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| Aww snow!! great a duvet day !! |
As I mentioned last month we
have been battling with the weather, it been bitterly cold and we have even had
snow and ice, this means that occasionally the arena has been frozen, it hasn’t
stopped Beth’s schooling sessions with Flynn but the weather has just been
against me the last few weeks. It’s more
about my spinal injury, circulation and me being outside at the yard. I find
sitting for long periods outside makes me cold through to the bone!! And I
can’t seem to warm up. We have managed to keep the weekly sessions going for so long, but have had to admit defeat over the
last couple of weeks, which has been a real shame as we were hoping to increase
the amount of time in the saddle, to try and get me and Flynn working together
a bit more. Beth and me have been perusing the Para dressage training and
events diary and are trying to coordinate some sessions. These would be great
to attend now as I feel I am ready to take on the next step, venturing out and
about as our confidence is growing.
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| Mud !! |
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| Mud !! |
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| Snow, snow and more snow!! |
This elation and confidence has had a bit of
a knock as in the last few weeks the inevitable happened, I fell off!! It was
only a matter of time before this happened and I am sort of glad it’s happened.
Me and Flynn have come so far in the last 6 months, and I think at times we
have to remember how difficult this sport is and how having a spinal injury is like learning to ride all
over again for scratch but it’s so much harder than it was before!!. I think our
new confidence got a bit carried away. He heheh. Well lucky for me I didn’t
hurt myself?? We actually I am glad I can’t feel it as I am sure it would have
hurt. Good job for the lovely arena surface at Beth’s yard the good old carpet
and sand took the bounce off!! I was a bit shook up but in true style I got
back in the saddle and off we went again.
Let’s just remind ourselves
of some of the facts, Flynn is a 7 year old Connemara and has been ridden as an
up and coming event horse with Beth over the last 2 years, his personality is
just amazing and so sensitive. That is why Beth saw something special in him
and took him to her trainer Carl Hester to assess the ability of him for para dressage.
Flynn was born in Ireland and started his life being hunted and ridden hard as
a 3yr. old. Beth bought him from Ireland in 2013 and the original idea was to
keep him for 12 months and sell him on, but she fell in love with him, this
partnership is great to see, he loves Beth and he works so well for her. He is
such a softy. It’s important to remember
when he came over from Ireland he was a little whip shy, probably from his
early hard hunting days, and to start with he wasn’t a horse that you could
ride with a whip.
So this would be a problem if
we can’t ride Flynn with a whip how’s he going to be a para dressage horse?? An
learn to accept the whip as my leg aid! This is something we have been getting
mixed messages about; we decided that by Beth schooling Flynn with 2 whips was
the best way that he would get use to them being waved around by his side.
Following one of my sessions with Nick Rodgers SW para coach, he advised that I
should be the only one to ride Flynn with whips, so we don’t give him mixed messages,
so after Nicks information that’s what we did, only I rode him with the whips,
but I honestly think Flynn needs some more whip de-sensitising sessions.
After watching the Video of me riding Flynn when
I fell off, I think Flynn was unsettled by my balance and the whips. It seems
that as I become more unbalanced and my position in the seat changed, I was
unable to sit up. Once I’d gone too far forward due to having no core strength
I couldn’t pull up. I then waved the whips around by Flynn head and pulled on
the reins to try and regain my balance, turning him in a very tight circle,
which actually made it worse. I think if I could learn from this fall I must
next time think I have to drop the whips as soon as I become unbalanced, try to
drop the reins and hold onto the Oh crap strap/neck strap and try and sit still
even if that means falling on to Flynn’s neck. Then hope Flynn stands still
while all this is going on top of him!!
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whip desensitising!!
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No one said this was going
to be easy, and as I saw the ground getting nearer, I waited for the thud! Well
it all seemed to happen slowly until my legs gained momentum and came crashing
down… Flynn didn’t do anything wrong and he was so worried and sad, we managed
to get back in the wheelchair all very quickly and wheeled back to the hoist and put back on
before I had time to think about it, which was a good thing as I did knock mine
and Flynn’s confidence.
So Beth and I have decided
to go back to the drawing board with the whip de-sensitising and Beth is now
schooling Flynn again with 2 whips, and plenty of waving them around is
required, re training on standing still while lots of moving about on top,
balancing and gathering reins. I think we have to work on what works for us and
we have decided that this will help. By Flynn schooling regularly with Beth
while I am unable to ride due to bad weather this will help keep him whip
ready!!!
Due to not being in the saddle
too much lately I have been doing lots of research. I’ve been watching loads of
videos on u-tube of grade 2 para riders. I look at their position in the
saddle, whether or not they are wearing leg straps/stirrups and how much they
bounce in the seat during trot! The one thing that comes across when riders are
interviewed about their horses is it’s not just about the horse’s movement. The
horse has to have the perfect disposition in every way and the ability to focus
on nothing else when it matters!! It also is about a great deal of trust
between the horse and rider. I hope Flynn is going to be able to do all the
things required of him, He certainly has the personality and is so sensitive,
but at times he can still be quite babyish and wants to chew everything near
him, and initially when the leaders are walking by the sides he tries to chew
the lead ropes and this is defiantly showing signs of not concentrating when in
the para zone!!
I need to remember it’s only
been 6 months since I’ve really been having regular lessons and we have had the
weather to cope with so we are really looking forward to the spring now and the
better weather, as it has started to really get me down. I want to make quicker
improvements but I can’t seem to progress what with one thing and another. I’ve
also been referred by the Doctor for surgery to my hands; I have been suffering
really badly from carpel tunnel syndrome which means that the circulation to my
hands is compromised. I’ve been having cortisone injections for 18 months, into
my wrists, but they only last about 12 weeks and once it wears off the pain is
unbearable, it has got to the stage where it’s really affecting my transfers
and independence. So it was something I didn’t want to have to have done but
actually I hope it will help, it will again mean time away for at least 6 weeks
post procedure and the recovery time will be quite hard, but I hope it will be
worth it.
Lucky for me while the
weather is not playing ball, I’ve still been able to go to the gym, and am
pushing on with my training and I really need to push myself harder now as I can
see some weight creeping on which is really hard to manage this being paralysed.
I have no tone from the waist down so I am going to have to work really hard
now with my core, perhaps more gym sessions and sessions at home too, I need to
be more disciplined. I have been in the Frampton fitness gym today with PT Seona,
one thing we are really starting to notice is my hip flexors are getting
shorter and the pain on stretching me out is getting worse, my legs don’t lie
flat anymore and always want to bend up, it’s really difficult for me to feel
this discomfort and I would really like my legs to be more supple, even though I
stretch them out daily myself. I've been in the equine gym at Hartpury and I am also hoping to attend the Neurokinex centre
more regularly and hope that this will improve all the concerns and stiffness I
have. neurokinex.org
I think all this will
improve when the weather does. I am also still reducing my medication and have successfully
come off one tablet and am still weening the last one down so hopefully this
will help me feel not so foggy at times, as I am sure all the tablets I’ve been
taking over the last 2 years don’t actually
help. I don’t seem to have any less pain now than I did when I was on huge
doses of pain medication; gabapentin immediately after my accident. I will always remember the consultant Mr
Patel saying to me the only thing that works for nerve pain is distraction, it’s
difficult to explain the sort of pain I get but it’s there all the time,
sometimes so much worse than others. But the distraction tactic works well!!
As we move towards the end
of March I will be starting my conversion and house extension in the next
couple of weeks. This is going to be for about 12-16 weeks, it will be a really
big upheaval for me and my family but I am really excited about the outcome and
looking forward to having areas I can finally access in my house. I am not
looking forward to the mess and dust! Well as always with me, you can’t make an
omelette without cracking eggs.
