I believe that I may have solved our riding issues, but can't try it out as my shoulder has been worrisome - the same shoulder that Gene's spook woke up. But, anyway, it appears that using a plain cotton pad has solved the biting issues, and the more I think of it the more I think that wool pad is indeed the one that I had to pull off of Peanut in the park before. I need a longer ride to really confirm it, and was planning to do that this past Wed after work, but my shoulder had other thoughts. When my arm went numb on the drive to the barn I knew it was out of the question.
This shoulder stuff has been going on since I was probably 18-20, so about 20 years. I'm tired of it. I took today off to try to fit a lot of doctor visits in but only had one visit, some x-rays (of my neck this time, another doctor had my shoulder x-rayed back in 2008 and it was normal), and I may have an MRI Thursday depending on the whims of my insurance and an orthopedic visit in mid-Oct.
I have to figure out what to do with the Palomino conundrum with the Shoulder variable. Hell, right now I don't even have a desire to ride. Just the thought of it makes me want to wince (like I literally did when I was watching tv and one guy clapped another on the back of his shoulder - it was a friendly gesture that made my stomach turn).
In seemingly unrelated news, Richard is taking Kyudo lessons as one of his 40th birthday presents. At his last lesson, his Sensei got out a longbow made by one of his students - a violin maker - and offered to teach me to shoot without the pomp and ceremony in Kyudo. Just shooting things, yo. Well, my first shot ever with a bow and arrow was a bulls-eye and I was in love. I got to keep practicing for the entire lesson (over an hour) and made some fabulous shots. As Sensei was admiring a tight cluster that I had just shot right below the bulls-eye, he commented that women make the best archers and snipers.
And you know what? My shoulders felt light and completely pain free - so much in fact that it was startling. The injury will go to sleep, but I guess there's always a feeling of weight and tightness, so when it completely disappeared after shooting I couldn't believe the feeling. Too bad it only lasted a couple of hours.
I've been interested in Asian recurve bows for years, after watching a documentary on Mongolian archers long, long ago. I am currently reaching out to see if this is the bow for me, even though it is not Mongolian style (clutch the pearls):
It's not a horse bow (in fact it's almost 58"), but right now my aim is not to shoot pointed projectiles from my plodding, pudgy palomino. He'd probably look around for a cookie and get an arrow in the head.
There's an archery club just a few minutes from me, where I could shoot as I please indoor, outdoor, or 3D. When Richard gets his own Yumi then we can both be there, shooting, looking odd amongst the hunters. Especially Richard, as it is so, so ceremonial. Well, he is also being taught combat shooting, but he's there mainly for the meditative.
Also, the action of running seems to calm it down as well. So I did a combo of running and walking on Wed once I knew I wasn't up to riding, tacking, or even currying a horse. I felt fabulous!
Here's some shots of that ride/hike starring Anne-Marie and Antoinette. I walked faster than the horses did and actually ran in front of them as they trotted and I heard comments behind me saying that I was fast and the horses were in full trot. A very proud moment for me!
So, anyway, after I realized I couldn't spend all day getting medical stuff out of the way, I went to the DMV (whee) and then came home and felt sorry for myself and finished this:
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| It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Ah well. |
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