One Step Forward Two Steps Back

Funny how on my walk up to Gazzam Lake this afternoon to go on a trail ride with Ben, I was thinking about how the phrase, "One step forward, two steps back," really doesn't get you anywhere. It takes twice as long to go somewhere since you are in essence only taking 1/2 steps. Because this is now the situation I find myself in after having been bucked off my horse today.

For the most part the trail ride had been going well, except for Ben's tantrum at the beginning when he didn't want to go forward at all and it took a ton of coaxing and backing up to get him to move forward on the trail. But once we were moving in the right direction, Ben had his ears perked forward and we mostly just walked and trotted along the trail. It was very peaceful and surprisingly I didn't see anyone out on the trail, which is very rare for being the weekend.

On our way back, I let Ben canter a little. Which then broke into a full on powerful gallop, but I was able to easily slow him down and keep him under control. After about 5 or so minutes of walking I decided I'd let Ben trot a little bit more until we approached a hill to go down. On our way Ben pushed himself into a canter, which I didn't want to I started to half-halt him and he didn't respond at all. He just started getting crazy began bucking while cantering. It was quite the ride and totally unexpected. I usually have a solid seat with him and have sat through many of his bucking spells, but I think since this one was out on a trail as apposed to being in an enclosed arena, he was much more excited. So I lost my balance and fell off over his neck. Darn it, there goes the "No falling" streak I've been able to hold for the past 10+ years!!

Luckily during my fall I wasn't kicked, stepped on or drug around by the stirrup or reins. Ben was also nice enough to stop dead in his tracks once I hit the ground and looked down at me like, "Duh, why are you laying in the dirt?" He then proceeded to eat the surrounding ferns. Goofy horse! I'm glad he didn't run off either after having disposed of me. I would have never been able to catch up with him.

It took me a while to stand up since I landed on my back on the left side of my pelvis. It hurt to move, but I knew that I didn't break anything, so I just took my time. I figured that someone would eventually walk by since I usually see tons of people walking their dogs on those trails, but after about 10 minutes I saw no one. So I slowly stood up and while I was in the process of brushing the dirt off of myself, I saw a couple approaching. When they got closer I recognized the woman as the mother of one of the girls (Narissa) that I went to Pony Club with when I was in High School. She was nice enough to let me borrow her cell phone so I could call my mom and let her know that I'd be slow in getting home and she then helped hold Ben while I got back on. I'm glad that I was able to get on him and ride again, since walking home would have been nearly impossible. I was a probably at least mile or so away from home and I could barely walk a few steps without it hurting.

Once I got back home, I slowly put Ben away and then laid down on the grass and did some stretches. Since I've hurt my back so many times before, I've gone through this recuperation process numerous times. I'm just hoping this time won't take as long as it has in the past since I'd really hate to give Ben even more time off. Even if I need to take the next two weeks off, that will make it two months of him being out of work. Ugh! Here's hoping for a speedy recovery and that my chiropractor will give me a green light ride again soon!!!

Back on Track

I did it! I decided I'd go ahead and take a chance and just start riding Ben again even though he's not 100% healed. He's still got an area about the size of a quarter that I'm waiting on. But with a scab protecting it, I figured it would be okay to work him a little. I really just wanted to find out if he's lame or not anymore. Since I don't have an adequate area to lunge him at my parents house, I walked him down to Barnabee to use their arena.

Had it not been for the 1.5 mile long walk (each way) down the road, I'd say today went perfectly. Ben was such a spaz on the road! Granted about 10 garbage trucks, 2 cement mixers and 2 other big rigs passed us along the way, so Ben wasn't too thrilled. My parents live on a road that all the garbage and recycling trucks take on their way to the dump, so we are used to seeing them, but today it seemed excessive and Ben was super sensitive about them. The whole walk there and back I just kept telling him in a calm voice, "Easy boy. Walk. It's okay." Luckily he didn't jump out in the road at all, but he came pretty close to it a couple of times.

It's times like this that I wish I had an extra $425/month so I could just board him at Barnabee. It would make my life so much easier and save so much time. Either that, or just be already living on my own property and have my own riding facilities to use. Ahhhhh....someday....right?!

While at Barnabee I lunged Ben for about 10 minutes at the trot and canter. He didn't appear to be lame so then I got on him and did some simple exercises at the walk for another 10 minutes. I would have worked him longer, but when I arrived Jamie was already riding Ivan in the arena and I didn't want to disturb her with my hyper horse. Then Rebecca and Joan came in with their horses, so I had to stop lungeing. With the 4 of us riding, even though 2 of us were at the walk, it got pretty tricky so I just opted to call it good and leave.

Two riders work well in an arena together, but any more than that is hard unless you are in a group lesson and all working on the same exercises. In college we would have lessons up to 6-8 students at a time, but it always worked well since the instructor was in charge "directing traffic." Those were the days! Ha! I'm so grateful for private lessons now. Hopefully I'll be able to get Ben back on track with his training, so we can start up lessons again soon.

Improving???

Wound Healing Week #5

I'm feeling very discouraged about Ben's wound. Although when I took care of him today it seemed like it was markedly better than I remember it being on Saturday when I saw him last, after reviewing the weekly photos I've been taking it's all starting to look the same to me. I thought that having a different photo taken at weekly intervals would be successful in keeping my hopes up about him getting better, but it's all starting to look stagnant to me. I don't know, what do you think? I'm just really bummed since it was 72 degrees today and I would have loved to be able to ride, but I'm apprehensive if I should even try. He didn't seem lame when I trotted him along the driveway or while he ran around in his field this afternoon. So maybe it's okay to give it a try as long as I keep the scab on and don't try to clean it or put on the medication until after the ride. Hmmm, maybe I'll try riding on Wednesday or at least ask the vet or Ulla and see what they think. I'd hate to put him at any risk or even prevent him from healing properly. Here's hoping I'll be back in the saddle soon!!

Two Steps Back

Healing Week #4

Wound Shots

I was disappointed to find Ben's wound had taken two steps back today. It looks like he must have banged it again. The area that is darker red in the photo is where he must have hit himself again and it was all swollen and bloody before I cleaned it up. Poor guy! I sure hope he gets better soon, because caring for his injury sure is getting old. The weather is getting warmer and I can't wait until I can ride him again.

Healing - Week #3

***WARNING!!!***

More Wound Details!

Ben's wound seems to be getting better day by day. The skin is slowly growing back together and this red sore is dissappearing. I trotted Ben up and down the driveway while running next to him and his lameness is much less noticable. Hopefully we'll be riding again soon!