Best Thing For Rehab!

What?

Two days after my last post I got my stitches out and my surgeon said everything was looking great. No brace needed, no follow up appt needed, off to physical therapy I go. He specifically told me "Now...GO RIDE!" I said I already did and he said "GOOD!" He told me again that it was great that I wasn't sitting around the house being a baby. Ha. Not me.Not.ever. He told me I still can't run for about 3 more weeks and no impact stuff (i.e. box jumps) and no weighted stuff (i.e. squats, power cleans, etc...) so running and CrossFit has to still wait a few weeks but I can ride without fear of damaging my rehab, what more could I ask for at this point?

I did two more rides in my dressage saddle with no stirrups. Klein and I worked on the quality of her canter, the geometry of her circles, simple changes, changes over a pole, shoulder in at the walk and trot, leg yields at the walk and trot, turn on the forehand, and turn on the haunches. I want her flexible. She was full of it, who could blame her? The first ride was great. The second ride, a lot of stuff I asked for she would be a little dramatic about. Example: If I asked her to canter she'd try to jump into it and GO. *Sigh* poor ponyface. It had been raining here and the ground was still a little too wet to really get out and go. But by the next afternoon (Monday) it was dry enough for a gallop.

By Monday I felt like I was ready to see what surgery knee thought about stirrups. I got Klein ready with her jumping saddle hoping to get out and really ride. The knee felt GREAT! I felt NO difference in sitting in my jumping saddle versus standing on the ground as far as my knee. It didn't bother me one bit. I warmed her up with a long walk and trot then started 5 min trot sets with 2 min SLOW canters. She had forgotten what the definition of SLOW was and I really had to stand up and sink my weight down as much as possible. After 3 sets of those we did a 4 min set that was SUPPOSED to be at 400mpm but she kept fighting me up to 470-490. I would be fine with that except that we haven't really galloped for 3 weeks because of her week break after Las Cruces and then two weeks because of my knee surgery. After that we had a long 20 min walk to cool out. She needs to be clipped again. Ugh. Look...


After the ride my surgery knee still felt perfect. I was relieved. I mean in theory it shouldn't hurt, but there's only one way to find out.

More rain this week made us have to wait for things to dry out a little bit again. Irritating, but you really can't complain about rain in the desert. Last year we didn't see rain from September to July.

Thursday I went to physical therapy and they did all their initial baselines to use as a gauge for my treatment. The physical therapist was surprised. I am only 7 degrees from full range of motion. I CAN get to full range of motion but on my own I was 7 degrees short, she pushed it to the full range. It didn't hurt, just a little tight. She said I am looking VERY good right now and am way ahead of the game and to not get excited and go do something that will set me back because I thought I was ready. I won't. I don't want to have to fix this again. It's killing me not to go for maximum destruction in the gym, but I get it. My next appt with them is in two weeks and they will start me on their equipment then. For now I have to continue to ice it with my personal ice/compression machine and I'm on Mobic, and anti-inflammatory to get that last bit of swelling to go away. It's a barely noticeable amount.

Yesterday I got on the spin bike and put out a 40 min moderate effort as a test. Then I did some leg presses, leg extensions and lunges all with light weight. Surgery knee felt fine and then I rode last night, today, surgery knee is still perfectly happy. No increased swelling, no extra pain.

Yesterday evening Klein and I went for an easy hack to warm up. When she was warmed up with did some gradual pickups where we would start with me sitting a quality, upward, energetic canter then I'd stand up and let her go to 420mpm then I'd slow her down, sit back down and get our quality canter back. I repeated that a couple times. We jumped around a couple 3' jumps and then went into one of the arenas and worked on flat work stuff. One thing I've been making her do is turn on the haunches, turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, etc... Like this:


This way she has to keep thinking and not get stuck in one mode or the other. She has to repeatedly shift how she uses her body and pay attention to what I'm asking.

I finally stopped to take some pictures Monday after our ride of the jets. We have drones, F-22's, and German fighter jets here. The F-22's are the fastest, most advanced fighters currently in service. It is so easy for those things to break the sound barrier because they're just so damn fast. It's a daily occurrence here, and I know I've talked about this before, to hear sonic booms. Anyone not hear one before??? Here is one of the best videos I could find that still do them absolutely NO justice at all. This is NO comparison on how loud they are in person and when you are directly below the jets when they do it:



We also hear double booms daily too:



These two videos just cannot convey what it really feels like. The radio stations here even announce when the F-22's will be flying so people know that stuff isn't getting blown up and that they need to keep their pets inside that have heart attacks over loud noises. The newspaper will publish it too.

When I'm at work and we're outside working you will feel the boom in your ears and in your chest. They hurt your ears sometimes. We never get used to them they are just so damn loud and everyone yells obscenities when they go off. We probably should have some kind of hearing protection on when we know the jets are up haha. Inside, stuff falls off walls, computers fall off desks. At home every window in my house will shake, stuff on the counters rattles.

So with that said...the horses have learned to get used to them. I've even been riding Tricky when one went off and HE didn't even do anything. Not only do they put up with sonic booms but our barn is under the pattern and every day the ponies see this:

German jet coming in over the big arena.

Zuli in the turnout.

An F-22 coming in.

This is only the approach pattern for one runway. There's two other runway patterns we are right under.

So here comes the jets and what's Klein doing? Rolling like a little oinker after our ride:

Ugh. PONY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!