What a way to go...

Ray Kennedy song from the '80s.  The songs refrain is "women gonna be the death of me but what a way to go"  I remember back when it came out I thought one could substitute horses for women and it would be perfect for me and endurance riders in general.

The song popped into my mind this weekend because I came off of Tanza on Saturday and wrenched my back.  I think he stumbled and then did his Grrrr and deer hopping that he has been doing a bit.  Well this time I got off balance with the stumble and ended up coming off even though it was just deer hopping.   Landed on my back, or at least hit my back on the bank we were next to and wrenched my back pretty good.

But it did not hurt for riding, only for bending over and some twisting movements so I was able do finish the ride and ride again the next day and Tanza did complete both days and it was not too sore driving home either so I guess my playing hooky worked out OK.     Need one more completion on Tanza within the MRER rides and we'll get a little award at the convention this winter.  It is fun to get those so hopefully mr crabby pants completes at least one day this weekend when I take him again.

I have no sympathy for working fairly hard in just a one month period with my back still giving little twinges throughout the day even though I've been taking ibuprofen and rubbing arnica on it every few hours during the day and taking naproxin at night and using heat wraps the last couple days too.   Luckily my every 4 weeks chiro appointment was set for tomorrow and my chiro does a lot of muscle work so I have hope that he can break up the spasms and get me feeling much better.   I'll probably schedule an extra visit for Monday for any needed mop up.

I experimented with two different pad changes after Tanza had dry spots and white hairs after the IKYR ride a few weeks ago.  The Supracor pad in the Skito liner ended up with a bit of soreness in the middle of Tanza's back.  I'll need to do some tapering of edges and trim to have the pad not so close to the horse's spine in the middle of the back but it looks hopeful for using under the treeless saddle for Sadie and as a spare pad for Tanza.

Cutting up the old Skito memory foam and making a shim from the front part to use with his Skito pad seems to have worked quite well.   The vet dinged him one point for withers on his BC score but I didn't see or feel any problem,  I think it was residual from the IKYR.  

Tanza also told me that the old CMC I was mixing with electrolytes is not cutting the potassium salt bite.   I was not happy with his stubborn redhead self but then if he had not been protesting I would not have considered and realized that yes I need to toss that old bottle that had separated and find a better way.   Sadie just figured I'm mean and took the stuff but Tanza gets stubborn if he thinks something is unpleasant.    I bought some banana baby food which has worked good to cut electrolyte tang for me in the past.  I may just give Tanza a little electrolytes in his food this weekend though so I don't have to get some plain applesauce or molasses into him a few times to get him over thinking stuff in the syringe is nasty while my back is whinging.