A week of no riding

Doesn't this background make you want to saddle up and go for a long ride and gallop through some tall grass... it does for me. I love training and competing but there is something magical about a good long ride in a wide open field on your trusted old friend that just about makes life seem perfect. That's exactly what I am longing to do... but can't.

A few weeks ago I wrote over at my blog about the recent fall I had on that wild youngster of mine... you can read it here. That fall left me pretty beat up, but the bruise on my arm was almost gone and my back was feeling much better so last Sat I saddled up Mr Romeo (after doing thorough ground work and making sure some of the wild energy was already released) and worked him for a bit. Everything went great, mister was an angel and the lesson was very productive. However later that night my lower back was in an enormous amount of pain. This was quite puzzling to me. I have lower back problems, due to a fall many years ago, I have had 2 rounds of pt and am now able to manage it well. In fact, riding makes it better and I always feel better after a ride, so needless to say this pain was troublesome.

As it turns out I suffered a deep muscle bruise on my lower back from the fall. By the way... those things hurt.... really badly!! Much worse then a broken arm. Kinda wishing that was my injury. So far I have not found anything that helps speed up the healing process for a deep muscle bruise, everything I read just says rest. That is the one thing I hate to do. I am one who always pushes through pain and ignores it. However, doing that with a deep muscle bruise will actually make it worse and there are  some serious things that can happen if you don't care for it. So..... all week I have watched my beauties from afar dreaming of the day I  can get back out there.

To top it off... the usual 100 degree weather we have in July was in the low 90's all last week and part of this week. Now that I am finally starting to feel better the temp shoots back up. Go figure :-p Sigh... yes, I'm pouting. The latter part of this week has been relatively pain free so that's a good sign. I've taken it easy and rested a whole lot. My goal is to ride early Wed morning. We'll see if I can.