The big Fall, Part 9

 Friday's Foto IS a picture of me... on Nadia. YAY!!!!

It has been exactly two months since I broke my ankle, or nine weeks, to be exact. I mozied out to the horses last night and couldn't resist the temptation any longer. I carefully climbed up on the pipe rails in the stall and, stradling the rails, talked to my four legged friends. Yalla! was so glad to see me. She kept wanting to get "head hugs".

Poor Scout! He gets bullied away by both Yalla! and Annie.

I have trained Anne to come up and stand at the rail until I climb on so I knew she would be the best one to ride first. I put on her halter and lead rope "reins" and very carefully climbed on.

Scout's not sulking in the next photo,btw. He just moved away from us because we were walking all around the pen and Annie was pinning her ears at him every time we went past. I wasn't quite ready to go into the arena yet. And that black swish in the photo? It must be Yalla!s tail. lol. Sorry about the bleached out photo, it was sunset and the lighting was terrible.

I think Scout has kind of a pouty, or bewildered look in the next photo, like, 'Why aren't you riding me?' I intended to ride him too but I wasn't sure if he'd come up to the railing or not and frankly, for my first ride, I guess I chose NOT to ride him. Oh, I know it wasn't his fault and he'd most likely be very good but I just don't want to do anything that might set things back, for him or me.

I only walked Annie around for about ten minutes but it sure felt good to sit on her back! Getting off was harder than getting on and climbing down from the rails was even harder, but I managed, with lots of careful stepping.

It was so nice riding again that I wanted more! I decided to take Nadia out for a quick trip. I carefully climbed up the stall railing again and swung my leg across Nadia's back this time. All the stable gates were already open and, since she is alone in her stall, I just opened her stall door and we were off. I rode Nadia out of the barn and towards the house. The round pen gate was slightly open so we scooted in. I walked and trotted her around for a few minutes. I always love to see her perky little ears when I ride her.

Nadia is not in great shape and neither am I, so I kept the workout short and decided to graze her before taking her back to the barn. I was unsure how to get off of her so I just unclipped one half of the "reins"and stayed on so she could graze on our meager grasses. I thought about calling my son out of the house and letting him help me off and put Nadia away but I decided I'd be better off using the railing to get off the same way I used it to get on.

Here's my bad foot. I was trying to get a picture of Nadia's four inch long eyelashes but I don't think you can see them too well.

Surprisingly, my ankle didn't hurt too much while riding although I'm not sure if I can bend it into a stirrup yet. I guess all those flexing exercises are helping. However, I can't get cowboy boots on over my still swollen, stiff ankle, so I settled on a pair of moon boots with fleece lining. You'd think it would be awful hot in the summer, wearing snow boots and sweat pants,but our nights do cool down and I was actually comfortable. Not very good support for my ankle but better than wearing crocs while riding, I guess. My physical therapist doesn't like me wearing crocs; he suggests support shoes, but my heel still hurts a lot and the crocs have cushy heels. Unfortunately, there's no ankle support to them and he worries that I'll re-twist my ankle. He told me today that I need to keep the walking to a minimum and continue to work on flexing the joint. I didn't tell him I went riding but I'm thinking that it should be okay because hey, I can be doing my physical therapy exercises while riding, like writing out the alphabet with my toes, and as long as I am very careful.