Comment

Comment by Brenda Pantling on April 12, 2010 at 11:47am

Husband gets pretty annoyed with me if I do any of the risky stuff when no one is here. Lucky I have a friend that likes to just "hang" with horses so she can come over some days and dial 911 if necessary. But I came off a couple weeks ago and now she realizes just what a responsibility that can be. Scared her more than it did me. OH WELL.

Bad knees, bad back, and all the aches and pains...pppfffttt....
I usually let someone else do the first mounts on a young one, I don't bounce like I used to.
We were really lucky in our younger days to ride with a bunch of "mature" riders. At one point, Vic who was in his early 80's and Mavis who was in her early 70's were both in hospital having bypass surgery within a couple days of each other. They were laying bets on who'd be back on a horse first. Mavis won, but not by much.

I want to be them when I grow up.

Comment by Veronica Delagard on April 12, 2010 at 9:35am

Yes, thank you Justice. I am hoping that both of us can be here for it. It will be the first for both of us. We started off saying we would get one horse each, but like my Shih Tzu's horses are addicting.

Now the heavy stuff risky stuff yes, I leave that for hubby too but sometimes it just happens. I refuse to lug water buckets in the deep snow or push our wheal- barrow through a mucky pasture. Much too hard on the back and legs for me.

I found lugging a bail at a time in a plastic tobaggon snow or grass works perfect and I can have a smoke while I walk.

I am a stubborn old bird, if I can't look after them I shouldn't have them.

We were very lucky when we bought this place. Small older war time home with 5 acres in the middle of no-where. Nothing but trees around us. The only reason we took it at first was the house I put in an offer on through the net, ended up having neighbors just like I did in Ontario. The 5 Acres were straight back not to the sides. So we went looking for a cottage till we found a house closer to town. We wanted a place within a half an hour because he still works full time.
Well we fell in love with the spot, and decided to tackle fixing it up. Well one thing after another happens and his full time job and my full time day with horses and dogs, lets just say . Green Acres is the place to be!! But what a spot, we both love it.

And turned out that a logging company had finished with the 95 acres around us so we bought it too. The trails for riding where they cut and cleared perfect.

Now if I can only convince my horse to leave the others this year I will be happy. We both promised to work at that this year.

I mean isn't that why we have horses so we can go for a nice trail ride???

Well smoke breaks up, time to wash a dirty bum.

Comment by Veronica Delagard on April 12, 2010 at 8:11am

Justice I love it, thanks for my morning laugh with my coffee.
My closest neighbor is a quarter mile up the road, and I would prefer they were 10 miles up the road.

Doing it alone is not easy , but my preference. We are an hour and a half from the closets town and any plans for me to do any riding I wait for my husband to be here as my hands are pretty well shot as well as my back and I can't get my saddle tight enough.

Other than that like now, my husband is away on business and will be for another week. I feed the horses morning and night and clean up after them and 18 dogs. I raise Shih Tzu's. I presently have 2 litters of puppies 3 and 2 weeks old the 3 week olds are starting to venture.

I use to worry when the horses broke through the electric fence but don't anymore they don't go any further than the front lawn, and act like little kids who are getting away with something.

My Mare was due to foal on Good Friday and hasn't yet, so I worry about that. I want to be with her but with all my other stuff on the go, I may miss it. So being alone has it's draw backs but I much prefer it.

We are in the woods and other than that one neighbor we are pretty isolated and if something happens , I can only hope my mail lady will notice if things are up to par and check things out.

She is always delivering something for the horses or dogs that I have ordered and we always have a nice chat.

Comment by Cindy Jeffery on April 12, 2010 at 2:55am

I am in the same position too Vickie, out there training with no one to check on me. It some times unerves me, so I leave the first mounting to the younger set. :-) I do the ground work and make it thorough.

Comment by vickie lawson on April 11, 2010 at 4:16am

i don't know about the fear thing. i have young horses and must work them myself, often by myself-ie no one to check if im still on top! sometimes i feel a bit 'worried' but i have to push that aside and just get on with it. on the plus side, touch wood, my youngsters and i have always been fine, and they have behaved like seasoned pro's.

Comment by April Keays on April 10, 2010 at 8:17pm

Just got back from my ride today. It was a little disappointing because it is soooo windy and didn't want to push my luck. Hopefully it will be a quieter day tomorrow and we can go for a longer ride around the park. We both need it.
I have a bit of a concern now though. When I was just giving Monty some quiet scratch time I noticed a lump on the right side of his throat just under the jaw line. It's under the skin and moves around easily and it's not bothering him at all so hopefully it's nothing serious. I will be keeping a definate eye on it though and if anyone else has had something similar with your horses any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Comment by Connie Breedveld on April 10, 2010 at 7:33pm

Hello...I am Connie from southwestern Ont.I am not over 50 yet {47}so maybe am not allowed in this group?!Anyway,just wanted to sayhey and it looks like a good group!Have mad several good friends on the site here already.My friends & I retrain,rehome abused horses.Train the natural way and I am known as SpiritHorse in these here parts!I feel the animals fear and pain.
I commend you all who have or have had injuries ect. and still keep riding.Keep riding my friends...never give up....throw your heart into the wind!I had both hips replaced last year.Just wear and tear from doing extreme sports and always working outside with horses.I,at first dreaded the whole ordeal,but my surgeon is a great man and he said,"you won't ever give up".I had the surgeries,recovered more quickly than other people and am now working full time again with the horses and riding them,so where there is a will,there is a way!
May you all have many happy years in the saddle and may you have "flying manes always in front of you"! Take care all:)

Comment by Linda White on April 10, 2010 at 7:03pm

Holy smokes - lots of inspiration here - thank you all for those stories. I will stop my whining now when my back aches or my knees don't bend as well as they used to. Just get on with it for as long as you can - that's what I've learned from these stories!

Comment by Tracy McDermott on April 10, 2010 at 3:31pm

We had a Vietnam vet boarding with us for years, he was missing his legs from the knee down and 1 hand, he loved riding and refused to let his limitations stop him. All we have are very athletic hills here, lots of ups and downs, turns and switchbacks. My daughter found him a huge appaloosa that had been trained and used for dressage but was injured and needed a retirement job. This sweet horse stood at the mounting block so quietly for the 10 minutes it took Bill to mount and get hitched in. The horse never gave him a minutes problem, always stayed with him and under him. Bill always had a person walking with him on his rides and when Charger became to old to ride in the hills Bill quit riding and had a sponsor ride him in the arena for exercise. Bill died 2 years after he quit riding but I will always remember him talking to his Charger while he got into the saddle and I think Charger heard and understood him.

Comment by Jackie Cochran on April 10, 2010 at 2:53pm

Due to both my age (58) and my MS I am basically scared of riding, especially on new horses. One technique I have used since I started riding again, is when I'm introduced to a new riding horse is just to stand by the horse, open up my mind and mentally SHOW the horse how weak, uncoordinated, unbalanced and unstable I am. Then I promise the horse I will do everything I can not to hurt it. So far, with over ten horses ridden, I have not had many difficulties.
On the other hand, when I was still riding horses I had trained myself, my horses would EXPECT me to handle everything they dished out, after all they knew I could ride. The first time I rode after learning I had MS (after not riding for 3-4 years), my first horse, at 28, basically told me that I was still able to trot and proceeded to prove it. My Paso Fino mare was always eager to GO. I got a lot of good practice at coordinating my aids to get my horses to walk in relaxation.
All in all I've found it easier to ride other people's horses in a controlled setting. They have no memories of when I was a better rider. Since they have had other riders they are pleasantly surprised by my riding instead of comparing it to what I used to do.
I no longer ride in the field or on trails, that will have to wait until my strength increases and my reaction times get quicker. It gets boring in the arena all the time, but riding is the only physical therapy I get and I am still walking. Before I started riding again I had worn out one electric wheelchair. I haven't used a wheelchair for 4-5 years now.
Keep on riding. Ride as often as possible. Accept your limitations, there isn't any physical activity that you can do as athletically as when you were a teenager and young adult, and we surely do not bounce as easily as when we were younger.

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