The end of summer, and the beginning of fall. Beautiful cool mornings that turn into blast furnace afternoons. This time of year can be difficult for me while riding, the cooler morning temperatures mean it is too cold to wear my ice vest, but as my core body temperature rises during my ride the outside temperature is also rising. This means at the beginning of my rides my body works pretty well, but during the ride my nervous system deteriorates, and the horses notice this long before I do, and by the end of my rides I am lucky if I can give my aids well enough that they don't irritate the horse.

The horses ALWAYS know how bad my nervous system is!

I was really fortunate this week, I got to ride three times. I am still managing to use the bit (boy am I glad that I train the horses to work off contact!), and the horses are still consenting to keep contact, at least in the beginning of my ride. But as I deteriorate the horses start telling me to watch my hands, mouths get harder, the responses are slower, and when they finally obey there is a distinct lack of cheerfulness (and straightness, and relaxation of the lower jaw, and smoothness.) During my rides my body feels the same to me, I THINK I am giving the same rein aid or leg aid at the end of my ride as I give at the beginning of my ride, but my horses obviously disagree! I am finally noticing that as my core body temperature is rising that my hands move too far in giving the hand aid, my hands THINK they haven't changed, my unconscious interior sensing system thinks they haven't changed, but when I pay attention, well, they've changed. As the horses were telling me.

The horse is always right.

In MS immune cells attack the myelin sheath around the neurons, where the myelin sheath acts as insulation so that the electrical signals will stay within the neuron rather that taking the easier path outside the neuron. If enough of the myelin is destroyed then the immune cells can attack the neuron itself and start damaging it. In cold temperatures the electrical signals go through the neurons better, in hot temperatures the neurons do not carry electrical signals well, and more of the signals seem to escape the neuron and zap out uselessly. This means that I start off with a damaged nervous system, and as I get hotter during my rides the electrical signals within my nerves get more erratic. I never really know how everything will change, and I do not really know WHAT is changing, but now I am convinced that the horses notice every single change in my nervous system and then they promptly tell me that my aids no longer meet their (the horse's) high standards. If they could speak they could probably tell my neurologist exactly which nerves are being affected at any time.

This is why I've learned that I HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE HORSE. I don't know my body's responses to stimuli are changing subtly, I don't really notice it until I am staggering, dropping things, and otherwise descending into complete physical klutziness. During a ride my hands can go from feeling every movement of the horse's tongue to being unable to tell when they give signals that are too strong. My legs can go from knowing exactly where they are to wandering all over the horse's barrel, and no matter where my legs are they always "feel" right. In my riding the horse rules. The horse is my physical therapist. The horse is the one who correctly diagnoses which nerves are being affected. The horse is the one who has to put up with my physical imperfections on a pretty intimate level. The horse is the one who shows me when I get everything right in spite of my problems by prompt, cheerful, supple and exact obedience. Blessed horses.

Debbie has told me the past two weeks that my lower legs have improved greatly, staying in their proper places (most of the time) and giving Mia accurate signals. This is gratifying to me, changing my stirrups from the Bow-flex to the Stubben Offset stirrups has really helped me, as have my frequent glances to make sure my knee and toe align. This is the only reason that I am still able to keep contact in spite of the heat, the horses would politely refuse contact when my base was unsteady. Getting my lower leg stable seems to be improving something else with Mia. Instead of having to use my leg aids each and every step of the hind legs I am starting to be able to give a leg aid and not have to repeat it for several steps. Mia still runs out of steam easily, but gradually she is going longer and longer before I have to reapply the aids. I think this is also a positive result from Mia being used in some lessons. It is easier for a horse to get into the habit of keeping moving if there are other horses moving too!

I am also managing to keep my hands steady enough that both mares have consented to contact during both the posting and sitting trots (at the beginning of my rides), and once I kept contact at the posting trot all the way around the ring! Debbie was quite pleased with me for doing that. Keeping my lower leg properly in place and steady is really helping me keep my balance in the saddle. My sense of balance is so bad now that if I do not have a solid foundation under my feet my body does not know where it is and easily gets either too far in front of or too far behind the movement of the horse. And guess what happens when my body gets too far behind the motion of the horse--yep, I fall back into the saddle and give the poor horse a thump on her back. Didn't happen this week, I guess those nerves were still working somewhat.

The past few weeks Mia has been looking more beautiful than ever. The muscles in her lower neck have filled out, as have the muscles in her shoulders and hindquarters. She almost looks beautiful enough that I can see her in one of George Stubbs' great horse paintings of the hot-blooded horses that went into the early English Thoroughbred. Absolutely gorgeous. This is one of the great things about riding Arabs, even ones who are old and have problems. I, riding Mia, ride a horse who at one time was worthy of being given to a king. Cider, being an Arab-Welsh is not quite so grand, but she is still beautiful enough to deserve to be painted as an example of a finely bred pony. Definitely good enough for a lord's son or daughter.

Have a great ride.