fighting knee injury

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

> McClain wrote:
> 
> I have a knee with an old injury...t is painful to ride very far, 
> 5 miles or more...I would sure welcome any suggestions anyone may 
> have on how to reduce knee strain, tricks with leathers, stirrups, 
> braces,ect.

Sherrie

I've been fighting a knee strain since May when bad Karen Chaton
made me trot and trot and trot and trot at Scott's Flat (I'm
blaming her entirely. It's *obviously* her fault. She is a lousy 
mentor. Should be more responsible. Told me endurance would get
better the more I did... she lied, etc...etc... ;-)  ).

Anyway. First I was told by the doctor to baby it for a month.
I "kind of" did this and it didn't help much. Knee still hurt.
Like your's, I don't think anything's torn or broken, it's just
strained and really, really p*ssed at me. It doens't hurt a lot. 
Only when I trot really...for 50 miles. In your case, your's is 
an old injury, so it prolly wouldn't help you either.

You could experiment with stirrup length - raising them/lowering 
them/fiddling endlessly with them. We've done this with my husband-
recovering-from-a-broken-leg/knee and it's taken lots and lots of 
adjustment, but we seem to be getting there. What feels good for 
a while, will need changing after a few miles/rides, so don't give
up on this. Plus it'll give you lots of mounting and dismounting
practise.

You could experiment with different saddles (huh, easy for me to
say). Buying a saddle with adjustable stirrup hangers would be
perfect. Do such things exist? In my case, trotting on some inclines,
my knee doesn't hurt at all, at other time it hurts a lot. It all 
depends on the angle. So lots of adjustment would be a wonderful
thing.

You could try getting on an off a lot, if you think that walking
and stretching your knee out would help. Say ride for four miles,
walk for five minutes. Might help. Then again, it might not.

You could try taking glucosamine/chondroitin and MSM (this is
what I've just started, in despair of anything else working).
You get to try and swallow lots of pessary sized pills every day. 
I'll let you know if it seems successful - I'm only a week or so
into this experiment.

You could try riding with a knee brace. This might help stop it
getting more strained, but if it's already hurting then it prolly 
won't. I say this, because three weeks after Scott's Flat, Karen 
talked me into doing Camp Far West (see what a bad mentor she is??). 
About 15 miles into the ride, my not-at-all-recovered-knee woke up 
and realised what I was trying to subject it to and got p*ssed 
with me all over again. The result of this was having to finish 
the second half of the ride (30 miles) at a walk/canter (the only
two gaits I could do). I wore Karen's knee brace. It didn't help.
The damage was already done.

Admittedly, doing a ride this way did work. I still finished in
11 hours (Trilby beat me, which apparently is quite outstanding.
Not many people can say that). But something to consider? If you
can walk and canter...then do the ride at a walk and a canter.
Persuade your horse that the trot is overrated.

You might consider buying a gaited horse (you can see how my mind
has been working over the past few months, ignoring the fact we
have two non-gaited arabs in the paddock and another one potentially 
on the way... was this just another excuse to acquire another horse?
Moi? No, never...)

You might consider going to a knee specialist and finding out about
"really good knee exercises to strengthen your knee and make the
pain miraculously go away". I haven't done this,. Instead, I've
resorted to riding my greenie who doesn't trot much. I'm figuring
that by riding her at a walk a lot, with short trotting stretches,
I'm gradually strengthening my knee until it will be strong enough
to deal with life without complaining. This is probably dillusionary.

In conclusion, maybe none of the above will hurt. Knees are stupid
bad things and everyone's knee injury is different. But I hope this
gives you some ideas of things to try...

-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Repotted english person in Sacramento, CA 
http://www.calweb.com/~elsie

with Mouse and Provo
**************************************************************



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