I am slowly coming to terms with both my limitations and advantages of being on crutches.
First the limitations; Playing online with a horse whilst standing on crutches is not going to happen. I cannot afford to put more than 10kg weight on my damaged hip, so cannot afford to be pulled of balance. Thus all the training where I stand and move my feet is really impractical, or downright dangerous.
Advantages; I can still play whilst sitting down which really means that I cannot move my feet. As we all know the being that moves its feet the least is the leader, and my feet are most definitely still !
Practical applications; The other night I watched whilst Ritchie played with her horse Bonitao. After half an hour of this I could stand it no more and had Ritchie put my chair in the middle of the school. Bonitao was at liberty, and behind me. With some difficulty I got his attention and he circled around the my front. Friendly game first as he got used to the chair and me sitting in it. He was immediately intrigued. I then played a little YoYo game driving him back with the Carrot stick and drawing him with hand motions and body/facial language. No I definitely had his attention. Time to try circling game. It went incredibly well. His sends were snappy and his bring back happened with an incredibly alert expression on his face.
Feeling encouraged we tried gait transitions on the circle. These were actually more snappy than when I was playing with him and fully able bodied, we even managed a fantastic halt to canter transition. Even Ritchie looked impressed if not a little jealous. In short I have rarely seen him so engaged when I have played with him in the past. I guess I am having to make my body language signals so much clearer as in effect they are all I have. I would be intrigued to hear if anyone else has tried playing whilst sat in a plastic garden chair and with what result. If you haven't tried give it a go, I am not promising anything but you may just be surprised.
As for Billy and Filly I am still getting Filly used to the chair and my crutches. I was gratified the other day when I went to her field gate and she cantered the length of the field to me. She stopped around 10 feet away to check out the crutches before coming up for a cuddle.
One of the girls at the yard has become interested in Natural Horsemanship and so I am helping her start to play with Billy. This brings out another of the advantages of being on crutches. It forces me to keep out of the way and really observe what is happening and give hopefully useful help and comments.
First the limitations; Playing online with a horse whilst standing on crutches is not going to happen. I cannot afford to put more than 10kg weight on my damaged hip, so cannot afford to be pulled of balance. Thus all the training where I stand and move my feet is really impractical, or downright dangerous.
Advantages; I can still play whilst sitting down which really means that I cannot move my feet. As we all know the being that moves its feet the least is the leader, and my feet are most definitely still !
Practical applications; The other night I watched whilst Ritchie played with her horse Bonitao. After half an hour of this I could stand it no more and had Ritchie put my chair in the middle of the school. Bonitao was at liberty, and behind me. With some difficulty I got his attention and he circled around the my front. Friendly game first as he got used to the chair and me sitting in it. He was immediately intrigued. I then played a little YoYo game driving him back with the Carrot stick and drawing him with hand motions and body/facial language. No I definitely had his attention. Time to try circling game. It went incredibly well. His sends were snappy and his bring back happened with an incredibly alert expression on his face.
Feeling encouraged we tried gait transitions on the circle. These were actually more snappy than when I was playing with him and fully able bodied, we even managed a fantastic halt to canter transition. Even Ritchie looked impressed if not a little jealous. In short I have rarely seen him so engaged when I have played with him in the past. I guess I am having to make my body language signals so much clearer as in effect they are all I have. I would be intrigued to hear if anyone else has tried playing whilst sat in a plastic garden chair and with what result. If you haven't tried give it a go, I am not promising anything but you may just be surprised.
As for Billy and Filly I am still getting Filly used to the chair and my crutches. I was gratified the other day when I went to her field gate and she cantered the length of the field to me. She stopped around 10 feet away to check out the crutches before coming up for a cuddle.
One of the girls at the yard has become interested in Natural Horsemanship and so I am helping her start to play with Billy. This brings out another of the advantages of being on crutches. It forces me to keep out of the way and really observe what is happening and give hopefully useful help and comments.
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