The silence is killing me 😭
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I'm baaaaaaaaack!!! 12 weeks post-op and I've been able to ride the last three mornings. My foot still hurts and my trainer is making me use the mounting block for now, but I was about to walk/trot/canter/rollback/and try one spin. The little roan mare I've been riding absolutely cleaned up at the rodeo and she's even better than she was four months ago. I feel very fortunate to be able to ride her. Hopefully, I will be back on my own mare soon!0
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Hello again!
@Mouse_Potato - Looks like you made it back a little earlier than you expected from your last post. Mounting block or not, that's so awesome! I can see its been over a week since you posted, so have you been back on your mare? How's her training coming?
I confess, I jumped the gun a little expressing my delight with my Mom & Aunt "Riding for Fitness". Once again, Mom has stopped riding after only 8 rides this year (her last ride was March 18th). And since she's not riding, Aunt isn't really interested. I think Mom likes my horses & to ride them, but she seems to lose interest & make excuses frequently. SOOOO, I too might be a changeling since I'm the only one in my family as well that tries to stay active consistently (even though my activities aren't necessarily consistent) as well as the only equestrian. On the upside: I can ride my horses longer since Slate can handle my weight better than Sunny who is still limited to 30-45 minute rides. Slate & I went for 10.8 miles yesterday in a different neighborhood 🤠
Just a side note about my MFP news feed absence: My diary is public so anyone can see what I log (when I log) but I have stopped having my exercises automatically posted. I use Equilab to track my horseback rides, Garmin for other exercises, and ALL post to Google Fit & MFP. Unfortunately, MFP can't tell them apart so there are duplicates that I have to edit or delete every day.0 -
Hello group!
Just an update: my equine activities have been sub-par this month due to planning & prepping for our 4 day WV ATV vacation last week. I did manage to squeeze in one last ride on each horse today, but it was short & slow.
Soooo - Dwayne & I went to WV, Hatfield & McCoy ATV trails with our boys Johnny & Ben, their families & a few friends. The trip LITERALLY had ups & downs. I really enjoy spending recreational time with my kids, but this time I'm hurting... I wrecked pretty bad on Ben's 4-wheeler (lost control & went over the bank - I tumbled about 65' & the ATV went about 85'). Then with it still down over the bank, we got pounded by a severe storm. Lightning struck a tree & it landed across the trail. I can honestly say that while banged up pretty good (scuffed, bleeding & bruised), I climbed up the bank & walked away - BUT I would not have been able to do so if I didn't have my helmet!!! The next morning we "recovered" the ATV from where it landed.
The storm also wrecked our tent & soaked everything we had so we ended up getting a motel room. The rest of the trip was okay in between storms, my aches & pains, & drying all our bedding & camping gear. Once packed up, we went to another part of the trail system and rode the ATVs again - pleasant & uneventful. Yes, I know my mistake (driver error) that caused my wreck, No, I'm not afraid to ride & have fun on the 4-wheelers.
Hopefully June will be back to normal 😎
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Hello group!
Just an update: my equine activities have been sub-par this month due to planning & prepping for our 4 day WV ATV vacation last week. I did manage to squeeze in one last ride on each horse today, but it was short & slow.
Soooo - Dwayne & I went to WV, Hatfield & McCoy ATV trails with our boys Johnny & Ben, their families & a few friends. The trip LITERALLY had ups & downs. I really enjoy spending recreational time with my kids, but this time I'm hurting... I wrecked pretty bad on Ben's 4-wheeler (lost control & went over the bank - I tumbled about 65' & the ATV went about 85'). Then with it still down over the bank, we got pounded by a severe storm. Lightning struck a tree & it landed across the trail. I can honestly say that while banged up pretty good (scuffed, bleeding & bruised), I climbed up the bank & walked away - BUT I would not have been able to do so if I didn't have my helmet!!! The next morning we "recovered" the ATV from where it landed.
The storm also wrecked our tent & soaked everything we had so we ended up getting a motel room. The rest of the trip was okay in between storms, my aches & pains, & drying all our bedding & camping gear. Once packed up, we went to another part of the trail system and rode the ATVs again - pleasant & uneventful. Yes, I know my mistake (driver error) that caused my wreck, No, I'm not afraid to ride & have fun on the 4-wheelers.
Hopefully June will be back to normal 😎
Yikes!! I'm glad to hear you seem to be okay. What a terrifying experience! Looks like a beautiful area, though.
Not much riding going on around here. I was gone for a week at the beginning of May for my birthday trip and I caught a really bad cold immediately. Probably in the hotel lobby the first morning (lots of people were coughing and sneezing while we tried to eat breakfast). I was sick for 3 full weeks. We had some really bad storms down here as well which knocked out the power for several days. Lots of fun to deal with while sick! My trainer is currently in Wyoming judging a horse show, so I have to wait until he gets back to resume lessons. Oh, and I have my second surgery at the end of July. 2024 will go down as the year I utterly failed to get in shape.
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Hi, mouse! It seems the news feed is shut down so I came to community and look who I found. You probably know I bred, raised, showed and sold Arabians for 20 years. It's 10 years since I stopped the business, but I still have 14 horses left here, all old. I still have an inactive stallion. He's so easy he has been allowed to keep his parts.1
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Hi, Sandra! It's good to see you in here.
Well, maybe the groups will pick up without the Newsfeed (trying to find the silver lining). I still have mine on the app, but I see it's gone from the website. I feel surprisingly lonely without it. Not to mention there doesn't seem to be much point in logging my exercises or closing my diary or maintaining my streak. 
My Arabian is about 22, I think. I don't have her papers. She was abandoned by her former owner many years ago. I haven't ridden since the beginning of May. My trainer has gone AWOL. I'd like to say more about that, but not on a publicly-visible forum.
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Hello @SandraJN
I am pleased to meet you & so glad to see your post. Hopefully you will share more about your horse life in time. Do you ride? My name is Mitsy & I have 2 horses, both older but still riding.
@Mouse_Potato - I'm with you! Already missing the news feed but hopeful that it will increase activity here. Please try not to lose focus on why you are a member of MFP: our health & fitness is increasingly important as we get older and even though we will be limited in our sharing & following without the news feed, MFP is still the best I've found for tracking. I will be here to listen to & encourage anyone who might need it 😉
Does anyone know why MFP discontinued the News Feed?0 -
@mgood4x4 I typed out a response and it appears to have disappeared. Let's see if this posts before I go through the trouble of writing it again.1
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Fascinating. It didn't post again. I wonder if they have banned the use of certain inflammatory words? Let's experiment:
Just horse stuff this time:
My trainer resurfaced and I was able to ride yesterday. Skipped today because we expected that tropical storm to be much stronger than it is. My legs are sore anyway after going 8 weeks without riding. I plan to ride again tomorrow morning and every morning that I can for the next 5 weeks. My next surgery is on July 25th and then I will be out for at least 8 weeks, possibly 12.1 -
Nope. It won't allow me to answer your question. That's kind of hysterical.0
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Interesting...
I also typed a reply yesterday & it was lost - but I'm pretty sure it was my own fault for refreshing the page before hitting "Post Reply". I do indeed understand your "inflammatory response". It's disheartening that MFP keeps taking away features that many of us come to rely on for continued success with our health journeys. I also see no reason to continue striving for my daily login streak or diary tracking 😔
So good to hear you are riding again. Hopefully the temporary soreness wares off quickly and you can pack in as much riding as possible before your next lay-up. Are you not able or allowed to ride your horse without the trainer? Shame on me - only logged 1 ride so far this month. I really NEED to get back at it. One thing I did finish is the pest Screens for my barn. This should reduce the amount of house flys & eliminate the stable flys getting in. Time will tell...
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I tried to post 3-4 times, but every time I mentioned you-know-what my post just disappeared. I wasn't even writing anything inflammatory myself. Just speculating about costs versus revenue. I disagree with the decision, but I'm not taking it personally. I am very sad, though. Yesterday my scale moved for the first time in weeks and when I logged it, I didn't even get a congratulatory banner.
And yeah, my streak seems kind of pointless if I can't brag about it anymore! Same with logging exercise. My Fitbit already accounts for it, so I don't need to put it in my diary except to keep track for myself. I suppose. I doubt I'm going anywhere, though. I still intend to track and the other sites require premium to link with Fitbit. I'm trying to cut costs right now, not add to them!
I can ride my horse anytime I wish, but I don't have the correct tack. She's been transitioned from English to Western and I don't have a saddle for her yet. Although I paid for a custom dressage saddle, she's developed a lot of muscle over the last two years and it won't fit her correctly anymore. I can always do circles in the arena bareback, but usually I just groom her and leave it at that if I don't have a lesson. I did ride on Friday and I'm riding again tomorrow morning. Back on the $60k reiner!
Those pest screens look pretty awesome! I hope they work. My barn has a fly spray system that does quite well inside, but the bugs are nuts out on the trails. We've had so much rain this year already (not that I'm complaining after last year's drought) that the mosquitoes have had a baby boom!
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Whew!
Update on the pest screens - they are working very well, considering...
They do blow around quite a bit. I added some copper rings & washers to the bottoms of each panel to hold them down a little, but they still blow open in a light to moderate breeze allowing the houseflies that are resting on them to fly in. So far, though, only houseflies are coming in - no stableflies, horseflies, or deerflies yet & I haven't seen any mosquitoes yet either but I'm not out there very long after dusk. The horses have been spending more daytime in the barn for relief from the biters so I think they like the change also.
We've been swamped with chores at our river lot and here at home getting ready for our vacation. But we did make time to celebrate Independence Day with our family over the weekend. 3.5 hours of volleyball with my adult children & their "better halves" has me a bit sore for the last few days: 1400+ calories burned, so it's totally worth it.
Dwayne & I haven't had a vacation since 2016, so we decided to go all out for our 25th Anniversary...
I won't have to do horse chores for 10 DAYS!! But I will miss my horsey time with Slate & Sunny - and there will be so much to catch up on when I get back.0 -
@mgood4x4 I hope you have a wonderful time on your cruise! I have been on that ship. She is older, but quite lovely! We took her out of NOLA back in 2019.
Well, the last two weeks have been a bit hectic down here. On July 8th we took a direct hit from Hurricane Beryl which caused a lot of chaos. I was fortunate and only lost power for a day and a half, but many other were less fortunate, including my boyfriend. I was planning to buy a generator anyway, so I bought one and let him use it for the 8 days he had no power. Anyway, there was a lot of clean up to do, including at the barn, but I rode three times this week and will ride again Mon-Tue-Wed of this coming week, but then I have my next surgery on Thursday, so I will be out of the saddle once more.
I am glad to hear your pest screens are working well. After the hurricane, the mosquitoes down here are larger than some horses I've ridden. 1 -
@Mouse_Potato - special prayers for your surgery tomorrow 🙏 I hope you were able to ride as much as you intended & enjoyed every minute of it 🤠 Hopefully you will recover quickly & not be out of the saddle for too long. Also, glad you have a generator now, I think this hurricane season is going to be hectic & a generator is awesome tool to have! We usually run ours when the power goes out for 4 or more hours, just to keep our freezers from getting too warm. Oh, & thank you for the well wishes for our vacation. It was amazing!! We are definitely not waiting so long to go again.
So apparently, we're in a "D3" drought here at home with the town on mandatory water restrictions. We have a well on our property, so we can still water our tomatoes & fruit trees as needed, but those within town limits can be fined $1000 if they are caught using water "unnecessarily" (ie: watering plants or gardens, bathing or hosing their dog even during the extreme heat advisories we've been having). Our Shenandoah river level is the lowest I've ever seen! The dry conditions aren't doing any favors for crops & hay growers, but the biting insect population seems to have decreased dramatically. My hay guy still doesn't have a 2nd cutting yet - I guess there's pro's & con's to every situation 😟0 -
@mgood4x4 Well, I'm back, more or less. Surgery went well. I spent 2 weeks unable to put any weight on my foot at all. That was frustrating. I got my sutures removed last Thursday and was cleared to start walking in the boot. I have learned that when my doctor says I am "cleared" to do something, he means it won't ruin his hard work. It is no guarantee that it will be pleasant for me! So, 9 days later I am hobbling around, but it sure doesn't feel good. I'm thinking later today I *might* try to drive to the store. Maybe. I haven't driven in over 3 weeks now. That also feel very strange.
It will be at least another 7-8 weeks before I can ride again. Maybe longer. I will be in the boot for another 5 weeks and, as I recall from last time, when I am cleared to wear normal shoes, they won't feel very good either! Oh, well. It needed to be done, preferably before I get any older and slower to heal. maybe next year I will take up running.
I hope you are doing well and you got some rain. We've had a reasonably wet summer for a change. No water restrictions, no drought. Hot as Hades, but a lot better than last year.
That's a great picture of the two of you on the deck! Looks like we're going again in January, out of NOLA. My father has it all planned. We will be on Brilliance of the Seas, which is a new one for us. I can't wait!1 -
Well, today I got to ride again! I didn't do much. Mostly walk, a bit of trot, and maybe a dozen strides of canter. It felt good, though, so if I'm not too sore I will go back in the morning and try again.
A few more things have changed since I wrote last. We are now in a drought. All the rain dried up, but at least we didn't get another hurricane. Also, my January cruise has been canceled because my dad missed the deadline for the down payment. I think it might be time for me to take over travel agent duties.
I gained about 6 pounds while I was recovering from surgery, but I'm down 3.5 already. Just a few more to go. Still logging my food, but I no longer bother logging exercise. My Fitbit already tracks it and without the news feed there's really no point.
I hope everyone is doing well and getting out to ride!0 -
@Mouse_Potato - Back in the saddle, HOORAY!! That's great news. And since your last post was 2 weeks ago, I hope that you were able to get even more consistent ride time. Are you riding your mare, or still the trainer's horses? Sorry to hear about the drought. We got significant rain from the hurricane that relieved our drought - not enough to cause disaster here, but did flood our river lot twice & flooded my barn floors. Since our cruise and between the storms, I've been pretty busy. I cleaned out the barn's muddy floors & laid grid & gravel so hopefully it will drain much better and not be a big muddy mess next time. It has been quite dry and beautiful here since then. I have been meeting my riding goals & tracking the rides with EquiLab.
Sorry to hear you won't be enjoying a January cruise. I guess the positive is that you can still enjoy your horse time (I hear FL is mild during the winter & most folks don't have to stop riding for winter weather).
In other news: My mother had surgery to replace her hip (bone on bone) and is healing well so far. We are hoping she will be able to ride again come spring. She is also looking into surgery to fix her shoulder after she heals from the hip replacement, so we'll just have to wait & see how things goes. This means, I still ride alone.
I also agree. I haven't been tracking much of anything in MFP since they took away the News feed. I have been logging in daily (finally over 1000 days streak), but very inconsistent with my food diary. I haven't logged exercises either. Whatever shows up in my diary is automatically put there from tracking it on my Garmin Lily or from Google Fit logging my EquiLab rides. Like you said... There's really no point. I hope MFP decides to make some changes that allows us members to be better connected and supportive soon. Are you ready for the upcoming Holidays?0 -
@mgood4x4 Another month has passed. I guess none of us are spending as much time here as we used to. I'm still logging my food, but I don't browse the forums like I used to and the Fitbit bug means there is no point in trying to log exercise. Oh, and the scammers...! They've come out of the woodwork. I think maybe AI detects my profile picture as male, so I keep getting friend requests from pretty young "women" who all want to have private chats with me.
But I'm still riding.
Not on my mare yet, though. I am getting my stamina back and learning to use my Frankenfeet on my trainer's horses. I can't complain. They are some fancy horses! Yes, this is a good time of year to ride for us (I'm in Texas). In fact, it's better now than in summer. It is supposed to be awfully cold tomorrow morning, but it's still not that cold for northerners. We're looking at a low of 36 degrees! Brrrrr!!! This morning it was 53 and yesterday it was in the 60s. Perfect riding weather!
I'm glad to hear the hurricane didn't hit you too hard and I hope your mother is recovering from her surgery! I am pretty much ready for the holidays. Didn't do much for Thanksgiving, but I always go see my sister for Christmas. I've got my plane tickets, booked a pet sitter, and just finished my shopping today. I'm as ready as I'm going to be!
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