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Horse question for you Gretchen :)

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Posted 12/12/2009 7:35 AM (GMT 0)
Hey there!


I'm up tonight feeling more anxious than I have been the last couple of days so I'm on Healingwell reading posts and getting some reassurance from quite a few of the older MS posts here :)



Anyhow... I was thinking... All my numbness symptoms are on my right side.. I was remembering how earlier this year, I was riding my horse, just on a pokey trail ride and I noticed that my right groin would get numb after a little while and it would travel down my leg into my foot. I don't know if a symptom like that could be MS related or if it's probably something in the nerves in my leg and the pressure of being in the saddle... it was just a thought.. and I'm kinda stressing so I thought I'd post here and see what you thought :)



Also.. I was wondering what kind of horse do you have? I think it's awesome that you broke and trained him yourself.. how nice to know a horses entire riding history.. I have bought horses before that came with so much baggage because of past training issues... Most of them I could straighten out with time, but there were a couple that were just doggone dangerous.. so sad..



My current and forever horse is a 12 year old APHA gelding... Oh.. that's right you saw my pictures on myspace.. lol... But he's my dreamhorse! I can do ANYTHINGGGG on him which means soo much t me... I don't have the stallion anymore and have sold all my babies... I was breeding paint horses for a few years but when the horse market fell. (like everything else...lol) I sold him and downsized to having only 2 horses.. My other horse is a big ol 14 year old QH gelding and he's a head horse for team roping, although I can't rope a cow to save my life.... lol... Well.. I can swing a rope, I just can't always hit the target.. LOL... he's just a good alternative horse to ride once in a while and absolutely adorable :)



Ok.. enough of that.. I can talk horse talk all day... lol.. Hope you're doing well~!
Posted 12/12/2009 3:18 PM (GMT 0)
Nick is an appaloosa.  My friend is a breeder and I was looking for a nice 2-3 year old to break myself.  She didn't have any; she only had yearlings and I didn't want to wait.  She checked with a neighbor who had one of her babies. This gal bought Nick as her breeding stud but the poor guy was cyptorchid.  So she had to geld him and then she threw him out in the pasture with her draft gelding and pretty much ignored him.  I asked if she would sell him and she said yes.  He was totally a brat when I got him. 

He is a wonderful horse.  He lives about 8 miles from me at the stables and is in a 48 by 60 paddock with a shelter.  He is a great great horse.  I can do anything on him.  He is 15.2 and just your average western build.  He was black with just a small white blanket and spots on his butt.  Now he is light gray with spots all over.  Like magic he changed!  He winnnies for me every time I get there.  He seems to know I have horrible balance issues now and is very very careful with me.  He has never tossed anyone ever.  He is baby gentle.

He is rock solid sound at 20 (going on 21).  He is a real easy keeper....been barefoot for years now.  He rides best in a plain old snaffle. 

So back to your question.  I don't know about the leg numbness.  You are right that that sounds like a pinched nerve.  I don't get anything like that.  I have a bad left knee from MS.  I have a lot of spasticity in that left leg and after an hour or so in the saddle my left knee hurts real bad but I can alleviate some of that by letting my foot out of the stirrup and letting my foot dangle.  It is a bit nerve racking with my balance but I manage ok. 

My numbness isn't transient.  I know some with MS have numbness that comes and goes.  Mine doesn't.  I have constant numbness on a skin level from my mid shins down.  I have mild numbness in my left hand and especially thumb.  My other issues are constant vertigo and balance problems.  I have nystagmus in my eyes (mild).  I have bladder and bowel problems.  I have spasticity in my left leg and upper back and neck.  I lost the vision in my right eye a couple months ago but that is trying hard to come back.  I have some fatigue issues. 

Ok that is enough for now.  I am glad to be talking to you susie.  The horse connection is nice.

Posted 12/12/2009 7:10 PM (GMT 0)
Good morning!

What a good story! And Nick sounds like a verrry lucky horse! It's so nice to hear a story like yours, having him for so many years.... I was a hay broker up till the end of this season (I'm quitting because of my <A style="BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM: darkgreen 0.07em solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px !important; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent !important; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; COLOR: darkgreen !important; FONT-SIZE: 100% !important; FONT-WEIGHT: normal !important; TEXT-DECORATION: underline !important; PADDING-TOP: 0px" class=iAs href="#" target=_blank className="iAs" itxtdid="12569444">health</A> and gonna take it easy for a while) and lets just say that I have run across a few people who don't really care about the horses they have or how long they have them... My horses are my family and I couldn't imagine ever getting rid of them or not taking good care of them..

OH and I love the human names... My horse's name is Andy and my other one is Hank.. lol... I call him "Hank the Tank" because he's a QH and 16.2... verry big and stout....lol.. Andy is only 15.2 like your horse and he's the one I ride 90 percent of the time. When my husband rides with me he rides Hank and they are great with each other and a good fit because my husband is 6'4"...lol...

Both my horses are easy keepers too, they will eat anything and it doesn't take much to keep the weight on.. They just have to have shoes all the time... It seems that QH's are being bred now to have bulky bodies and smaller feet.. I don't know what breeders were thinking, probably for looks, but mine both have to have shoes year round, front and rear or they get sore.. I don't think I could even transition them to being barefoot, they just don't have big enough feet I feel....

What area do you live in? I am in Northern California in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about 1 1/2 hours northeast of Sacramento. I have a small ranch, only 2 acres, but it works for me and I can have my chickens, horses and dogs... My little slice of Heaven! lol...

Yes, I was thinking that the numbness when I ride is probably a pinched nerve as it doesn't happen everytime I ride, and since I put this piece of lambskin over my saddle for more comfort, it hardly happens anymore. I have also been having trouble with feeling "off kilter, where I lose my balance easily and can fall over to one side.. I don't really feel dizzy, but more like a lightheaded feeling.. but the vertigo I've only had happen a couple of times... once I was home alone and I woke up and the room was spinning.. OMG was it spinning! I managed to get out of bed and had to LITERALLY hang on to the walls to make it to the bathroom.. I was soo scared, my husband was out chopping wood on a friends property. I called a girlfriend and had her go get him... He went to the pharmacy and bought me some sea sick pills which I don't really know if they helped or not.. It lasted a couple of hours then eventually subsided... whew...

So my Neurologist appt is Tuesday at 3pm... Wonder what she'll do next... I'm afraid to have a LP, don't those HURT? lol... Also I've been doing research on the different meds for MS... Copaxone sounds like the one I'd like to be on..... little to no side effects and I don't mind having to give myself a shot each morning... Also my GI suggests I go ahead and schedule my surgery soon, gotta remove the ol' colon... I don't want to take the chance of my Ulcerative Colitis coming back once the Remicade totally wears of... that would only make the surgery more complicated... Sooooo... I'll let you know what happens Tuesday!!


And P.S... I'm glad to be talking with you too... it sure is comforting :)
Posted 12/13/2009 3:00 AM (GMT 0)
Hay Susie,

Haha.......get it? Hay!  Oh I am so funny.  I am on copaxone.  It is a piece of cake really.  I do my shots at night but it doesn't matter when you do them.  Copaxone is really expensive.  Hopefully your insurance will cover it completely.  Mine does thankfully!!!  It takes six months to a full year for it to start really doing its thing by the way.  One of my worst flares was 7 months after I started. 

I was diagnosed due to that vertigo.  I was wall walking for a day or so after having it to a lesser degree for three weeks or so.  I have meclizine for when it gets bad but all that does is keep me from puking.  It doesn't make me spin any less. 

I love "Andy" and "Hank".  Nick has great big striped feet.  He can grow a bit of toe so the farrier has always had to be aggressive about that. Nick did just fine when I took those shoes off.  He was sore for oh maybe ten days or so.  I kept him off hard stuff and in the arena during that time.  I can trail ride him right over rocky trails now and he doesn't seem to mind.  I love not paying for those shoes!!  He pretty much never had shoes in the back.  Only in the front early on.

Posted 2/12/2011 3:10 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Susiebuddy

I was just scoping through the forum and saw the word horse and had to take a peek lol. i was diagnosed about 4 years ago now and i have that same problem when I ride. My leg goes numb and it gets to the point where i can't feel my foot int he stirrup, it is really annoying and worrisome as my mare can be a little spunky so i have to keep on my toes with her. Anyway just wanted to say it's nice to know I am not alone :)
Posted 2/12/2011 3:27 AM (GMT 0)
Hey Kryss,

The post you are responding to is pretty old.  I thought I'd come say "hay".  I still ride.  My left leg gets very spastic after about twenty minutes of riding.  Then I get pretty miserable pain.  I spend the remainder of my ride, stretching, and repositioning my leg for comfort.  It's still worth it. 

Posted 2/12/2011 1:27 PM (GMT 0)
aww sorry to hear that, I don't get overly sore it just takes a while to get my leg to wake up again. I have lost a lot of confidence when riding after a fall a year and a half ago i still haven't gotten over it, I know i should but it's hard. I still ride but I lost a bit of passion for it now :( My bf is a horse trainer so i help him out with that and stuff so i am still around horses all the time which is nice, but I do like riding still just not so much in the winter so hopefully we get some nice mild weather so i can get back in the saddle. Glad to hear you are still riding tho gotta enjoy the things we love in life for sure
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