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We Are Flying Solo

July 9, 2011

It's Worrrking, It's Worrrking....

Despite the 17 layers of sweat, Solo and I had a great ride today!  Funny how two months ago, a great ride meant powerful extended gaits and lofty oxers.  Because today it meant even stretching in the trot and 18" crossrails.

He's got some spring and swing back in his trot, once we get warmed up. The jumps are easy and balanced and rhythmic and relaxed. He's even stretching down at the canter, which is slow and metronomical (I just made that a word, ha!).

This means, in short, that I've finally struck a combination of things that are working. Magical tape + Robaxin + deep massage with Surpass + stretching till my eyes roll back in my head = IMPROVEMENT. The massage is slowly breaking down the scar tissue and I can feel the knots in the muscle getting incrementally smaller. The Surpass is taking away some of the pain in partnership with Robaxin, which relaxes clenched muscle fibers. The tape and stretching are helping to increase circulation and rebuild new muscle and heal injured spots.

Ok, that wasn't so short.

But I am thrilled to finally see some progress in this slow slow recovery. Yeah, we should be leaping 3'3" jumps right now -- but instead of being ticked off that that's not happening, I am instead pleased that we are meeting new objectives; we are doing better than we were a week ago!

I try hard to keep my eye fixed on what happens tomorrow and what happens next week. I am single-mindedly focused on those muscle groups: moving them, stretching them, working them through their protests and gradually, oh so gradually, bringing them back up to par. There is nothing more to be gained by wishing we were doing more (ok, I admit, I give in a little sometimes) but everything to be gained by the baby steps we are doing today.

8 comments:

  1. Way to be optimistic :) Solo looks very handsome in that pic!

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  2. That all sounds very good and you should be pleased - all your hard work is paying off!

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  3. Like Kate said - hard work, paying off!
    It always does!

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  4. Living in the moment. This sport sometimes costs injuries to horse or rider and being able to rehab with discipline is part of the game. I am so please that he is doing well and this post reminded me that I was going to do some more reading about that tape. Fascinating stuff.

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  5. Thank you, thank you!! And thanks about the pic, Abby, it's an older one, but I've always loved it.

    Barbara, I'll be taping him again next weekend, so I'll be sure to report how it all goes! Now that we've got our methodology down, we can reapply!

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  6. Be thankful for what you have. :-) Sounds like he's healing slowly but surely.

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  7. Oh Frizz, I am, believe me! I do get frustrated sometimes by the fact I can't have a prospect to bring along, but then I remember, hey, at least I have a (quasi) sound horse to ride.

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