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!!))


Online Schools


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

Brought to you by: Online Schools

Poster Child A Go-Go

I was contacted a short while ago by Emily Daily from the USEA reguarding one of the awesome pictures my mother took of Gogo and I at the AECs and whether or not they could use it for the Awards section of the USEA website. I said yes - who wouldn't! - and lo and behold look! There's my mare looking gorgeous, as always! A big THANK YOU to Emily and to the USEA for honoring us on their website, and another huge THANK YOU to Daun, the one who originally prompted me to send in my qualifications. How awesome is that!


Gogo continues to look better and better. I would say she's even sounder today than she was on Thursday, which is marvelous. Today she got turnout for the first time since Sunday, so I gave her a cc of Ace just in case she did something stupid. She was in happy la-la land, and was more than delighted to go outside and munch hay for an hour and a half with her buddies around her. Tomorrow I plan on getting on her again to see how she feels - the true test of how she's actually doing - and hopefully will be able to outline a better plan from there. Talking to Dr. C today, it sounds as though she likely just stretched out a very small adhesion to the point of rupture, and since there was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of heat or swelling in the leg, that it was probably pretty insignificant (I hope). A few fibers break up and get reabsorbed, and then off you go on your merry way, if all goes according to plan. If everything checks out OK, we might be able to try cantering again in about a week or so, just a little bit. We shall see how it goes tomorrow.


It's getting lighter out earlier, staying lighter out layer, and not dipping into the teens at night anymore - could it be that spring might be on the horizon? Let's hope so, I am itching to get out and try my barefoot shoes more! I am sick of the indoors!

(Gogo looking lovely at the 2008 Prix de Villes... I think all shows should have such fabulous ribbons!)

TALLY HO!

First of all, I'd like to announce that today is National Do Something Totally Random With Your Best Friend Day! This was a picture of Nicole, erm, dumping me into Niagara Falls. Sweet.

Also, the Eventing-A-Gogo blog has reached a new milestone - our 100th official follower! We're not even a year old yet, and this offical following doesn't count all the people who follow anonymously, or just read on their own. I never had any intention to ever create something like this - I had no idea in the slightest that it would ever take off in the way that it did. People have really responded to this wild ride Gogo and I have been on, and it's been awesome to get to meet and talk to so many interesting people over the course of this past year. I get a lot of e-mails filled with encouragement, stories, and thanks for writing about all the things that we do from day to day. So really, thanks to all of you, because you're all a part of my life now. I have so much fun with this, and I'm glad you're all a part of it, from those of you there with me in the very beginning to those of you just reading now.



And now for something completely different.





Two weeks ago, I headed up to the Great North (Connecticut is pretty much the Deep South of New England, at least longitudinally) to go foxhunting with Daun. However, due to Mother Nature's bipolarity, we had to settle for other fun things instead. I must have been a decent enough houseguest because Daun insisted I come back up again in two weeks for the meet at Tamworth, this time on a guest horse so we all could ride. I had one hell of a whirlwind weekend, and after this first hunting experience, all I can say is I hope Gogo's legs are good enough to give it a go next fall - it was serious fun.

My Friday started out on a happy note - Thursday was my last day of work at this job ever, and it had been my 9th day in a row of working, so I got to sleep in that next day. Let me tell you, not worrying about an alarm is THE BEST FEELING EVER. I woke up feeling refreshed and happy, and spent a large chunk of my day happily packing away. That evening, Shan and I were invited to go over to Judy's house, who is one our fabulous boarders, for a delicious homemade dinner and a haunted hayride. The company was excellent, the spiked cider even better, the hayride totally enjoyable (and freezing), and the ice cream that followed THE BEST. But needless to say, I still had to depart for Daun's that evening, and after Judy insisted I shove even MORE food into my mouth (she gave me a bag of cookies for the road too), I finally headed out at around 10pm. Now, my ETA at this point was midnight. Very late, but I had warned Daun that my arrival was going to be either very early or very late. Not ideal, of course, but I was assured that it was all right, and since Judy has been staving off my starvation and attending almost all my horseshows this year, I certainly was not about to turn down her dinner invitation. Anyway, so I'm on the road. I'm cruising steadily up I-84 when suddenly there are a million brake lights. Oh, for REAL? What is going ON? Apparently some sort of accident had happened, so then we sat. And sat. And sat. FOR TWO HOURS. Finally, after what seemed like a very long eternity, we started to move, and eventually crawled up to the scene of the crash. As it turns out, the crash was on the OTHER side of the highway... and that side of the highway was moving along JUST fine. It was just our side who weren't being shooed away by police that all wanted to stop and gawk at the carnage. WHY.
So now, it's past midnight and I still have at least 2.5 hours to go. I'm utterly exhausted, so I take a break and doze. I don't feel better after this, so another hour down the road I have to take another break and doze. Caffeine isn't helping either. Even though I was in contact with Daun during all this, I'm sure she was probably peeing her pants wondering if I had crashed and died by this point. 3am rolls around and I am STILL not there. By this time, I just couldn't physically drive anymore without slipping into unconsciousness behind the wheel and crashing and dying, so I just gave up and pulled over, snuggled into my coat, and PASSED OUT. I managed to very woozily rouse myself a couple of hours later, continuing on to Daun's farm and arriving a little after 6. As I stumbled out of the car, I was met by a totally incredulous Daun - "You're CRAZY! You have to hang onto a galloping horse today!" - and of course, with a little breakfast in my system, once we were on the road with the horses I was OUT again. We pulled up to Red Horse Farm in Tamworth a little early, and I opened my eyes to a full-fledged New England autumn morning glittering before me with the remnants of frost, our breath steaming as we shivered our way down to the main farm, our bellies filled with hot cider and rum once we got down to the main farmhouse. After dressing (in many, many layers... it was DAMN COLD!), we located Dana, the woman whose huband's horse Media Luna was to be my mount for the day, and I helped finish tacking and hopped up. Media Luna was once upon a time an Argentinian polo pony, and came complete with some seriously ragged hair, an ill-fitting and horribly slippery saddle (one of those generic ones that you get out of a Western catalogue with the label "English saddle"), and a totally sweet disposition. After a brief speech by our fieldmaster, we hacked down the road to the field where we would be releasing the hounds, and I had a chance to socialize a little bit with the other members of the hunt in the first field with us. What a hack - we traversed backcountry roads beneath great overhangs of golden leaves, flirted with the flanks of a crumbling stone wall, blinked and smiled as the dazzling morning sunlight flashed through the swaying leaves overhead. And suddenly, we were in the field, and the hounds were bounding about the feet of the staff horses, leaping straight up into the air to catch cookies tossed to them by Sue. She rallied them about her, calling each by name, and then we made to sort into our fields and move on.

Now at this point I had a moment of, wait a second now. You're on a horse you know nothing about and have never even seen before, are about to participate in a sport you've never done before, and are going in the first field - i.e. keep up with the hounds at whatever speed they're going, no matter what the terrain. Am I nuts? Well, yes, by mere mortal standards I guess I am; then again, I've done things like this before. For instance, when I drove across the country for three weeks with a friend in 2006, he insisted we go white water rafting on the Arkensas river in Colorado. Sure, why not, I thought. I don't like to get wet but we'll be fine in the raft, it's just like the Lazy River at Cedar Point right? Wait a minute... these are Category 5 rapids? As in, kill you rapids? Well.... okay, sure, why not! And we neither died nor captized the raft, so I am here to tell the tale today. Such was the case with Media Luna... I neither died nor fell off. Quite the contrary - I had some SERIOUS fun. Off we loped, the sparkling green of the fields a sharp contrast against the red and gold on the mountain overhead. We swung round the edges of the fields, trotted single-file through the woods, and followed the occasional direction from a voice behind us ("ware hound left!" as one of the hounds would come bounding up behind us). It felt like a step back in time, watching the huntsmen ahead of us working, and whenever we stopped (and hit the flask, which Daun and I merrily polished off), we were treated incredible views of what every perfect northern New England fall morning should look like. It was gorgeous. At the stirrup cup, we watched the hounds play in the water (and some of the horses too), chatted merrily with old and new friends, and looked out over the pond at the great view of the mountain behind us. And then, it was off again, re-negotiating some risky terrain (which, on the way to the stirrup cup, was the only thing Media Luna had a problem with - a very scary, yawning ditch, and I had to give her some big pony kicks to get her ungracefully over) and doubling back once in the woods when we lost the path. Media Luna was a charm - she trotted when the horse in front of me trotted, cantered when the horse in front of me cantered, and stopped on a dime when the horse in front of me did the same. The second half of the journey, I managed to squeeze my way back behind Brego (got stuck behind some morons capping in from Myopia.. they talked the WHOLE TIME and had a pony that wouldn't stop jigging and rearing), and we crossed some increasingly rough terrain, including a very rocky river and some shoe-sucking mud. When the hounds finally gave cry near the end of the hunt (only the second time they had done this during the whole hunt, lol), we had just unbogged ourselves from a particularly thick section of muddy trail. The staff, hounds, Daun, her SO, and myself were OFF! Unbeknownst to us at the time, however, the horse and rider behind me were mired in mud up to the horse's hocks, and the rest of the fields all piled up behind them. But the chase WE had was WILD! Ducking under treebranches at speed, negotiating all sort of wild terrain, exploding out from the forest, tearing up a grassy hill into the big field, and watching Brego boink around in front of me for a few moments, clearly enjoying the thrill of the chase. (He was on his best behavior for this hunt - only one little dolphin-buck going up the hill, and a brief moment when the war-horse in him prompted him to bounce forward on his hind legs when the staff took off in front of him. That's drive baby!) The hunt ended on his note, once we had rounded up all the muddy stragglers. It happens!

It was OUTSTANDING. I really, really hope Gogo's legs heal well enough to consider maybe going out in the second field next fall. Given the kind of terrain we negotiated, I doubt I'd want her to go in the first field unless it was at an exceptional venue, but still. If you're a good jock with some guts and you ever have the chance to give it a try, DO IT. You'll love it just like I did.

Awesome. Just... awesome. AND I got to see my baby sister that night for the first time in almost a year (baby = 21). Couldn't have been a better weekend.

Plugged!

Yay! Another plug for the Eventing-A-Gogo blog, this time from the Eventing Radio Show. My only minor correction to the shout-out (besides not actually being in NZ for a year, only six months, lol) would be that her feet were not so horrible that she CAN'T wear shoes, but that her feet are so AMAZING that I WON'T put shoes on her by choice! :D

Thank you SO MUCH to Glenn the Geek and Chris Stafford for their kind words and their encouragement. We all love your show, you guys are the best!!!





I really can't believe how this blog has taken off. It's only about eight months old, and I can't believe the following it has. From being plugged on the COTH forms to the Eventing Radio Show to being asked to write for the offical USEA blog, my little mare seems to be getting a widespread following. I have 65 official followers on Blogger, but I have a TON of other people who don't officially follow and just read, as evidence by the ton of e-mails I get, all filled with encouragement. It really is amazing, and I feel like I'm a part of something much bigger than myself. A lot of people write about how I've given them hope for their crazies or for their less-than-ideal situations or for their barefoot horses, and that thrills me. Making people happy is better than anything else in the world.

Except maybe a good ride on Gogo. Or Mountain Dew. Or hot chicks in bikinis. Wait, did I say that last one out loud?

Happy Almost 4th of July, everyone!