Moving Is Exhausting

I apologize for not writing my blog this past month, we have been moving from our old singlewide trailer to our new doublewide trailer, luckily I own both of them outright and they both are on my acreage.  When I say we have been moving I mean that my husband, with some intermittent help from both my sons, has been doing the actual packing and moving, while I am collapsed with exhaustion from the tiny bit of help that I can give them. 

Ever since my now ex-neurologist did everything he could to permanently cripple me and put me in a wheel chair forever, I do not have even the little bit of endurance I had last summer.  He cut the medicine that has limited my MS for over 18 years to half of my effective dose, and after the Gilenya made me MUCH worse, he told me he still did not want me on my effective medicine and wanted me to go down the list of “approved” MS drugs, each with a long list of nastier side effects that go on up to failure of major organ systems (liver, kidneys and heart).   He claimed that his medical “ethics” demanded that he treat me this way, I said NO, then we broke relations and he let me go without even giving me a new prescription for the medicine that works with my MS, the Dronabinol.  So I have been hung out to dry, I am going through my reserves of the Dronabinol with the probably vain hope that I can find a doctor that is willing to prescribe me the one immune modulating medicine that works on my own personal case of MS without crippling me severely.

I HATE modern medicine.  I HATE doctors.  I HATE modern medical “ethics” that demand that doctors cripple me even further than I already am.

I have been riding horses as much as possible during all this confusion.  Three weeks ago I started rasping Bingo’s hooves after a discussion with Debbie about how the every six weeks barefoot trim made his feet sore.  It is yet too soon to see any major improvement, when the ground is dry Bingo’s soles get too hard for my hoof knife to trim them down, so I am working just on keeping his toes rasped down and the side flares rasped down.  After discussing Bingo’s problems with turning with Debbie (made worse by Bingo’s VERY thick throatlatch), and Debbie talking with her veterinarian, I gave Debbie the money to get a very good horse massage therapist out to evaluate Bingo.  I thought his problem was up by the poll down to the C3 vertebra, but the message therapist found no problems there.  She did find problems with his right shoulder and both his hips, and she recommended encouraging Bingo to stretch his head and neck down while I rode him.

I had no problem with that!  I am riding Bingo right now with my seat bones as far forward in the saddle as they will go, I am keeping most of my weight off my seat bones, I am using my alternating legs to encourage his hind legs to step forward under our centers of gravity, while encouraging him to reach out into the bit by emphasizing the forward movement of my hands while keeping contact.  I added a technique I learned decades ago, “combing the reins”, where I take the reins between my relaxed fingers with one hand, slide my hand up to the buckle while placing my other hand similarly further down to his mouth, sliding the reins through my fingers and alternating my hands.  This works MUCH BETTER with plain reins, no lacing, no rubber, no stops, just plain smooth leather.  When I first tried it Bingo was not too sure about what I wanted, but eventually he relaxed his head and neck and down he stretched while keeping moving at the walk.  During my previous rides Bingo would occasionally stretch his head down on his own (and I always let him do it), the difference this time is that I asked him to stretch his head down by my “demand”.  Debbie liked the results!

The message therapist worked on Bingo again a few days later and she said that Bingo was much better.  Considering the fact that I am not the only one riding Bingo I am encouraged that one 30 minute lesson brought good results!

This still does not do much for getting Bingo to turn with light aids.  I am concentrating on turning him by advancing my outside hand when we are on contact backed up with my leg aid, alternating with turning him off contact by just using my legs and seat, with a mild reinforcement with my inside hand when it looks like he might run my leg into a fence.  I inevitably run into resistances no matter what aid I am using, Bingo just does not know how to turn in such a way that does not hurt him.  So, all at the same time, I am insisting that Bingo turn (basic obedience!) while letting him figure out the most comfortable way to obey me.  With the tighter turns, I am “showing” him that a mild turn on the forehand or turn on the hindquarters is a valid way to get through a tight turn.  What I am doing is getting results; Debbie told me halfway through my last lesson that Bingo was starting to relax his hip joints and his back even though I was putting him through some rather tight turns.  I think the key is that I give an aid and I immediately release the aid, depriving him of the opportunity to set his body against my turning aids.  If he does not relax into the turn from my hand aid, I switch to mainly using my outside leg as the turning aid, and if he does not relax into that I switch to using my seat.  I DO NOT use all my turning aids at the same time!  That would confuse Bingo horribly, while setting up multiple resistances throughout his whole body.

When we are going along the fence of the riding ring I am working on the three speeds of the walk.  I am asking for a slightly faster regular walk, a slightly extended faster walk, and the slowest walk I can get out of him.  The super slow walk is important!  This is the gait where the inside “sling” muscles from the inside of the scapula down to the sternum have to carry more weight for a longer period of time.  Eventually, as these muscles get stronger, he should be able to elevate his forehand more, thereby reducing the bad effects of his very high croup.

I am also working on getting Bingo to obey my aids on loose reins.  He has this bad habit of taking advantage of loose reins by diving to the center of the ring or diving toward the gate.  After ten lessons on Bingo, I am pleased to report that Bingo no longer dives all the time while on loose reins.  I have yet to get all the way around the ring on loose reins, but this week I got ¾ of the way around without him trying to carry me off to wherever he wanted to go.  When we are on contact Bingo gives me an absolutely wonderful soft contact with a soft, relaxed mouth so long as we are not turning.  He reaches confidently for the bit, and ninety percent of the time he reacts promptly and smoothly to my slowing down or halting hand aids.  He seems to really like me using the Pee Wee bit, he can move the mouthpiece easily with his tongue, he has stopped arguing with me about slowing down, and he usually halts easily.  Debbie told me that he is reacting to the Pee Wee bit and the way I use it very well, she knows because apparently Bingo is very eloquent when he does not like a bit, slinging his head and opening his mouth and otherwise showing signs of distress.  After our first ride with the Pee Wee bit, he has not done that at all while I am riding him.

I LOVE making progress with a horse!

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran