Hip Bursitis, Rain Rides, and Oops Canter

Well. It's been an interesting past few days, and I finally have a little time to catch up on my blogging. Why? Some years ago (2005, to be exact), I was handwalking an increasingly fresh Metro during his failed rehab at college, and we were all the way down the back driveway by the all-weather paddocks when an interesting thing happened. All of the horses in the field started to buck and play when they saw us, and his head and tail went straight up into the air. We made it to the end of the driveway safely, but when we turned around, he started to prance and act like he was going to do something very silly. The driveway wasn't totally cleared of snow (think partially scraped off down to the icy remnants underneath the soft pack, a common theme at school for plowing), so I moved him over to my left side, pushing him away from me into the snowbank that came up to nearly his elbows. That way, he'd get stuck and couldn't leap around (we did this often). Unfortunately for me, this time it didn't work, and as soon as he hit the snow he leaped and bucked. It was not his intention to kick me, I am sure of that. But when 1400lbs of shod exeuberance kicks out in mid-air, and you don't get out of the way in time, you pay the price. He NAILED me directly over my left hip socket, and I heard an ominous crack. I thought for sure something was broken, as I couldn't move, walk or put weight on the leg, not to mention the tears of pain streaming down my face. Bless his heart, Metro completely tuned out the running and bucking horses and let me cling helplessly to his mane and withers, taking the tiniest baby steps back to the barn with my poor broken self in tow.

As an idiot college student, I never had it looked at. Stupid, stupid me. I regret that now, a lot.

I never did find out what was wrong with it. I compensated for the injured leg for so long that it for sure never properly healed, whatever it was. I've had on and off problems with it over the years, where it seems to partially dislocated and I can't put any weight on it at all until it decides to go back in place. Ouch. I had particular struggle with it while in New Zealand, and even had it looked at while I was there - radiographs showed nothing and the guy had no advice for me. Eventually, with enough hiking and yoga, it seemed to resolve and go away. I figured I had strengthened the muscles around it well enough that it wouldn't bother me much anymore.

Fast forward to this past May. I hadn't really thought about the injury for very a long time, in at least a year and a half, until one day when I was in the City and walking all day long (for those of you not out east, the City = NYC, not to be confused with the other City, San Francisco, which is the superior of the two but unfortunately a bit too far for a day trip from CT). Halfway through the day, I suddenly felt the familiar sharp stab of a hip about to give out, and thought that it couldn't be a good sign. Ever since, it has been threatening to come back. I've ignored it for the most part, going about my business day to day, and so far it hasn't been anywhere near the trouble it used to give me back when I first got it. This past week, as evidenced by my lack of blog posts, I've been an insane level of busy and stressed out, and spent most evenings outside playing hours of catch instead of sitting inside and brooding over my misery. This was amazingly helpful, and I am sitting here right now telling you that all I really want to do right now besides ride is to go outside and play more catch, but alas, instead I can only say that I was exceptionally sore in both hips after my round on Wednesday night. I had Thursday off by default, and spent most of it relaxing and getting errands done. I felt much better by the end of the day, so I went for my customary run. Wouldn't you know it, three quarters of the way through I found myself limping pathetically back to the house, unable to put weight on the limb. I thought maybe I'd be all right, but the following morning, I just couldn't walk without serious pain. Not only did I have to take Friday off, but my boss insisted I take Saturday and Sunday too (although I think she might have regretted that after the fact).

I was not able to get in to see an ortho before the weekend rolled around. I did get in to see my chiropractor, however, and she told me she suspectes hip bursitis. I don't think this tells the whole story, and I am suspicious that there is bony involvement at this point. I am feeling worse than ever, honestly. I've never had pain upon palpation before, but now it HURTS LIKE HELL to touch the injury site. Also new is the fact that it now hurts to sit. I don't know what to make of this, honestly. I have no choice but to go to work tomorrow, and I really need to ride the Wild Woman. She's had three days off now, and we missed starting canterwork. Gahhh why does my body have to fail me at obnoxious times!



Well. Either way, I've had a little bit of down time to get caught up on some of the things I've needed to, and have been able to even play a little bit (pre-injury, that is). I did get up last weekend to Fitch's Corner to spectate a little, and had great fun - what a nice venue! I REALLY want to go up to spectate at Millbrook, but my boss will be in Vermont showing, so I may not get to. You never know though, I might luck out!

And even though I didn't get to 'officially' canter this month as planned, I did kind of sort of get to canter, albeit unintentionally. On Thursday, I got up early to ride on my day off, and got to the barn just in time for a large black cloud to pull up over the barn and start raining. Oh well, too bad for us! I enjoy riding in a warm, humid rain, as it cools me off and makes me feel clean and refreshed. Gogo was feeling fresh as daisies that particular morning, likely for the same reason, and while walking on the buckle, she spooked at something. She scooted off into a beautiful, well-balanced canter, going for a couple of strides before I managed to pull her up. Oops canter! Hey, we sort of did it though! The plan is to get back on tomorrow despite my dumb hip, and bump back up to 15 minutes of trot for two days (since we didn't get to on Friday and Saturday). Depending on how she feels, I plan on adding in one long-side canter on each lead for those two days, then start to build to five minutes of canter on straight lines only over the remainder of the week. We will slowly start to increase the canter over the course of August, although I'm undecided as to how I want to proceed with that. Bulding to 20 minutes of nonstop trot? Easy, no problem. Build to 20 minutes of nonstop canter? I will have a mare who is Seabiscuit fit on my hands going into the colder seasons. Not exactly what I had in mind! We'll see, we'll see.

Other than that, there's not too much to report. I've been playing around with tack a little, and tried a Stubben Golden Wings bit the other day, but Gogo promptly rejected it, showing her displeasure by gnashing her teeth and sucking away from it. Creep. I also bought her a new leather halter, but I hate it, so I intend on sending it back and getting her a nice rolled nose one. I know, I know, I have a weird thing with halters but.... I gotta spoil my mare, what can I say? She's deserving of fancy, flashy halters, so I do my part to deliver. Plus they look soo fabulous on her!


Sunday Success Stories up next!




((EDIT: One final thing to add: Eventing-A-Gogo was recently recognized as one of OnlineSchools.com and Awarding The Web's Top 40 Horse Blogs of 2010! As I didn't even know this award existed, this means it was all readers voting on their own, with no nominating on my part. So a big THANK YOU to my readers!! You guys are THE best!!))


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This is for next year, because now I know about it!:

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