A Nice Long Ride!

We got a bit of a change for this ride. It was the same day as my regular physical therapy appointment, so I loaded Hoss in the trailer and took him with me. After my appointment, we went up to the mountains for a real ride.

I've been feeling a little nervous about the next ride coming up. Having had such a long period out of the saddle, I've been more than a little concerned that I won't be fit enough when it comes around to do it without being crippled the next day. I really need to get in some long rides to re-establish those "butt calluses" that I've lost over the past eight weeks. Every time I've ridden up to now, I've been much sorer than I would expect to be.

It was time to get some real mileage in. I packed plenty of water and Gatorade, knowing it was supposed to be a particularly warm day. We arrived at the parking area a little after 11. I got Hoss saddled up and we hit the trail about 11:45.

Hoss was feeling good. He seemed to be happy to be getting a little different view. Once again, I was planning to try to re-create the second and third loops of the Descanso ride. I even sat down with the map and tried to plan it out. I think I got closer this time, but I still managed to get it wrong.

I was planning this to be a primarily walking trail ride. First long one back after a lay off should be, and it fits in with our general conditioning routine. In a couple of places, I let Hoss trot, and once or twice I made him trot when he was looking around for something to spook about.

For the first four or five miles, I'm confident I covered the right trail. After that, it sort of fell apart. The fire road we ended up on I'm pretty sure was not on the Descanso ride. It was rocky but otherwise mostly okay. Hoss handled it quite well.

We headed around to the horse camps, which was not quite where I expected to end up. We rode on past the camps, and on down to another trail that I knew would take us back where we had parked. Unfortunately, we found that trail was closed. So we back tracked to the horse camp.

We stopped at the horse camp for a rest. I ate a couple of snacks and let Hoss graze on the grass in the camp area. We rested for about ten minutes, then headed back on out.

We got to another familiar fire road, and headed on down it. Not wanting to end up back tracking on the same trail, I took another trail off the fire road. It started out well enough. Then we ended up at a fork I didn't remember, and I headed us up a trail I'd not ridden before, but I knew where it came out.

This turned out to be less of a trail than stream and rocks. The only reason I knew it was meant to be trail was the sections of fallen trees that had been removed from it. I have a sneaking suspicion it was supposed to be closed, but the signage was missing. Hoss made his way up the trail cautiously and quite well. He wanted to stop in a couple of places, but it turned out he had seen something yummy, not that he couldn't figure out what to do next. In more than one place, I had to hug his neck and put my head down while he climbed up under over grown plants. Mostly they were low enough for him to get under, but not me.

When we got to the end of this trail, I found we had ended up in a rather untenable situation. The trail I had intended to use was closed. The only other trail out of there is closed to horses. Well, crap. Now what?

There is a camp ground across the highway at this point. I reasoned that the camp ground must have trails heading out of it. We crossed the road, and walked around the camp until I found a trail head. Whew. We were back on track.

The trail from the camp to meet up with the trail I was headed to has a lot of trees down on it. We had to negotiate around one, and I lost the trail. I had to back track to the down tree to find the trail. Again, in some places the trail was only obvious because of the cleared sections of the fallen trees.

Once we made it to the main trail, we were beset with more problems. The ceonthus has so heavily overgrown the trail in many places that I was literally hugging Hoss's neck. He had to drop his head low enough to see where the trail was. I was very glad I had gotten him that riding fly mask. It really protected his face and I think it made it easier for him to negotiate by letting him keep his eyes open more. I, on the other hand, was neck-hugging with my eyes closed and helmet pointed at the overhanging branches. I got really scraped up, too.

We finally made our way to a place to re-cross the highway and a trail that would take us back to the trailer. Once we were on this trail, it was smooth sailing. The only challenge was a water crossing where the trail was unclear. It took me a moment to decide which way we were supposed to go, and luckily guessed right the first time.

Despite all the challenges, it was a truly beautiful ride. I took quite a few pictures at various points. The flowers growing in the meadows add a splash of color that is very pleasing to the eye.

In the end, we rode 21.5 miles, averaging about 3.3 mph. It took us about 7 hours. I was sunburned, scraped up, and covered in ticks (EEEK!), but what a great day! I had a head cold as well. In the morning, I had dithered a bit about going. I decided to go, figuring I could either be miserable at home or miserable on my horse. If I had to be sick, I might as well have a distraction.

When we got home, I checked Hoss over, but was unable to find any ticks on him (since then, I've been plucking the little boogers off of him; fortunately only one so far has actually been attached). Then I went in the house and showered in the hopes that any ticks I hadn't already disposed of would find their way down the drain!

Another Ride and a Vet Visit

The vet came out and gave Hoss his semi-annual exam and treatment. He got his teeth done and the swelling on his lower left eyelid taken care of. It turned out to be a cyst accompanied by a blocked up tear duct. There is nothing quite so especially gross as watching pus squirt out of my horse's eye. Fortunately he doesn't seem particularly bothered by it. The vet was going to leave me Bute, but forgot. I thought I was going to have to head out and pick some up, but after observing Hoss for a while, I realized he doesn't seem to be suffering any discomfort at all. I was fortunate to have some eye ointment on hand, and even more fortunate to find that Hoss is very good about letting me apply it. I bought him a riding fly mask on the theory that a quarter inch slice in one's eyelid can't be the most comfortable thing, and should be protected as much as possible.

I had originally planned to ride that afternoon, but after the eye thing, I decided to put it off until Saturday. So on Saturday morning I loaded up the dogs and the horse and we went back to Hollenbeck Canyon. I was still feeling like I needed to be doing reasonably short rides for my sake as well as Hoss's. It was pretty clear after our last ride that he's lost a little condition, too.

Riding in the same place over and over makes it hard to come up with original material. We both know the trail so well, it doesn't seem that interesting to us. It becomes a matter of focusing on what we did.

I decided it was time to start pushing Hoss just a bit more than I had on our previous ride. It's time to step it up in preparation for the Descanso Endurance ride on June 18. On this ride, I started expecting a bit more of the speed work we typically do at Hollenbeck. He was sandbagging me a bit, just telling me he couldn't do it. I pushed him a few strides farther than he wanted to go before I'd let him drop back down to a walk.

On the big uphill, he cantered halfway up and petered out. I let him fall back to a walk, and we walked all the way back around to the flat area. Once on the flat, I pushed him into a canter. It was time to start breezing again. Boy, did I ever have to push him! He really wanted to just fall back to at least a trot, a walk if he could get away with it. I just kept pushing, pushing, pushing, keeping him going in a canter until we reached the end of the area. After that, I let him walk the rest of the way back to the trailer.

It was a good ride, and two days later, I was still sore from pushing him so hard, but it was a good sore!

A week later, we went back to ride at Hollenbeck again. This time, Hoss started to show more interest in going faster. I was able to get him to canter all the way up the hill, and he cantered reasonably willingly over the entire flat area. At least I didn't have to push him as hard as I had to the previous week. But he sure dropped out of the canter quickly enough when I asked him to.



I feel like we're back on track now. The last couple of rides, my shoulder really didn't give me any grief.

Physical therapy is going well. My regular physical therapist is not the least concerned about me going ahead and riding, unlike the gal I had a couple of weeks ago, who seemed to think riding my horse was akin to riding a powder keg while smoking. I saw this therapist, not my regular, after my first ride back. She asked how I was doing, and I told her I'd been doing great until I tried to chase a goat off the porch with a stick. I told her I rode and cleaned on Saturday, and felt great on Sunday until trying to discipline the goat. I tell you what, she hung on to the housecleaning and horse riding as if those were the only possible source of any soreness I was feeling. Did I ever get the lecture! Didn't matter that I told her I felt fine until I went after the goat. In her mind, she knew better than I did what was going on. I was relieved a few days later when my regular therapist was back, and she was completely unconcerned by my activities. If I have to go back and see that other lady, she and I are gonna go around. A lot! This week we started on strengthening exercises. My range still isn't great, but it's acceptable at this point. I didn't have perfect range before the surgery, so expecting it to suddenly become perfect now is a little unrealistic. My physical therapist wants it to be perfect, and I keep having to remind her just how long I went from the initial injury to the surgery. That affects how quickly I get range back, and really how much I ultimately will be able to get back. I'm not hung up on perfect. I'm hung up on satisfactory. If I can't raise my arm all the way up above my head, it's not the end of the world. I think the physical therapist is beginning to accept that perfect is probably not possible.

O What a Lovely Day!

How could I possibly let it go without getting in a ride? Okay, so I had accepted I wouldn't be able to ride for another two weeks. That was before my daughter sprained her ankle, rendering her unable to ride for at least ten days. It was a calculated risk, but it was time to take it. I've been finding myself unwilling to bother to get out of bed at a reasonable hour in the morning. With little else to do with my day, I was napping an inordinate amount. I needed a change. I needed to ride.

I changed into a pair of riding tights, and Team Fluffy lost their collective minds. They just jumped all over the place and couldn't wait. Especially after they saw me pick up my purse and drinking water. Then they knew we were going in the truck to get some real trail time in. I walked out to the truck, eagerly led by three dogs. Usually I'll get Hoss loaded before I put the dogs in the truck. Today that really wasn't going to happen. They were so excited to get going I had to let them get in before I could hook up the trailer.

Once I got the dogs loaded, I turned the truck around and hooked it up to the trailer. I looked over to the pasture, and there was Hoss, ears pitched forward, nearly as eager to go as the dogs. I'm pretty sure if I'd just opened the pasture gate, he would have trotted on over and gotten on the trailer by himself.

I'll admit my shoulder was aching pretty badly. I had spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and taking out the copious amount of recycle that had accumulated in the house. Probably doing all I did today and riding was overdoing it just a bit. I did take the time to ice my shoulder before we loaded up.

As the title of my post proclaims, what a lovely day. It was beautiful out. Perhaps I am somewhat more inclined to appreciate the day simply because I got to ride. It's been over six weeks since I've ridden Hoss. I'm very glad we got such a great day to do our first ride back.

I didn't want to take a long ride. With my shoulder still recovering, taking a short(er) ride was a better choice. So we went down to Hollenbeck Canyon. I figured a quick eight mile ride was just the ticket.

The dogs were thrilled to pieces to get out. When I let them out of the truck, they took off so quickly I lost sight of them for a moment. Confident they wouldn't get too far away, I unloaded Hoss and got him ready to go.

I was prepared for a little bit of a wild ride. Having been so long since Hoss has been truly out, I was pretty sure he'd give me a hard time. I am happy to report he was pretty well behaved. After a momentary threat of taking off, he really settled down well. I think he's lost a little bit of fitness in the past weeks. We did do some trotting, but not much, and we ran half way up the big hill, but for the most part we were content to walk. This was good for the dogs, too. They've definitely lost a bit of fitness.

By the end of the ride, my choice to take a short slow ride first was shown to be a good one. My shoulder was really aching by the time I loaded Hoss back in the trailer. I called the local pizza place and drove to get dinner rather than try to make something. All in all, it was a good day, and I can't express how glad I am that I got out there and rode my horse.

From Mind-Numbing Monotony to Unrelenting Chaos!

I saw my doctor on Monday and was officially freed from the sling. I was still not *supposed* to use it until Thursday, but, yeah, right. I didn't use it much, but I certainly didn't just leave it hanging at my side doing nothing. I can't raise it very far – especially to the side – and I've little strength, but things are better. One of the things my doctor did was up my dose of Aleve to two pills twice a day. I was very surprised to find it made a considerable difference.

So Tuesday I picked up my assistant and off we went to get a couple of horses shod. We were headed up to an area where my cell phone coverage is iffy at best. Usually I won't even bother to answer my phone if it rings while I'm there. I can receive texts and – usually – get them out. But since my kids are grown now, I don't worry too much about being out of contact.

My daughter was planning to come out and ride Hoss for me in the afternoon, so in the morning I had lunged him to be sure he would be reasonably well behaved. The last time I lunged him, two days before, he was being very disobedient, so I was concerned that he be reminded how he was expected to behave. I knew I'd not be home when my daughter arrived, but I also knew she knows what she's doing.

My phone rang a couple of times, but I didn't answer as I didn't expect to be able to actually talk to anybody. I was beginning to wonder why I was so popular when I received a text message from my friend, the massage therapist, who lives about three miles down the hill from me. It simply read, "Hoss threw your daughter. She's hurt." Oh crap. I told my assistant we needed to hustle it up so I could figure out what was going on. I texted back to find that my friend really didn't know anything. I texted my son, who has recently moved back in, and my roommate, asking them to take care of my daughter.

I chivvied my assistant along to get the last horse done, got him to load the truck, and we left. I don't think I've ever driven so fast on those back roads. At that point, I believed Hoss and thrown a bucking fit and tossed my daughter, then dashed home by himself. I got home to find out I had misunderstood the situation.

My daughter had headed out about 3:30 on Hoss with "Team Fluffy" eagerly on their heels. They did great until they got to the running hill. My daughter let Hoss out to run, only to find the Fed Ex truck coming down the hill. Hoss shifted to the left to avoid the truck, and misjudged a berm that had built up on that part of the road. He hit it wrong, tripped, and went down hard. My daughter, who rides in the dressage saddle, wound up pretty much on his neck and had lost both stirrups. Hoss started trying to get his feet under him while my daughter tried to get herself back in balance. At some point Hoss shifted to the right, and my daughter, whose momentum was still forward, "Supermanned" over his shoulder and hit hard. She hit hard enough to slide up the hill a bit. She described that Hoss sort of looked at her (he was still going forward) and, evidently deciding he had no idea what that was on the ground, continued on his way up the hill. He topped the hill and realized he had no rider anymore! Distressed, he turned to look back down the hill and hollered for her. I think he saw her moving and realized where she was but, being a horse, waited where he was for her to come get him.

The three dogs came back to my daughter to check on her. Now, I can just hear this conversation. Mac, my fastest and possibly the smartest of the three, told Ash and Jazz, "You guys stay here, I'm going home for help!" And that's just what he did. He ran home and into the house, found my son and started bugging him. My son, not having been around much, didn't realize that Mac does not stay home from a trail ride, and for him to come home when his sister hadn't arrived yet was unusual to the point of alarming.

Meanwhile, the Fed Ex driver, having just witnessed this alarming fall, stopped by my daughter to help her. He got my cell phone number from her, and headed on down to hill, as he didn't have service where they were and would have to find an area where he could call. When he did, he called me, and not reaching me, called 911 to get her emergency aid.

Not long after the Fed Ex driver left, the UPS driver came by. Recognizing the dogs and horse, he stopped as well to help my daughter. Unable to do much, he drove to the house and told my son his sister was pasted on the road. This was about five minutes after Mac had arrived and tried to tell him the same thing. (I can only imagine Mac thinking, "I tried to tell you!). My son put on his shoes and headed out. He was unable to find the keys to the Jeep, so he took off on foot.

By this time the Fed Ex driver had arrived at my friend's home, where my roommate was having a massage. He needed my friend's signature, and started making conversation by describing what had happened. Alarmed, my friend and roommate both asked for clarifications and quickly realized it was my daughter and horse he was talking about. That was when I received my first message about the incident.

My roommate contacted my son to make sure he was handling the situation. My son, running along the road, was spotted by a couple coming in who asked him what was wrong. He told them and they gave him a ride to the scene.

The ambulance and two fire trucks had arrived to tend to my daughter. One of the firefighters retrieved Hoss. It was clear my daughter had suffered an ankle injury. They splinted it for her, and she decided to wait for my son to get the Jeep and drive her to the hospital.

My son somehow got back home for the Jeep and drove back out. It took some doing to get Ash in the Jeep. Since he first met my son, Ash has been utterly terrified of him. So my daughter had to get on her feet to get Ash in the Jeep. I said later I would have just made the damn dogs follow the truck home! Someone led Hoss home, rather than having him led out the window of the Jeep.

I arrived, hot as can be, just before my son was getting ready to drive my daughter to the hospital. Hoss had been unsaddled and put away. I was ready to leave him tied to the trailer for hours, thinking he had run off and left my daughter on the road. Everyone hollered at me and got me calmed down and explained what had happened. I still got Hoss out. He hadn't been groomed, which I felt he earned after that experience, and he needed to be checked over for injuries. I turned that job over to my son and took my daughter to the hospital.

After several hours at the hospital, it was determined my daughter had a nasty sprain in her left foot. Other than that and some scrapes and bruises, she's fine.

One might expect that would be the end of a long day, but of course, it was not. Just as my daughter and I were preparing to leave the hospital, my roommate texted me to let me know her cat, who is declawed and suffers from seizures, had somehow gotten out. In spite of their best efforts, she and my son were unable to catch her.

I get called "Dr. Doolittle" around here. I'm the one who figures out what's wrong with animals, where they are, all sorts of things. It seems I can control the critters pretty effectively. So it more often than not falls on me to deal with serious issues and unusual situations relating to the animals. I advised my roommate to leave the cat alone, just to have someone outside to ensure nothing nasty got close.

My daughter and I arrived home a little after ten. I knew by my son's presence outside that the cat had yet to be recovered. I found my roommate in her room, treating herself for an asthma attack. Due to her allergies, trying to chase her cat down in the currently tall grasses was a bad plan. Once I had gotten a sweatshirt and put down my stuff, I headed out to find the cat myself.

I did a quick perimeter check to be reasonably sure no predators were close by. Once I had satisfied myself that there wasn't anything around, I started a real search. I was walking around calling in hopes of getting her to make a sound, but only succeeding in getting one of my own cats to follow me around, wondering what the heck I wanted.

There is a rock formation on the back side of the house that creates the perfect hiding place for a cat. I figured the cat was in there. Unfortunately, especially in the dark, it's hard to see in there. It's also difficult for me to get in there with just one functional arm. My cat finally figured out what I was doing, and showed me where the other cat was.

I was finally able to get myself down there, and got my roommate and my son out to try to keep the cat from escaping. This particular rock formation has at least three different escape routes. The cat tried to dart out, but I managed to get hold of her right in front of her hips. I wormed my hand up her back and was able to scruff her and get her out. She turned to try to bite me, but seemed to realize I was trying to help her. Once I got her out, I handed her off to her very grateful owner, and they headed back into the house.

It was a very eventful day. I wasn't in bed until midnight after getting the cat and tending to my daughter for the night. All that in one day. I never would have thought it possible.

 

Status Update and Random Observations

It has now been just over four weeks since my surgery. Mostly I'm bored. There's only so much Criminal Minds and Operation Repo one person can watch. At least I can still do my morning walks, and weekly choir rehearsal breaks up the mind-numbing monotony.

I started physical therapy a couple weeks ago. At this point it's passive. I lay there and the therapist moves my arm around. Of course, my range isn't what it was before the surgery. So she moves my arm until I object, then ignores me when I try to tell her what muscles are restricted. It's more than a little frustrating. At my last session, she was gently massaging a muscle that wasn't causing a problem. I might as well have been informing her that the sky is blue when I was pointing to the back of my shoulder and saying that was the muscle that was hurting. She's a very nice lady and I'm sure she's well educated. She just seems to be so sure she knows better than me what I'm feeling. Besides, she really doesn't do massage. I'm always vaguely concerned that she's trying to come on to me.

Along with the physical therapy, I have been seeing my massage therapist once a week. She does the same passive motions, with the exception that she works the muscle that's causing the issue. This past week, she discovered that one of my incision scars has adhered into the muscle. This means the skin at that point can't move over the muscle. It seems to be the primary reason I don't have better range. So now I have to convince the physical therapist of the problem so it can be addressed. My massage therapist doesn't think it can be broken free without going in and cutting it loose. I suppose that's what I get for not removing the stitches earlier.

The drugs still make me a little sick. I've had to address a queasy stomach with Dramamine a couple of times now. The physical therapy compounds the issue. While in the long run it will help me regain my range of motion and strength, in the short term, it means I experience more pain than I did before. So I really need to take the drugs more often than I was. I don't want to do this. It means I'm sick more often! Something of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

Hoss is clearly beginning to suffer from boredom, too. It's not as bad as it could be. He gets to come along on walks, which he clearly enjoys. I lunge him every few days, which reminds him just what "boring" is. My daughter rides him a couple of times a week. He has clearly deduced that the sling has something to do with why we're not riding. He has bitten at it several times now.

My roommate bought tickets to a walking tour of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. It was an effort to get me out of the house and doing something other than sit still. It was a really neat tour. We got to hear about some of San Diego's colorful history, including the brothel that didn't close down until the late '80s. It was a nice little diversion. Included in the tour was the opportunity to sample some of the cuisine of the Gaslamp, so we were well-fed, too!

The dogs are starting to get particularly nutty with the shortage of exercise. Ash had to go in to the vet twice in two weeks, as the new vaccine he got the first visit required a booster. He gained a few pounds over those weeks. I'm gonna have my work cut out for me getting these dogs slimmed back down.

My little old lady dog, Roxy, has been doing astonishingly well. Since she blew out the cruciate ligaments in both hind legs, I've been watching her carefully, sure she would start to decline at any time. I started her on a joint supplement some months ago. It was clear pretty much immediately it helped her. Since then, taking the supplement regularly, she has gradually continued to improve. Where she was struggling to keep up, she's been getting well ahead of me. She does quite regularly end up far behind, but it's only because she wants to smell all the roses. Now when I stop and call her, she happily comes running to catch up. She has also started heading off into the underbrush again. She is really feeling confident again. I am very happy to see her so happy.

It will be many more weeks before I'm able to do many of the things I can't do right now. I haven't mentioned going back to riding to my therapist yet. I'm pretty sure I won't like what she says. So I figure when the doctor frees me from this ridiculous sling (it's getting smelly; I really want out of it), I'll see how it feels and go from there. I have to be very careful so I don't undo the repair, so it still may be a while before I can get a saddle on Hoss. My therapist says another eight weeks until I can "get a cup of coffee to my lips" with my left arm. I refrained from mentioning that I don't drink coffee, and I can get my left hand to my face, thank you very much! I'm sure if I inform her of the second, she'll tell me I'm doing too much!