I love spring.  As I sit in my bed typing this, a cool breeze is wafting, bringing in the wonderful, sweet honeysuckle scent from the over exuberant vegetation outside my bedroom window.  The dawn chorus of bird song has replaced the nighttime toad/frog and insect chorus, right now it is in the high 60s F, but it will be in the low 80’s F, the heat and humidity is starting to come back here. 

For my birthday my husband gave me enough money for a technical fabric summer riding shirt just in time for the hotter temperatures.  When I got to my “local” tack store and told them what I wanted they gladly directed me to shirts just like I wanted that were on a one day sale!  I got two, of two different brands (FITS and Ovation.)  Earlier this week I rode in a regular cotton shirt and ended up hot and sweaty even though when I woke up it was quite cool and brisk, making me sort of miserable by the end of my ride.  I wised up and concluded that the season for my hot weather riding clothes has begun, though I will probably use my FITS deerskin full-seat breeches the first time I get back up on Tercel just so I have a little more sticking power, otherwise it is back to the cooler, more slippery riding tights and rubbing saddle soap onto the gripping areas of my tights and saddle.

Last Sunday was just marvelous.  I no longer needed to use my homemade bit warmer (though I still warmed up the bit a little with my hands before bridling,) and Cider no longer needed her butt-blanket/exercise sheet/competition sheet.  Cider strode out into the ring with a good walk and she accepted my aids with good grace (as always Shannon is a “great attractor”, irresistible to Cider.)  Our first trot was fine, and it was cool enough for me to post the trot two circuits of the ring, double what I could do just two months ago!  Now Cider has an extremely accurate clock in her head, and she KNOWS to the second how long I usually can trot, and if I go much past this she starts losing impulse, after all I usually bring her back to the walk after one time around the ring.  So I had to leg Cider back into a good trot again before I asked for a walk.  That made me a little tired so I spent several minutes using my seat, legs, and last of all hands to try to get Cider to travel in a straight line.  We are getting better.

I trotted again, and Cider tripped, almost falling to her knees.  I am happy to report that this did not affect my seat in the saddle, I stayed properly centered from front to back, and I had no trouble as Cider “hoisted” herself back up.  All that two-point practiced sure paid off!  Since both my knees and heels were down and I was looking up and keeping my shoulders back, all Cider tripping did was send my weight down into my knees and heels, increasing my security in the saddle.  Since the alternative would have been my lower legs flying back, pivoting on my knees and falling off, I will keep on practicing my two-point, upper calf muscle grip and proper posture even more.  Security in the saddle is a great thing to have!

Mia, unfortunately, is starting to slow down.  Earlier this year I had to go down a girth size for her even though she is keeping good weight, she is shrinking due to age (she’s in her early thirties,) and every time my son brings her in she looks so very stiff.  Since Debbie had yet to return from her mother’s I rode Mia on Wednesday, and since it was warmer I decided not to use the BOT exercise sheet.  That was a bad mistake.  It took Mia most of my ride before she felt warmed up enough to keep proper contact at a walk and most of the contact at the trot was not very good since she was inverting and her impulse was almost non-existent.  I could feel that she was not pushing with her hind legs as much as she usually does.  After twenty minutes her hind end finally warmed up enough so she could give me good contact at the walk, with her reaching out confidently to the bit and willingly keeping a constant contact for the whole way around the ring without trying to “spit” the bit out.  Then I tried the trot again, keeping up in two-point, and Mia finally accepted contact at the trot for more than a few steps.  When she finally reached out more to the bit in response to my legs at the trot I told her to walk, went up to the gate, and had her do some schooling figures at the gate before I halted her and got off. 

On Friday Mia looked even stiffer, maybe she played to hard the day before.  Mia continues to really, really, really enjoy her grooming, touching us gently with her nose when we pass in front of her, licking her lips and giving little sighs of pure contentment.  After we tacked her up I put on the BOT exercise sheet, hoping for a better ride!  She started off just as slow as she did on Wednesday, but on Friday I warmed her up for 10 minutes and she was ready to keep contact at the walk, really decent contact.  I was trying something new with my contact, my son had gotten me a dressage book for my birthday (my choice), “When Two Spines Align” by Beth Baumert.  On page 27 she writes “…causes you to engage muscles in your upper back in the area of your shoulder blades (that lie flat against your back) and the back of your armpits.  These are the muscles that create a connection from the elbow to the bit--a connection in which the hand can influence the horse without pulling back.”  Years ago I read a discussion about contact in one of Piero Santini’s Forward Seat books (sorry, I can’t remember which one right now,) in which he said that proper control of contact came from the rider’s shoulder.  I had experimented and failed to improve my contact using my shoulders, but when I read the above quote I realized that I had been trying with the wrong muscles.  So now I am trying to influence my contact with my muscles in the area of my shoulders instead of concentrating on my elbows and fingers.  Mia actually accepted this, much to my surprise; usually she does NOT like anything new I try with contact.  I did check periodically to make sure that my hands did not go too far down, but everything seemed to work well until I got tired. 

We have also made considerable progress doing the turn on the forehand.  After much thought I added another hand aid and it worked!  I used to do my hand aid to the inside of the turn, alternating with my inside leg a little to the rear of its usual place, and Mia was always moving forward some.  Now I do the inside hand aid, alternating with my inside leg AND outside rein at the same time (twitching my finger 1/8 inch with immediate release.)  Mia went “NOW I understand!” and gave me the turn on the forehand I have been trying to get from her for years, no fuss, no discussion, Mia proudly showed me that she could do a proper turn on the forehand as long as I asked her for it correctly.  School horses, the rider has to do it RIGHT, then the proper results appear as if by magic.

Now for the HOPE!  I went to my new neurologist on Thursday.  He had my new MRI scan and told me that I had more lesions than I did on my last MRI eleven years ago, that there were new MS drugs that really helped people and he wanted me to go on one.  Since I had such horrible results with the two injected MS drugs I tried two decades ago (including going on full disability from the effects of the first one,) I am sort of reluctant to change my present therapy which does more than just reduce the number of severe exacerbations I get, it also helps greatly with the pain, muscle spasms, and fibromyalgia that I developed a few years after my MS diagnosis.  Once my neurologist said he was willing to give me a prescription to continue my present therapy, we discussed the three newer MS drugs which can be taken orally.  I settled on Gilenya since it has been used longer, on more people, and with fewer serious side effects than the other ones.  I’ve done some reading up on this drug.  I am beginning to feel some hope that I might be able to do a little bit more, like maybe being able to drive a car for a short distance, go to the store or stable, and drive home.  I just cannot do that now; I get really tired just riding in the car and the thought of also having to drive just gets me exhausted.  Maybe I could ride longer than 30 minutes at a time, maybe I could safely do short trail rides again, maybe I could canter again, maybe I could gallop again, and maybe I could jump again!  It has been over 25 years since the last time I felt secure enough on horseback to jump a two foot jump, oh to be able to jump again!  I told my neurologist what I wanted to be able to do on horseback, but I am not sure he understood me at all.  Only a rider could understand what I want to do on horseback, and how challenging it can be for someone as klutzy as I am right now.

Hope.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran