Re: my other life

[Guest guest]

Wow! I'm impressed by the running and body building... Riding has

always been my one and only sport. I was TREEIBLE at sports in

school, and could hardly believe it when I started to ride, and

found that I progressed faster than most of the other kids, many

with much fancier horses. It has truly become a sport for life, and

I'm not giving it up now!<g>

It's great that your RA is stable enough that it's not bothering you

most of the time now. Mine hit like a ton of bricks, and we've had

a very hard time finding a mix of drugs to control it. I'm still on

prednisone, which caused me to gain about 20 pounds... Enough that I

HATE the way I look in breeches! And while I _try_ to keep riding

every day, there are still a lot of days when it's not easy.

Sometimes, I trail walk is about all I can handle.

I sure hope you can keep doing all your training and teaching. I do

have a family friend who is in her 60's, who has been on Plaquenil

for a number of years, and she seems to be close to pain-free most

of the time. The last time I saw her, she had climbed a mountain in

the morning, and still had energy to entertain 4 of us when we

stopped in on short notice. We figured we'd just stop & say " hi " ,

and she put on a big spread for us.<g>

The event trainer I work with sometimes has another student, again,

older than I am by quite a bit, who came down with RA several years

ago. I guess they had a hard time getting her stabilized too. They

decided to sell her event horse (who was a bit of an orangutan) and

get something quieter that she could do some low-level dressage

with. They found her a very nice young horse, with comfortable

gaits, and she did that for 2 years. This season, she was feeling

enough better that she decided that she's going back to eventing,

and ran the horse Novice quite successfully. She plans to move him

up to Training next year. Suzy (the trainer) says the woman has some

trouble walking distances (so I'm not sure how she's handling

walking the courses!) but that she's seams to be handling the riding

without a problem.

So I keep people like that in mind when I'm having a particularly

bad time, and just remind myself I have to be patient!

>

> Hi ,

> I love the horses and right now I am doing much better I use

to work 6 days a week but I cut it down to 5.

> I do use the mounting block to mount but get off onto the

ground. I have been showing for so long but not this year with the

Hashimoto's disease and then RA so not a good season. I will be

showing next year. The other trainer at the stable was trained in

Germany since she was 14 so I take lessons from her I love my

lessons if I was rich I would take one each day. I feel you can

always learn something from others.

> I was also a runner I was doing 30 miles a week and before

that I was a body builder on stage in the little bikini. I use to

go to the gym for six hours a day. I always do everything large,

but now I have to slow down.

> The funny thing, at the stable they do not see the disease so

they do not see how RA has effected me. I sometimes have a hard

time getting through the six horses and then some days especially

after two days off I love being there. To be on a horse in the

brisk morning air is one of the most precious gift God gave us.

> Sorry to go on and on but another horse person going through

the same thing but I am at the beginning of RA I do not know how

fast it will come on but I take each day as it comes.

> Marsha

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