Jersey Devil 2024

After Hector, my ride season came to an abrupt halt. We missed Chautauqua. After that, I set my sights on Mustang. Originally, I was planning to take Lucy and do her first LD. I was going to ride with Sam on Puma. Then Mustang got cancelled. We regrouped and planned for Jersey Devil. The plan was to ride Lucy in the 25 with Sam. Then Sam mentioned that she wanted to do the two day 50. It would be her first multi day. I decided to enter Lucy in back to back 25's. This way, if she completed one day and not the second, the miles from day one would still count. It would be more expensive, but since I ride pass fail, I was all for it. 

After the Essex hunter pace, I had my doubts about Lucy being able to do both days. Booger, meanwhile, was still rip roaring fit. I had no doubt she could do 50 miles in two days. It would be our first multi-day as well. In the end, I decided to enter Booger in both 25's. My train of thought was to ride the first day and see how it went. If I wasn't having a good time, I didn't have to start the second day. I was interested to see if she'd be quieter on the second day. I keep telling myself "no more sand rides for Booger" because she treats them like really long race track. But I had such a good time riding with Sam last year. I figured it was worth a try.

It turns out, Booger wasn't the problem that weekend. 

I seriously love this mare so much.

Sunday Stills: Back on the Horse (literally)

Sunday Stills: On My Feet

I walked!

Follow up visit this morning. It has been 74 days since I broke my leg (but who's counting?) We took a set of x-rays then waited for Dr. H to come in. He walked into the office and announced, super casually, "You're healed."

The leg is healing nicely. The break is mostly calcified over. Obviously it's going to take some time to fill in completely, but I am cleared for weight bearing. The doc told me that the guideline is that it takes you as long to recover as it did to lose the muscle, etc. So the estimated time from now until I'm back to 100% should be 10 weeks. However, he expects it to go much faster than that. I'm young, otherwise healthy, and mostly fit.

I was basically told to start walking and push as hard/fast as my leg will tolerate. I am to set my own limits. He told me I can expect to wean off crutches and upgrade to a cane. Actually, his words were, "Get a sweet pimp cane and bedazzle it." I'm not sure he meant to do it within an hour of getting home, but I have been shuffling around the house without my crutches since we got back.

I am planning to keep the crutches with me outside the house for the next few days, until I'm sure I can really walk without them. We'll re-evaluate then and potentially get a cane for my 'off roading' stuff. Dr. H seems to think I'll be walking pretty much normal in about a month. My next follow up is in three.

As for riding... the doc says I can probably ride before I can walk normally. My thought is that I'll hop on JR at the walk once I can jump up and down on just the bad leg without pain. It may be longer than I expected until I'm in the saddle, but we'll play it by ear.

For now, I'm just setting small goals (walk to the bathroom without crutches, groom one of the horses without crutches, etc.). I plan to really work at this and get as speedy a recovery as possible, but I'm not dumb enough to push my limits and set myself back. It has been a long ten weeks. I want to be fully recovered and be done with this chapter in my life. So far, I'm off to a good start.

Therapy

It was fifty-nine degrees and sunny, sunny, sunny today. Mike and I drove out to the barn and I sat on an over turned bucket in the sunshine while he threw hay, scrubbed the water trough, and checked the horses.

He brought Dancer in to feed and I sat on my tack trunk to supervise. We were finally able to pull Dancer's blanket off for an extended period of time and he's really filling out.

Mike spent a long time grooming Dancer from head to toe, brushing the caked mud from his legs and smoothing his short, pulled mane. Dancer dozed on the cross ties, occasionally quivering his lips when Mike hit an itchy spot. Mike even banged his tail and cut his bridle path before giving him a handful of cookies.

I smiled broadly, just watching him work with the horse. The tall thoroughbred really respects Mike and the two of them are really starting to trust each other. Dancer gets a little panicky when JR creeps up behind him with his ears pinned, but Mike just murmurs, "Easy," and Dancer relaxes. All  mike has to do is walk across the driveway and Dancer waits at the gate for him. He drops his head for the halter and follows my man around like a puppy dog.

I sat for a while longer, just watching JR and Ozzy take turns ripping hay from the rack by the barn, quietly crunching, munching, chewing. Both are fat and fuzzy and happy. I just renewed JR's lease this morning. I tried hard not to remember that this is my favorite trail riding weather and that it will be hot, hot, hot by the time I'm back on a horse.

Herbie ran back and forth across the farm, chasing her ball and getting completely filthy, just glad to be outside. She brings a smile to my face every time.

We ran to Tractor Supply and picked up hinges before running out to lunch and back to the barn again. Mike finished the gorgeous oak feed trunk he built me last month and screwed Ozzy's new nameplate onto his 'nice' halter.

I can't even tell you how good it was for me just to sit in the sun and watch the horses. It made it easy to forget days like yesterday, when I barely wanted to get out of bed and when I couldn't stop bursting into tears for no reason at all. I really hope spring is here to stay.

First Lesson Back

I gave my first lesson since I broke my leg this afternoon. I wanted to see if I can tolerate a full hour outside and I wasn't sure if I could focus for the whole time. The meds really mess with my attention span and the cold doesn't help with the leg.

I wanted to pick someone easy going and close by whose ring wasn't far from the parking area and whose horse was reliable. I decided on Arrow.

The lesson went really well. I didn't take anything for the pain before I went so my focus was good. The lesson last 50 minutes and I had no intolerable pain. I stood for a lot of the lesson and K had a picnic table pulled up for me just in case. Arrow, for his part, didn't seem bothered at all by my crutches (Alcatraz, for example, is not a big fan).

I never realized how much I walk around when I coach until I couldn't do it. I also think I need to invest in one of those microphone to ear piece sets for the next few months. *sigh*

K and Arrow have been making progress in leaps and bounds and tonight's lesson was productive despite the fact that she hasn't ridden him in two weeks. They are finally working on cantering and she's neck reining consistently at the walk and jog. The last lesson before I broke my leg, we even went gallivanting outside the ring and conquered her first creek crossing.

It was good for me to get out and give a lesson. Physically this rehab isn't terrible, but mentally it's killing me. I'm bored and frustrated and depressed. It makes me snappy and short tempered and weepy. I don't know how much of it is the drugs, but it's very not-like-me and I don't like it. I'm hoping that coaching a few lessons a week will help keep me sane.

Follow Up

Went for my first post-op follow up visit today (day 10). The office was nearby and easy to get to. We ran into my surgeon on the elevator. The sign in was to the point and the wait was short.

I got my splint taken off and my sutures removed, and I got some answers to my questions.

There was more blood all over the gauze than I expected. The incision sites were small and should heal with minimal scarring. The spot where my bone broke through my calf, however, was bigger than I expected and has this jagged look about it. There is bruising and dry skin and hair. My doctor tells me that I'm skinny and the screws may be 'prominent' when I heal. The leg is, in a word, gnarly.

The rod and screws are permanent and won't be removed unless there is a problem. Only about 10% of patients have any of the hardware removed. About 30-40% experience chronic knee pain, to which I say, "I've already got chronic ankle pain in this leg. What's one more joint?"

In four weeks I go back for x-rays to make sure everything is healing properly, but so far everything looks normal and good.

I should be able to start bearing weight 10-12 weeks after the initial break, and I should be walking fairly normal about two weeks after that... so 12-14 weeks until I walk. My surgeon says I can ride before I can walk 100%, but I don't think that's a chance I'm willing to take in this line of work. I may get on JR once I can bear weight, just to get the muscles back, but that's about it.

Having sutures pulled hurt like a bitch, especially the one that stuck. Ow ;_;

I am now in a walking boot. I love it. It's my very own Pumped Up Kick. I can take it off as often as I'd like. I can SHOWER (my old boss, Brenda, even lent me a shower seat). It provides great support when I need it and freedom when I don't. I can SCRATCH and get a FOOT MASSAGE.

I am shocked at how stiff my knee and ankle are. I'm going to be doing a lot of stretching and range of motion exercises, as well as strength building to prevent muscle atrophy in  my calf and thigh. My calf muscle is, in my doc's words, angry at me. That is an understatement. Nothing seems to respond the way it used to and the leg doesn't feel like it's mine, but I am determined to over come this.

All in all, it was a great follow up visit. One step closer...

Semi-graphic photos under the cut.

Saturday Snaps: Back in the Barn

Can't keep me out of the barn for long.

Sunday Stills: Oops

And then Willow flipped over me and I suffered a compound tib/fib fracture. Oops.