After several sweaty rides it cooled down this week.  We had to go through 3 inches of rain first, but for my last two rides it was cool with a pleasant breeze, cool enough that Mia protested standing in the breeze since she is now in her summer coat.

It was on Mia that I triggered my hip bursitis the first time.  After a nice ride walking around with no problems I decided it might be a good idea for me to practice gripping with my calves (NOT my heels) so I would be…

I had another wonderful week of three rides, and all my rides were in absolutely beautiful spring weather.  The only downside is that it is becoming more and more apparent that I’ve lost just about all the physical progress I’d made over the past 6-7 years.  I post the trot for maybe a quarter of the ring and I have to rest.  My previously taut muscles have lost all their tone.  I get off the horse and I am so tired that I do not walk well.  And there I am on Mia and she is…

I finally got to ride on Wednesday, the first time in two weeks.  Between all the extra traveling I’ve had to do, the lingering effects of my MS exacerbation plus an absolutely horrible head cold I was too sick and exhausted to ride last week.

Wednesday dawned bright and cold.  Mia  was NOT happy to be brought in.  I could not really blame her, the wind was from the North and it was bitterly cold.  Debbie groomed her, but I did not rasp down her toes as I was just…

We are on a temperature roller coaster down here in North Carolina.  It is around 75° F today, but on Monday morning they are predicting a low of 19° F, if not lower.

Last Monday, when I rode Mia, it was warm, so warm I put on my technical fabric cool riding shirt, and by the end of my ride I was wishing I’d put on my ice-fill sleeves too since I was sweating.  Two days later when I got to the stables for my…

Many, many decades ago Piero Santini wrote in one of his books that one reason to wear the knee high boots was that when the leather of the boot was against the leather of the saddle flap the rider’s grip was stronger.  It has been decades since I rode in the high leather boots, but I do look back at them with fondness, and every once in a while I consider getting high boots again but they look so HOT.  With my MS anything that makes me hotter makes my MS symptoms worse so I…