Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by elayne emard on June 8, 2012 at 10:25am

Me too! At 57,I feel old and very rickety,till I'm totally absorbed with my ride!

Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on June 8, 2012 at 11:18am

I finally remember when I feel young on a horse.

It is when I first get up on a horse and the horse does not understand my aids and I wonder what in the world I should do to get what I want.  Yes, my confusion, my despair, my fumble fingers, and me wondering how in the world I will get through to THIS horse, ah yes, it brings back memories of being 19 on my first horse!

Permalink Reply by Cindy Jeffery on June 8, 2012 at 1:38pm

Except when I am feeling a lot of pain, then I feel old.  It makes me very lethargic and I don't feel like doing anything because it hurts.  I am resigning myself to Xtra Strength Advil and a lot of stretching. 

Permalink Reply by Mary-Joe Figueira on June 9, 2012 at 6:59pm

I don't feel old when I ride. I only got my first horse when I was in my 50s and then he was foal. So did not actually ride him until 3 years later. He keeps me young that is why I love this sport and this animal so much.

Permalink Reply by ame on June 11, 2012 at 10:26pm

i never feel old when i am riding and i can beat elayne's 57 by four years (guess i should be in the over 60) - well i never feel old except when we cannot hear our instructor! "what did she say?" "did  you hear what she said?" "was that trot or walk?"

sigh.

Permalink Reply by Joe Robertson on January 20, 2013 at 8:43am

I never feel old when I ride but sometimes after I get off the horse I feel a little stiff and old. When I ride it brings back memories of my youth and I feel good. There is no therapy better for getting away from your troubles than riding. Riding on trails through the bush I have had some nice daydreams. I have been riding since I could crawl up on to a horse or pony and as low as I can still crawl or whatever way I can get on the horse I will keep riding. 

Permalink Reply by April Keays on April 28, 2013 at 10:38am

Well, unfortunately I feel like I'm 100 years old when I ride now!  I have soft-tissue damage in the large muscle that runs from the outside of the hip around through the groin and down into the knee (sorry, I should know the name of it but can't recall it at this moment.)  The last time I rode I was in so much pain it wasn't any fun at all.  I laid off for three months and tried riding again and it was better, but still tight, with no strength in so the trot was very uncomfortable.  Then it took me a week to recover from that one-hour ride.

I'm going to the gym three times a week to stretch and try to strengthen that muscle.  I'm also getting Active Release Therapy as often as I feel I need to (once a week to about every two months, depending) and I will soon be starting yoga classes.

I'm going into some detail here because I am interested in knowing if anyone else has had this problem and were you able to over-come it.  My biggest fear, of course, is not being able to ever ride again.  As it is I think this summer is a write off!

Permalink Reply by Jackie Cochran on April 28, 2013 at 11:08am

Hi April, good to see you here again.

I never had your particular problem.  However it took me YEARS for my body to get over a head-on car wreck.  I would try riding and my back would end up in agony.  I tried different saddles, different pads to change the balance of the saddle, and as my undiagnosed MS got worse and worse from the wreck I gave up riding for a few years, getting up maybe once or twice a year.

Five years later I started riding regularly again.  All my soft tissue injuries had healed and my back has not bothered me since.

Give your leg time to heal.  I KNOW this is hard, I've been through it.  Gentle exercise on the ground is good.  Also good is limiting your riding to a walk for the first few weeks/months you ride.  It can be a long slow process.  I had to let go of all my old riding ambitions, but every time I get up in the saddle now and ride is a triumph to me!  And I have learned how improving a horse's walk can positively impact all the horse's other gaits since I do A LOT of walking still, my MS exhaustion severely limits my times at the faster gaits.

Permalink Reply by Marlene Thoms on Friday

I did get some benefit from physiotherapy with hip/thigh pain perhaps similar to yours. I also messed it up worse by choosing the wrong saddle (which fit my horse but was not working for me). In one ride I created additional severe sore spots that took me weeks to relieve.  Exercise and stretching is important, but it has to be the right exercises for that particular problem. Ones that correct so called "anterior pelvic tilt" helped, strengthening glutes and core abdominals, and releasing my shoulders which were pulling too tight forward. It all works together, the pelvis, abs, shoulder, back muscles. So if these are all out of whack, you can end up with pain in hip and thighs (as well as all the other spots). It's a continual battle, as we females get older it seems our bodies want to tighten in all the wrong places. I also found getting plenty of calcium, and had neglected magnesium, and lot of Vit. D also make a difference to muscle and nerve function.

Permalink Reply by Joe Robertson on April 28, 2013 at 8:31pm

I haven't been on a horse in  a year and will be 63 when I get back on. I hope riding will bring back my youth. I have developed a pain in my lower back that I didn't have a year ago. The doctor thought it was the cancer last fall. Now he doesn't think it is the cancer. He thinks it is a torn muscle. If it is I must of done it when I moved. If I can't ride I will have to drive the horse with a small wagon I bought last fall to use with a horse. 

Permalink Reply by Joe Robertson on Saturday

I find not having the horses around has made me feel old. I get two new horses in a couple of weeks. I bought a 19 month appaloosa filly so I have some training to do. The people who have did nothing but spoil her. They didn't even lead train her. I am in no hurry so I will just take my time. Her mother is 12 and broke to death. She is so quiet. The mother will be my wife's horse. I turn 63 in a couple of weeks and can't wait to get back on a horse.