Reality Check

So, as you all know from my more recent posts- I've been struggling with my left hip joint. It has been getting progressively worse. The past few rides have been nothing more than walking around the arena, no stirrups, hanging my leg trying to stretch it out, using Ben's movement to gently push the stretch.

I also bought a neck strap, actually, a racing yoke, to use on Ben, for the time being. Basically, his trot is very jarring. With my hip in so much pain, i can't hardly follow him. So I bought this tool so i have something to steady my hands on while i try to sort my leg out.

So last night, I tried using this - and boy what a difference it made for me. It also gave my hip an opportunity to pop - something popped during one of our trot sets, and WOW, did my hip feel much better after that!

I was able to ride a bit more, and it was really relieving. I could still feel pain, but it wasn't debilitating.

When I was done with Ben, I got on my mare, Piper. I've had Piper for just under a year- and I remember when riding her I thought she was incredibly bouncy and hard to ride- and was confirmed by other riders. Let me tell you, Ben makes Piper feel like a Cadillac! Not only that, I had no pain in my hip when riding her.

Of course, this served as a huge reality check for me. Ben is young, his stride is huge, and he's still quite unbalanced. I think my body cannot flow with his really well yet. So I am going to change my plan for his training to focus on balancing him out first. Because there is really no point in trying to trot around when we can't do it right.