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[RC] compression lumbar fracture - Marlene MossTitle: MessageI came off a horse
in 1997 and got a compression fracture of one of my lumbars. I don't
remember which, 4 maybe? About even with my hip bones or a touch
below. It mostly felt like the worst cramps I ever had and big loss of
strength. No riding for 3 months and that was all the dr said, other than
it was better to stand than to sit or lay down too much. I had to have
someone drive me to work for a week, but I only missed a day and a half.
The dr didn't give me any exercises or a brace or anything.
We were in the
process of buying land, moving, building a house. I remember one car we
owned amplified little bumps in the road in a frequency that really bugged my
back. I kept the horse long enough to ride him at a walk and trot and then
sold him since I'd never really bonded with him anyhow - lazy quarter horse, I
wanted my crazy arabs back, they never surprised me!
This was all before
I discovered endurance. I bought a colt since that way I wouldn't have to
ride since I was pretty scared. Then I realized it sucked having a horse
and not riding. That's when I learned about endurance, bought myself an
experienced (insane) mare, spent a year teaching her to walk and then
starting conditioning. I suppose in that time I was still careful with my
back, lifting properly etc, but I don't really remember any issues (and we moved
twice, built a 5 acre fence, 6 stall barn, did a fair amount of work on our
house ourselves. But when I started conditioning and made a goal of
trotting 5 minutes straight, then my back started bugging me. Mostly just
dull ache, but the occasional sharper pain as I stood up after bending
over. I just kept working on it (and I'm not saying that you should just
work through back injury issues and ignore it, but that with the right exercises
and consistent exercise that you should have a good prognosis) and at least got
to my 5 minutes trotting goal.
I had occasional
issues until I got a saddle that could really be balanced for me and my horse,
plus had adjustable stirrup bar position. I suddenly had no more back
pain, no more knee pain and I haven't really thought about the injury since
except that I do get an occasional hot feeling in one foot when I haven't been
riding often enough! Now I can trot for hours and never think about my
back except that I can't slouch on a couch w/o a pillow behind me or sleep
on my stomach.
I hope you can find
someone to give you some good exercises that help you build back up.
Massage therapy, chiro can help too, but definitely talk to someone who knows
about your injury.
Marlene
Marlene Moss
Saddle Fitting - www.KineticEquineAnalysis.com
Boarding/Training - www.LosPinos-CO.com
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