Lincolnshire show

Good morning,

We spent the day at the Lincolnshire show yesterday. Jon had some newspaper work to do and a few people to meet there but it also gave us the chance to show the children some nice horses and other animals.

We watched some of the hunter classes and Violet insisted on stroking all the horses in the grooms area (which we sneaked into and nobody seemed to notice).

We noticed in the programme that Candy (a thoroughbred we sold last year)was competing in the re-trained racehorse class. The class involved jumping a course of 3 foot rustic fences and 2 coloured showjumps, followed by a short ridden display and a gallop. The marks were given for jumping style, conformation and suitability as a riding horse. Candy looked really smart and Gavin rode him really well. He had a couple of poles down but all in all did really well (and did an impressive gallop - bearing in mind that Candy is lazy!). Candy behaved like an angel in the warm-up and collecting ring and didn't seem to mind all the activity. I have attached some photos of them both in the ring.

I have a couple of new horses, a grey Irish jumping mare called Koala and an iron grey thoroughbred (unraced) mare called Sierra. They are both still being assessed but photos are on my website.

I had a check up with my spinal consultant on Tuesday - really good news! He said that as i have no pain and numbness now and it has been over 2 months since my op, I can start riding again. I have already been doing a small amount of riding (but this was against doctors orders).

I am obviously going to take it easy and not do too much - and certainly won't be riding any confirmed lunatics! I should however, be able to ride a couple of safe horses a day without a problem. My baby bump is growing but I have always ridden during previous pregnancies, just no competing, cross country or breaking in youngsters.

spinal disaster!

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged for ages due to various disasters! I know that this blog must make me sound super accident prone (which i obviously am,as the last 6 months have been just one thing after another!)

After mending my broken finger (Dec)I somehow managed to slip a disc in my back in April. I don't really know what specific incident hurt my back (and luckily it wasn't a big horse crash otherwise i would have had years of "horses are dangerous etc" from Jon!).

Since training and competing in triathlons in 2007/8 I had developed an aching pain deep in my bum cheek, which wasn't super-painful but did make me go to see a sports physio. The physio did all the proper checks and put it down to periformis/sciatic nerve problems and gave me a range of exercises to do.

The pain suddenly got worse one day in April (about 2 hours after I did some jump schooling on Tess). I couldn't get comfortable that night in bed and woke up in the middle of the night with a numb back and bum. I also went for a wee and found that nothing was happening and i knew something wasn't right.

I googled "numb bum can't urinate" on the internet and everything i read suggested i had a rare condition called Caudal Equina syndrome.

I went to the doctors and he was very dismissive telling me a probably had a bladder infection!? I put my foot down and made him read the medical pages i had found online and within a minute of reading it he buzzed straight through to the spinal unit at the QMC.

I went into hospital, was assessed by the spinal consultant and given an MRI scan (where your whole body goes into a space-age tube!). The scan revealed that i had slipped a large disc and it had snapped off and was compressing the spinal nerves that supplied my bladder.

Despite being 13 weeks pregnant they had to operate immedietely under general aneasthetic. I was told that if they didn't operate within 24 hours there was a good chance i could lose all bladder and bowel function and in some cases use/sensation of legs.

The operation went well and i had to stay in hospital for over a week. I had an ultrasound after the op and the baby appeared to be fine (i am now 21 weeks pregnant and she is completely healthy).

I was told no running, triathlon or horse riding for months. My absolute favourite!

It has now been 7 or 8 weeks since my op and my back has healed brilliantly and i can wee normally (i had to have a nasty cathetor for 3 weeks after the op and we were worried that i had sustained permanent nerve damage either before or during the op, but all is fine now).

I am fully mobile and have been walking 2 miles a day for the last 4 weeks. I have ridden a few times in walk (and a tiny bit of trotting) and been out for a few hacks (on 100% safe horses) but am not doing too much as riding is very concussive.

I initially panicked and decided to sell all the riding/dealing horses and just keep my mares. Monty, Ellie and Az have all been sold now. Because i am more mobile than i originally thought i would be, i have decided to keep selling a few carefully selected ponies/small horses but am not handling youngsters or breaking in again until next year.

We still have 4 broodmares and a couple of riding/selling ponies which the girls have been exercising.

Tessy and Belle have been scanned in foal and we are collecting them from stud tomorrow. We are taking Nita and Marcie to stud and doing a swap over.

I will try to post something more horsey and less disaster-striken soon!

Lucy x