Since The Last Post

Not much has changed.  I'm still fighting the pain from true hell with no assignable cause headache.  Can you even believe it?  Dr had a test run, saw nothing useful.  Battling insurance to get a second test done, and reports so far aren't sounding like it'll happen.  I'm running out of ideas, and energy. 

I rode last Friday morning, both horses.  True rides, rustling through the arena grass with Harley and Romeo.   The rides were awesome, but I paid dearly for it later.  I had a splitting headache, and had to resort to strong medicine to ease it.  Sunday morning, I took Harley for a short walk.  Lifting the endurance saddle to his back increased the pain, so I knew better than to repeat with Mo. 

Last night, I grabbed my helmet and Harley's bridle.  I clipped my helmet chin strap, bitted him in the arena, climbed on from the mounting steps, and we went walking.  All over the pasture, total about 15 minutes.  I feel like I'm letting him down.  I know he wants to do more, he let me know when we got done, and I was safely out of his pasture by running amok bucking & farting.  He is bored.. and it's driving me as crazy as the headache is.

Edit after the fact:  I forgot to tell Harley's funny story last night.  I walked him towards the pond, he splashed in, walked up to the deep end, and stood.  Pawing at the water, he got himself wet up to his neck with splashes, and my jeans were wet up to my knees.  As we approached the water, I realized, "My horse hasn't had true work or a routine in about a month or more.  I haven't been riding much at all.  And here I am, bareback, helmet, bridle, on a loose rein, asking him to splash through muddy water he can't see through.  I have utterly lost my mind, and apparently without realizing it, I'm learning to trust him.  Ain't that nifty."

So much going on outside of my little world... The Olympics yielded the US Zero medals, first time in a long time.  Beezie Madden is reported to have whacked her mount suspiciously hard for a few stops, Rich Fellers got so super close but had a few blips.  I watched Stefen Peters' last ride, and compared with the Brit who won gold.  There's a blip in her ride, around 3:15min.  Give it a look.  What on earth happened there, and how did that NOT push her out of the medals?  Was she consistently better on all the rides?  I watched Rafalca's first ride, and was mezmorized.  Jan Eberling is one heck of a rider. :)  LOVE LOVE seeing riders pleased with their horse, no matter if they're 80%+ perfect, I love seeing riders praise and love on their equine partner. 
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/equestrian/dujardins-individual-dressage-gold-medal-ride.html

Then, of course, EVERYONE has blogged about the Kittel rollkur BS, and that Canadian horse with the suspicious cut on his coronet band.  My opinion?  Cheaters suck, and they should be taken to the metaphoric woodshed and whacked with a riding crop.  I didn't see either incident live, no video of either the rollkur happening live, or of the Canadian horse's hoof cut.  Cheaters suck. 

If you're well enough to ride, and your horse is healthy enough to carry you, go ride please.  I'm going to keep limping along at the walk with the occasional harder ride (pain killers ready at the end), and nagging the doctors for answers..