Memorial Day Trail Ride

Bouffe and I did so well in our first lesson that I asked Tricie if she was going on a trail ride anytime soon. She was, and we set it up for the following Monday, which was Memorial Day. 

After the lesson I felt so good mentally that I knew I couldn't wait until Monday to ride again. But my body had different ideas. Thursday morning my lower legs were VERY weak and a little sore. 

Now since the first of the month I have had our swimming pool open for the summer and have been doing laps first thing in the morning, which does relive the tightness I feel in my legs when I first get out of bed. So, even though my legs were weak I swam anyway, which did its usual, reliving the tightness, but they still were not good as I stumbled and weaved to keep my balance when I first got out of the pool and when I first went in the house. 

I sat and rested for about fifteen minutes and my balance was better, even though my legs didn't feel strong. They had an increase in the numbness, which gets progressively worse as it runs down from my knees to my feet. But I was determined to ride Bouffe the next day. 

In the past I have given in to the MS symptoms and pretty much stayed home, but this time I decided to fight them back with as much exercise as I could manage to do. Enter dressage rider training.

I am not promoting any particular website but there is  dressage rider training available on the Internet. Now, it is for able body riders but I decided to give it a shot, taking into consideration my physical disability in choosing the exercises to do. 

On Friday morning I didn't feel any worse from the previous day's activities, so I swam my laps before I drove the thirty minutes to ride Bouffe. I was having some doubts as I got dressed but the adrenaline took over once I put on my boots and loaded the saddle bag into my car.

This time of year the horses are turned out during the day and to bring Bouffe in requires a walk most of the time, to the opposite end of a five acre field from the barn. For a person with MS the going is kind of rough up and down some rolling hills and a small jump across a stream. But after about ten minutes I made it with only a few very short rest stops along the way.

By the time I brought Bouffe in and brushed his coat and picked his feet, I was tried, but decided to ride anyway. Bouffe stood quietly while I tacked him up and also when I used the mounting block to get on his back. We rode around the ring, pretty much the way we did the first time I rode Bouffe. I didn't do too bad and decided that would be enough until Monday.

Gunpowder Stables backs up the Gunpowder State Park and there are miles of trails to ride. I felt pretty good physically on Monday and Bouffe continued his unshakable nature as we rode through the woods and even jumped, not very well, a fallen tree. By the time we got back about a half and hour later I considered the day a success.