The old red mares ain't what they used to be. I am talking about me and Silk. Today, Silk fell when she was running around in the pasture with Siete. The ground was slippery, and she crashed down on her right side. It took my breath away and hers. Fortunately, she got up and seems to be moving around okay. She's 19 years old and has quite a bit of arthritis in her hocks.
Stiffness has been on my mind and in my bones a lot recently. I got some excellent advice from a fellow blogger, ljb, about ways to stretch out Siete. She wrote about it at thehorseytherapist.blogspot.com. One of the things she mentioned is that perhaps I'm stiff and that may be part of the problem. She's right. After spreading tons of compost on my garden beds and digging out heaping piles of wet heavy mud and hay mess in the horses' corral, I am so stiff.
It must be a message coming at me from the blogosphere. The same day I heard from ljb, I checked in on greyhorsematters.blogspot.com, another favorite blog of mine. She was writing about the importance of exercise and stretching for the aging rider - for all riders actually. She had some good references of videos and books designed for equestrians.
So, I am going to get with the program. My stepson is arriving in a week, and he promises to give me Tai Chi lessons while he visits us. I've pulled out my yoga mat and my exercise ball. But first, I'm going to take some Aleve and a little nap.
1 comment:
You are in CT, right? There is a superb PT who addresses the whole body and his specialty is functional biomechanics. I recommend him! Guilford CT, Paul Bauer -- google it and you'll find the contact info. And yes, Tai Chi, yoga, Egoscue Method, pilates, whatever! Our horses are thankful for what we do to be flexible and balanced! *g*
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