Uneven legs--Numbness

[Joane Pappas White <Lyoness@Castlenet.com>]

Hi Tracey,

In response to your question about my post last week:

 Hello, Joane,
 You wrote:

> >I spent a week with Donna Snyder Smith and she showed me that I was
 "hooking" my right heel into my horse like a security anchor whenever I
 became insecure. 
> > Can you describe a bit more what you mean?  I may be doing this without
 realising it, although I think I have the opposite problem : I slide my
leg forward to secure it.

My answer:


I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you but I just got
home.  I'll try and explain Donna's evaluation and "prescription" for
me. 

I started endurance 5 years ago and immediately started serious riding
lessons too.  I continually rode with my right stirrup a notch shorter
than my left.  We joke in the family that we all walk like ducks because
Mom made beds like an army sargeant.  Dad said the beds were tucked in
so tightly that we had to be slipped in like a letter in an envelope and
our toes were instantly forced out-- thus the ducks.

That joke came home to roost when my first instructor, actually a
husband and trainer at the time, used to scream at me about my toes
pointing out all the time.  I was so selfconscious about it that I quit
riding (which I had loved since childhood) for 10 years--also quit the
marriage soon after.

When I started lessons again, my new english instructor pushed the "frog
on the boucing ball" thing and rewarded my turned out toes!  That
probably started the hooking thing.  Although I look balanced, front and
back, when I get insecure--speed, steep country, sudden lead change--the
right toe goes further out and my heel comes into the horse's side and I
"hook" or anchor that right heel to secure me in the saddle.  To do this
means that my weight shifts to the left and the right heel comes in and
up. 

There have been hints of this for some time.  For example,,I had a horse
buck on me last spring going downhill on the ranch after being ridden
all day. This horse would never buck! Now I realize I had on spurs and
when I got insecure, that right heel (spur and all) went straight into
his side.  No wonder this usually sweet horse bucked with that spur
anchored into him.

You won't see this problem in a standard walk, trot, canter lesson.  It
takes insecurity in the saddle to bring it out. You will need to video
or have a well trained person watch you in situations that test your
riding skill. 

Now, since the beginning of my distance riding, I have had great rides,
very successful rides and absolutely horrid rides.  The difference?--my
legs.  For no reason we could find, I would have one great ride and at
the next, my leg (usually the right but once the left) would start to go
numb.  It would start in my foot and ankle (they would get so numb that
they would roll to the side) and then the numbness would work up until
my whole side would be numb. It is next to impossible to trot when one
half of your body is totally numb.  You have no balance and live in
terror that the horse will spook and dump you on your head before you
even know you are headed to the ground.

At one ride, Dr. Bruce Burnham told me he thought it was a nerve in the
pelvis that got pinched. I went home and discuss this with my medical
doctor didn't have a clue.  We had special orthotics built for my riding
boots.  You name it--we did it.  The result was some great rides with no
problem and some horrid rides where I had to walk into the vet check
because I didn't dare try and stay in the saddle.  BTW, walking did not
make the numbness go away.  

What had I learned by that time?

1.  That my riding boots had to have good support and be much larger and
wider than my regular shoes.  Ariat Extremes were recommended to me by
Bev Gray and they have been the answer for me.  It took me a year+ to
break them in but I will ride in them till they fall off my feet.  I
gave up the $200 custom Orthotics and just keep what is in the Ariats.
I limit the socks to a light loose pair as the thick ones create
problems.  The Extremes are padded.  BTW Donna cannot wear the Extremes
as they rub her feet but uses the Proformer--the unpadded version of the
extremes.

2.  I take glucosemend (a brand of glucosemine) all the time and start
Arnica (a homeopathic remedy) a day before the ride.  At the time, I
didn't know why, I just know it seemed to help.

3.  I used to have a message therapist work me over before a ride
thinking that the ankle/knee thing would be better if I was more
relaxed. That seemed to help.

4.  Riding Falon, who I thought was smoother than her predecessors,
helped.

5.  Being in better shape seemed to help.

6.  I had a chiropractor work on my back.  He always felt it was my
lower lumbar spine causing the knee and ankle problems.

Now just when everything was going better--BINGO, I would go numb doing
all the right things! Once I even went numb on the opposite side.  That
was a clear message that we missed. I would get so depressed as I was
sponsoring a junior going for a national LD championship and I was
holding this very gifted young rider up--badly! At Antelope Island in
1999, we almost didn't get a completion for Morgan because I could not
seat my horse and had to walk.

We got through last year with only two serious numbness incidents and
Morgan ended up 2nd in the country.  I knew I needed more answers.

I decided to go to Donna's. It took Donna a couple of days to begin to
see the problem.  At first, she thought it was my hip being locked up.
She had me start exercises on the right leg.  While in the saddle and
with the horse walking, I stretch the heel down and then the heel goes
out (away from the horse) without letting my toe turn in.  This must be
done from the hip and not the knee or it will torque the knee and cause
pain there.  I already have some knee problems on the right because of
everything.  

For one week she yelled "get that heel down and out".  When I got home,
I had an old Capriola saddle that had never had the stirrups set.  They
automatically turn my toes in and heels out.  If I relax and don't twist
at the knee, they will actually help stretch the leg for me.  I ride in
that saddle a lot during training now and notice that when I go back to
my endurance saddle, my right leg is much better.  Now I immediately
notice that the right stirrup is too high and all my saddles are back to
even.

To not "hook" is a matter of breaking a bad habit.  The fastest way to
stop is not to use that leg at all.  Kick it free from the stirrup and
learn to ride without it.  It is scary for awhile, but after awhile, you
don't hook into your horse anymore. Plus it allows you more freedom to
stretch the heel out and down without the stirrup doing it for you. 

Leg lifts to the side are really good too.  Stand straight, keep you
foot flat and lift you leg straight out to the side from the hip. 

Now for the best answers we have found to date:

1.  Donna's Chiro corrected Donna and said my hip was not locked up at
all.  He confirmed my own Chiro--a disc problem at L5.  That causes my
LEFT side to lock and the right is trying to do the real work alone.

2.  Lots of exercise for the left side and stretching for the right.  

3.  Good shoe support and/or orthotics to keep the pressure on the feet
even.

4.  NOW FOR THE REASON WHY SOME GOOD DAYS AND SOME BAD!  It has to do
with the time before the ride.  If I have irritated the disc before the
ride ever starts by long truck rides or bad beds or anything that causes
the disc to start to swell before the ride, then it continues to swell
during the ride and eventually puts enough pressure on the sciatic nerve
to make everything go numb.  

That is why walking does not help--too late.  Arnica before and during a
ride helps.  Tylenol (I cannot take aspirin or IBProphin which would be
better) helps.  Doing back exercises in bed before I even get up
helps--knees pulled up tight to chest to stretch out back--laying like
you were on a cross and then trying to touch your right knee to your
left elbow and vice versa while keeping your back flat on the bed.  A
good Chiro can give you the routine.

Getting to the ride without my back needling me is a major factor.  I
love my one ton Dodge dually, but it is not the smoothest of rides.  If
my back is irritated to start with, it is down hill from there. My bed
the night before a ride is really important.  

5.  Grandpa taught me one other thing:  faster is better!  My disc is
going to swell eventually because riding will irritate it.  The longer I
am in the saddle, the more it will go numb.  If I start the ride in good
shape, and ride a steady strong pace, I can finish before the disc wins!
Coming from a 74 year old distance rider, that is sound advice. Please
note that our horses are more than capable of this.

I hope some of my experiences may help you.  This is a frustrating and
confusing problem but, little by little, we are gaining on it.

Joane and the Herd
Price, Utah
Lyoness@Castlenet.com