€™s barrel to grip with my lower legs I had pretty big problems getting balanced then though I finally succeeded by getting my butt way back in 2-point.

I did my usual of just balancing, ā€œwalkingā€, 2-point, tried to imitate the horseā€™s back going from side to side for a ā€œsitting trotā€, and practicing getting back into balance afterwards. This is getting somewhat easier.

I finally realized I had two copies of ā€œThe Way to Perfect Horsemanshipā€ by Udo Burger so I gave one to Shannon. I told her if I ever decided to try dressage that this would be the book I depended upon. This book is what finally taught me how to time and coordinate my aids properly, as proven by the horses I ride, both my horses that I had trained myself and other peopleā€™s lesson horses, obeying my aids immediately, pleasantly and without any resistances. ā€œCommon Sense Horsemanshipā€ by Vladimir Littauer is still the most influential book for my riding, but this book by Burger actually got me into riding at a more advanced level. Not only that but the translation is very good and this book is an easy read.

If more dressage riders had started with ā€œThe Way to Perfect Horsemanshipā€ as their main guide I would like watching people ride dressage a whole lot better, for one thing the horseā€™s faces would not be behind the vertical and there would be no need for tight nose bands. Their dressage horses would also be much happier. I also suspect that a lot fewer horses would end up with painful backs (including kissing spines), SI joints and hocks. I would recommend every rider read this book even if, like me, they have no interest in riding dressage.

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I have a copy ā€“ itā€™s a classic.

Congratulations on your progress, you have true grit to keep pushing your limits.

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Last week was hectic, my husband had a heart procedure (some type of ablation) to hopefully correct some odd type of thing that Covid did to his heart. Luckily my oldest son is visiting, mainly to have someone at the hospital to keep an eye on my husband and to help with his recovery. I did not get to ride a horse and I did not get up on my Home Horse.

Shannon came out today. I did pretty well on the HH, I lasted a little bit over 12 minutes, the first little bit with my feet on the platform, then I picked up my stirrups. My sense of balance had suffered and it took me a while to center both bubbles with my feet on the platform, then I had to do this all over again with my feet in the stirrups. I did my usual things of balancing, returning to center after moving (ā€œwalkingā€, posting and 2-point).

Iā€™ve had 2 naps since then, I got tired.

After I got off Shannon got on and rode for a bit. She worked on keeping her tail bone OFF the saddle (not slumping) and her thighs got really tired. Shannon had ridden Western in her youth and tends to go back to riding how she was taught, but after seeing her heart horse responding favorably to my riding she has been working at getting herself FORWARD in the saddle so that her weight just bears down on the strongest part of her horsesā€™ backs. Both of her horses are responding favorably to this (Arab-Welsh mare and a TWH mare.)

After Shannon got off I brought out some of my horse anatomy books and we looked at pictures of the skeleton, forehand and neck, with little side excursions to look at pictures of the hyoid bone at the base of the tongue.

There is very little space to sit on the back where the vertebrae and ribs are supported by the sternum. I have to sit really, really, really close to the pommel of the saddle in a crotch seat to make sure that I sit just behind the supported vertebrae. The highest part of the withers is vertebrae 4-5, the end of the vertebrae being supported by the sternum is vertebrae 8, where the wither bones are still sloping down into the back.

The first book we looked at was ā€œBiomechanical Riding and Dressageā€“A Riderā€™s Atlasā€ by Nancy Nicholson PhD, especially on page 28 showing a simplified picture of a dressage rider on horseback. That picture shows the rider sitting on the latissimus dorsi muscle, where most riders that do not ride Forward Seat sit all the time. The rider sits on the tendonous sheet that attaches to the thoracolumbar fascia that attach to the spinous processes. This fascia extends from the the 4th to 18th thoracic vertebrae. At the front end this muscle goes down to a really narrow ā€œpointā€ which attaches to the inside middle of the humerus and pulls the leg back.

I try to sit on the thoracic part of the trapezius muscle from the spine of the scapula, that covers the front of the latissimus dorsi muscle, covers the top of the scapula which moves under this muscle, going back to the tenth thoracic vertebra. This part of the trapezius muscle pulls the scapula back (the cervical trapezius pulls the scapula forwards.)

We used the ā€œABC of the Horse Atlasā€ by Pauli Gronberg for the anatomical drawings of the skeleton, spine, and the individual muscles.

Most riders, including me when I am tired, do not sit on the strongest part of the horseā€™s spine. It takes me extra effort to get my butt forward in the saddle and to keep my butt forward in the saddle. The horses move so much better under me when I do this that I just resign myself to getting more tired riding a horse than if I just lolled back in the saddle with my full weight on my seat bones.

Of course there are several more muscles under these two muscles along the spine. I have yet to get into great detail studying these underlying muscles since I can spend only so much time looking at the anatomical drawings before my eyes blur because I get tired. It may take me months before I get all this information about the part of the back I sit on into my brain.

Luckily for me Shannon LIKES looking at anatomical drawings so I can have a good discussion with another rider about how we riders can really mess up a horse.

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I hope your husband is feeling better! Having someone in the hospital is so stressful and can tire you out on its own.

You give really good insight on the biomechanics of the rider and horse. I hope you can ride this week!

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I hope I can get my riding lesson tomorrow.

BUT my exciting news is that I got the Biosphera 3-D Horse Anatomy program. If anyone gets it be sure to get the download where there is a wide band of internet access, my son worked for HOURS to get it downloaded, very frustrating. If you have good, fast internet access it should be fine, but way out in the countryside far away from major cities or large universities you might have some difficulties.

I love this program, I can get several layers deep into the horseā€™s body. I can also rotate the horseā€™s body in several directions. Before I got this program I was facing the possibility that I would need to dissect an equine cadaver to get the whole picture into my mind (and where could I do this? Plus it would be super yucky.)

This program is not perfect as I always want more DETAILS!!! But between this program and my equine anatomy books (over 10 of them by now) I will be able to ā€œbuildā€ a pretty accurate picture of horse anatomy in my brain.

I hope I get my riding lesson, and I hope I survive my riding lesson. If Debbie cancels it due to the heat Iā€™ll just ride my Home Horse in my air-conditioned house. Since one of the beauties of this horse anatomy program is that the data is in my computer and I do not need access to the internet to see it. Iā€™m going to show it to Debbie tomorrow, and I know I will have difficulties tearing Shannon away from it on Sunday.

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It was a vain hope. I did not ride today.

My well broke down last night at 10:00.

The well repair people got it going at 8:00 AM so it could have been worse. I still had gallons of water from the last time a hurricane threatened us, we drink bottled water anyway (instructions from the state of NC), I donā€™t have any domesticated animals to water, my oldest son is visiting us and helped, and anyway it is so darn hot a humid this morning to really ride.

It could have been a lot worse and a lot more expensive (still an ouch in the wallet.)

Iā€™ll try and ride my Home Horse tomorrow.

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Weā€™re on a well, and this is our nightmare, too. Glad you got it fixed promptly.

The humidity is so high here right now that it ought to be raining by now. Wish it would go ahead ā€“ we need the rain.

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