While you often seem him wandering around on land, he’s also a big fan of exploring his aquatic side, getting his toes wet and enjoying some water and mud.
There are all kinds of fun activities for a baby hippo to enjoy while he’s hanging out in the water.
He can admire his beautiful reflection.
He can stomp and splash.
And of course hippos are herbivores, so he enjoys chomping on all the extra-moist and delicious noms at the water’s edge.
Which, for some reason that makes the human go “gah, do you have to rip all my grass out by the ROOT!?!”. Whatever that means.
*shrug*
The water is also a delightful place to hang out and spend some quality family time with his momma hippo (from whom he inherited his sleek physique).
Baby hippos enjoy inviting their friends over to admire their pool sometimes too (“friend” and “pool” are both a stretch, admittedly, but don’t tell baby hippo).
Most importantly though, the baby hippo – while quite robust – is still a very regal creature, whether on land or in the water.
After all, the word hippopotamus is derived from ancient Greek meaning quite literally “river horse”, and I’m not sure there’s a better representation of that than Obi.
First and foremost I need you to know that I’m wearing a hoodie and leggings as I type this. A cold front came through, and while the highs are still in the upper 80’s, we’re down in the 50’s at night. 50’s, people! It is GLORIOUS and I may or may not have been extremely excited to pull my hoodie off of it’s hanger this morning. Is there any better item of clothing than this? No. No there isn’t. It is officially the most wonderful time of year.
Anyway, I’m also sitting here with an ice pack on my back. I had my first Airrosti appointment yesterday and you know you’ve accomplished something (probably not a good something, but something) when the doctor says “wow, this is bad”.
The reality is that I’ve had lower back pain for… basically my entire adult life. It’s pretty rare that a day goes by where the pain level is zero, it’s just a matter of whether it’s a tightness, or an ache, or a more “catching” stabby feeling. When I’m really active the rest of my body starts to be affected too, resulting in lots of tightness in my hips, my IT band, and especially my hamstrings. When I was doing triathlons it was REALLY bad, since running seems to be the thing that aggravates it the most. It’s noticeably all tied together though, starting in my back and branching out from there. I used to see a chiro/sports PT guy very regularly when I was in the height of all that triathlon stuff, because it was BAD back then, but as I branched away from the sport I stopped going to him, and honestly when I was less active it usually didn’t bother me as much anyway.
But now I’m pretty active, and I need to stay pretty active, so… it’s probably past time to try to fix or at least help some of my chronic physical issues. Especially since it’s so obviously affecting my riding, or at least preventing me from progressing the way I’d like. I’m fighting against my own body at this point. Enter Airrosti.
As I mentioned last week, Airrosti was recommended to me by a few friends who have had great success with the program. There’s a provider only about 15 minutes from me, so I scheduled an appointment figuring I don’t have much to lose at this point.
The doctor brought me in, read my intake form, and started asking me questions. She’s seen a lot of riders before and you could tell from her questions that she’s at least pretty familiar with the physical demands of the sport. We did an exam where she asked me to do a few basic things (hinge at the waist, push my leg in or out against her hand, etc etc) and she looked at my back. As soon as she lifted my shirt she goes “oh, yeah, there’s visible swelling at L4”. Huh. Good to know. She had me move around, looking at my range of motion, rating the pain, telling her when things felt tight, etc etc. Honestly I didn’t feel that bad yesterday, all things considered. I’d call it a low-moderate day for me on the pain scale, but ya know, apparently that’s not normal.
Once we were done she had me sit down, got out her whiteboard marker, and started explaining everything to me that she was seeing. First and foremost she said that my lower back was bad enough that she would diagnose it as an L4 sprain, and then overall she thinks my issue is lower cross syndrome, which is basically a fancy way of saying muscle imbalance. She said it’s a little bit chicken-or-egg trying to say which issues causes the other, because they feed off of each other and compound. But given the fact that I do have slight scoliosis that makes me crooked and prone to back problems, it’s probably all emanating from my back. Either way it doesn’t really matter, because the treatment and rehab addresses all of it together as a whole.
As far as strengths and weaknesses, my legs are wicked strong, but my glutes are like… sad. Real sad. My core wasn’t particularly weak, but all the issues in my back are preventing me from utilizing and engaging my core correctly a lot of the time. My hip abductors and adductors were definitely weak too, and my whole upper body was quite strong. So basically, above my ribcage and below my knees = good. Everything in between my diaphragm and my knees = real bad. Also interesting that my whole left side was noticeably tighter and more sore than my right side.
After she explained everything she was seeing, she laid out a plan for how she thought we should fix it. First and foremost, treat the back. It’s really an injury at this point, so before we can mess with it too much, we have to get the swelling down and help break up some of the tightness. That would require home treatment. What she could do in the office that day was some manual release in my hips, glutes, and IT band, so she set to work on that. It was one of those deep tissue things where it definitely hurt but in the best possible way. She honed right in on some extremely tight spots and it definitely felt a bit better when she was done, even if I’m sporting a bruise on my left ass cheek today.
After that she took me over to the rehab guy, outlined what she had found and what exercises she wanted me to do over the next several days. The rehab guy showed me how to do each one and explained what it’s all trying to accomplish, then KT-taped the living hell out of my back.
I didn’t even realize how much was on there until I got home lol
The exercises they gave me for this first session utilize lacrosse balls and are fairly basic/quick – all simple releases designed to help break up the tightness in my glutes, hamstrings, and back. He recommended that I do all of those 3 times a day. I’m also supposed to be icing my lower back 3 times a day to help get the swelling out of that L4 area. Lastly, the only real strengthening exercise they gave me for this go-round of homework is the glute activation – that’s the biggest weakness and the one we can easily address right off the bat since it’s not as tight as everything else. The KT tape can stay on for as long as it wants to, preferably at least 3 days or even right up until my next appointment.
As far as the overall plan, usually Airrosti treatments are over 3 appointments, but they scheduled me for 4 over two weeks. My next one will be next Monday, and then another 4 days later, and then another 5 days later. The idea is that the injury/major issues will be resolved by then, and at that point it’ll just be a matter of giving me a maintenance plan to execute at home to continue resolving the issue and prevent it from happening again. I like that they aren’t trying to tie you down to constant ongoing treatment, it’s more of a “let’s fix this in such a way that we don’t have to see you again” type thing.
We’ll see how it works. I have to say that I do feel overall better and less tight today, and my back pain is on the lower end of the spectrum. Rolling around on those lacrosse balls this morning before my spin class wasn’t my most favorite sensation in the world (imagine an extremely targeted foam roller, that’s basically what it is) but it did feel better afterward.
At this point I’m cautiously optimistic that this might actually be able to help me manage some of these issues I’ve had for… basically my entire life. I know it’s likely that I’ll always have to do some kind of special things given the fact that my spine is crooked, but I’m more than happy to do my homework if it helps my riding and my overall quality of life. Fingers crossed…
Whoopsy, sorry about that little unplanned blog absence. My laptop started to shit the bed last week after some updates and after many hours of IT intervention it was determined to be unfixable. I got a new laptop but not until Monday afternoon, at which point I had almost 3 days of backed up work to do, so I didn’t have time to get anything ready to post here yesterday either. But I’m caught up now and back to the normal routine, and there’s really not a whole lot to fill you in on anyway. Honestly I’ve been thinking about cutting back on how many days a week I post, because while there’s still as much traffic here as ever, the interaction has taken a major nosedive in the past couple years. That seems to be true for everyone as blogs have been dying out left and right. Feels a little like speaking into the void sometimes, which isn’t really that fun. But anyway… updates on what’s been going on over here.
no riding, moar cookies
Much to Henry’s chagrin he’s been roped into assisting me with working on some of the takeaways I got from my Presto lessons, especially in regards with loosening my hips and letting my legs drape more. I’ve ridden him in my bareback pad a few times to help me stretch down, and I’ve even put my dressage saddle back on him a couple times too. He’s not sure what the heck all this tomfoolery is about all the sudden but he’s been a good sport about it (mostly). I started yoga last week and mostly what I’ve learned so far from it is that I’m tight AF and suck at breathing. Awesome. My Airrosti appointment is today so we’ll see what comes of that.
The most noteworthy thing that’s happened is that I had a lunge line lesson with Martin the GP dressage trainer yesterday.
thanks Waren for putting up with me
I haven’t ridden with Martin in… a while. A couple years maybe? I used to go over there pretty regularly, especially when I was closer to him, and he’s helped me a lot with Henry over the years. Martin is extremely patient and always chill and has a good eye for how the horse’s and the rider’s bodies are working. He always likes to say that dressage is really just PT for horses and works by gymnasticizing the horse, so I was like perfect – gymnasticize me now!
They gave me Waren, the ex-Grand Prix horse, to ride instead of the usual QH they usually use for lunge line lessons. Martin said he thought I’d get more out of it since Waren has bigger gaits and more “motion in his ocean” so to speak, which I appreciated. I wanted it to be a challenge, or closer to what Presto feels like. Waren wasn’t convinced that he signed up for this lunge lesson bullshit, but he humored us anyway.
We started off at the walk with no stirrups, and Martin had me moving and stretching my legs, hips, back, and arms. He had me thinking about really loosening my hips and relaxing my leg down and back. My hips are perpetually tight, but some of the exercises he gave me definitely helped open up the angle a bit more and I’ll be using them for sure.
After that Martin had me put one hand on the pommel and one hand on the cantle, and we moved to trot. I was glad he let me start like that because boy, that first step Waren took into trot I was like ok yep my horses don’t move quite like this. Martin had me continue to move my legs independently as we trotted around (he had me moving my leg forward and back from the hip, and rolling my toes up, down, in), which helped settle my seat into the saddle where it needed to be and prevent me from gripping with my leg. Then he had me let go of the saddle and move my hands to the regular position, but keep my legs feeling draped and loose. That in turn helped me sit and absorb the motion with my core better.
Then he gave me my stirrups back and we did more trot, alternating between posting and sitting every 10 steps or so. After that we moved to canter, and Waren wasn’t convinced he really had to canter more than a full circle at a time. That’s fair. It was hot and humid AF and I was interrupting his lunch noms. The first few times he broke to trot I was definitely bumbling trying to stay with him and not get launched into space from the unexpected change of gait, but I also kind of appreciated that it happened because I got better at keeping my body and seat steady and following every time. I mean… it wasn’t great, don’t get me wrong, but it did get better.
After a walk break Martin took my stirrups away again and we did more trot and canter without them. We capped off with trotting around and having me move each leg back (alternating, one at a time), rolling the toe down and in, and then bring it back under me. That tested, like, all of my available coordination skills at the trot.
I did feel a lot looser in the hip and more draped in my leg though, by the end, and it was great to get to ride a horse like Waren that moves through his back more than either of mine. Martin was very positive too, he said he didn’t see anything major wrong that I’m doing, it’s just a matter of keeping the angle more open/leg back/toe forward and staying balanced that way so I can follow better.
I’ll be honest though, it felt WAY easier to do all that in Waren’s saddle. Like, massively easier to keep my leg in a better place. When I was tacking up I was looking at that saddle like “omg there’s no way I’m gonna be able to ride in this thing” but I was quite wrong. It was an immediate difference in feel. Which, I knew I was going to end up getting a new dressage saddle with Presto anyway, but this was an eyeopener for sure. I’d like the block to be shorter, but now I have some ideas of what I’d like to try if I can ever in my life get a saddle rep to respond to me. I’ve not ridden in a lot of different dressage saddles so that part was a revelation too. I’m the problem for sure, but my saddle also isn’t helping.
completely shocked that I liked this thing
When I got done I messaged Bobby to tell him how it went (he rides at this barn exclusively now with his fancy DQ horse) and that’s when I learned that Waren has a reputation.
And then someone else from the barn messaged me on Insta.
Ha. Hahahahaha. Hey, I wanted a challenge and Martin delivered. Apparently Waren is known as the ab blaster, and all I can say is that I’m definitely glad I’ve been doing some core work over the past few months or someone would have had to peel my body out of the rafters of the indoor. My hips were on fire during the drive home. I can definitely tell that I have h/j roots and have spent the majority of my life in a jump saddle with a much more closed hip angle riding in a completely different way. Changing this shit is hard, especially when you’re creeping up on 40 and aren’t nearly as bendy as you used to be.
Once again I have not been able to access good enough internet to upload the whole 30 minute Pivo video (this little gadget is seriously earning it’s keep lately) but I did pull a couple clips with some better moments as well as not so great moments. Full transparency. At some point I need to come back and make GIFs of the different exercises he was having me do but today is not that day.
I’m not super sore today but I definitely feel like I’ve been worked out from head to toe. This poor Airrosti person later is probably gonna be like “what the actual hell have you been doing?”. Waren. The answer is Waren. And yeah I totally wanna do it again, because I’m a glutton for punishment.
By now we all knows that each of the foals has their own particular strengths and talents. Like, for instance, Patrick’s ability to throw shade and judgement with just a single glance.
no he’s not speckled, he was standing in the sprinkler, and he’s not impressed with you
It’s honestly kind of spectacular. Those eyes. I feel very judged. It reminds me a lot of Presto (who is always judging me and finding me unworthy). Of course, Patrick also excels at llama face, moreso than any of the others by a long shot. All facial expressions are a real strong suit for him, his range is impressive.
derrrrr
Obi’s strength is in his lion-esque tendencies. He plays with his brother much the way a lion takes down a zebra – either a big ol’ wither chomp and attempt to bring him to the ground, or just heading straight for the jugular. Obi might be an apex predator. Jury’s still out. He’s even got a lion-looking mane.
I NOM YOU
He does at least allow Patrick to return the favor, though.
Ok now you nom me
Teddy is the master of always feeling extremely superior in any situation, even though she’s the smallest of the bunch by a long shot. She’s the most clever and she knows it, so she always looks at them as if she thinks she lives with a bunch of idiots.
there’s a lot of judgment in this one’s eyes too, along with a smug sense of superiority
Of course, despite her clear excellence she’s not exactly the picture of elegance and grace that she’d like to think she is.
oh yeah, deep booty scratch
What are you looking at?
The elegance and grace (or as much as baby horses can have anyway) really all belongs to Pippa, let’s be honest.
so dignified. such manners.
This week Percy, dear sweet innocent loveable goofy little Perce, decided to try out a new role. He thought maybe, just maybe, he could be an apex predator like Obi. And um, well… you be the judge on how that one went.
AM I SCARY? RWARRRR!
Poor Percy. Maybe just stick with what you’re good at, kid.
looking cute and getting every radio station with 100 miles with those ears
I’m back from my quick little 24 hour jaunt up to DFW to ride Presto! The good news is that I had two very enlightening and helpful lessons. The bad news is that the media I have is all from the Pivo, which is over an hour of video, which hahahahaha is not compatible with my slow AF country broadband internet. I’ve pulled some screenshots and a short video clip but I’m gonna have to find real Wi-Fi before I can upload and actually sort through all that video.
At what point do I have to stop calling him Nugget? This is at least a Strip, if not a full on Patty.
When I got there on Tuesday it was overcast and kind of cool and misty raining, so Presto was feeling a bit alive. Nothing bad at all, just quite forward and more reactive to aids. Which would be great if my aids were as correct as what he’s used to with his pro rides, but alas they are not. We spent pretty much the whole ride trying to get me to post smaller (why tf do I want to post so big on this horse, I don’t know) and relax my seat/let my leg just drape around him. With, um… varied success.
Which wasn’t a surprise to me at all. I KNEW and have known for, like… years, that this horse was going to be very different from what I’ve had in the past and what I’m used to with Henry. He’s big (please don’t ask me how big, I haven’t sticked him since before he left and I’m in deep denial about the fact that he’s noticeably larger than the 16.3 1/2 he was in February), he’s rangy, he’s got suspension and power in his gaits…. I’ve certainly never tried to do dressage on a horse like this one. It’s why I’ve spent the whole time he’s been gone working on my own strength and fitness. And that’s helped a lot for sure, but being more fit doesn’t mean you just automagically get all the finesse and knowledge and feeling that riding actually requires. I’m set up for it better now, but I still have to actually, like… learn the things.
Day 1
The first thing right out the gate is that Presto’s rhythm has to feel way slower than Henry’s. Presto has a lot more suspension and ground cover in his gaits and if I try to move his feet too quickly he just plain doesn’t have enough time to get his legs under him and push the way he needs to. I had to slow myself down and be very mindful not to push him past his point of balance. Too much speed just tips him onto the forehand and makes him brace against the hand. That one was pretty obvious to feel and I could tell right away when I tipped past that point, so I just had to recalibrate my own rhythm.
The main problem though was how I’m sitting in the canter, which… isn’t well. Presto REALLY wants me to have a lighter seat with my leg mostly off and quietly draped down, like um, an actual good dressage seat. My leg could not compute how to make that happen for more than a few strides at a time and still stay with his giant uphill step. Presto is built so much different from Henry (tall slim narrow vs short stocky wide) and they move so completely different that everything just felt awkward and foreign, and my brain and my body parts were struggling to communicate. It was better/easier when I dropped my stirrups, but it was a real “this is gonna need a lot of work to do it correctly” type of thing. Duly noted.
Hi mom, learn to ride
I know that a lot of my struggle comes from the fact that my back/hips/hamstrings are chronically jacked up. They have been for… ever, basically. When I was deep into triathlon I went to a sports medicine guy weekly for chiro, stretching, etc to help because it got so bad that was the only way I could even stay “sound” enough to do it. I kind of failed to consider with my increased physical activity that I might have issues like that surfacing again, and ya know, maybe I would need to address it and get some help at some point. Literally didn’t even occur to me until I was strugglebussing to get my leg to do what I wanted and then I was like “Oh. Right.”. Good to know. Duly noted again.
I went to the hotel that night and watched some videos, read some articles, and did some stretches and exercises to try to loosen up my body. I watched my Pivo footage a couple times to help cement everything that Megan had said in the lesson and help set it into my brain. I think with Presto it’s going to be especially important to be mindful of my own body, because he tends to want to get stiff and resistant in his lower lumbar too, so as soon as I get stiff there myself, it immediately transfers to him and then we end up compounding each other’s issues.
The next morning I showed up a little looser and ready to try to build on day 1. Presto was definitely feeling a bit lazier, which honestly kind of worked a little better for me since he was a little slower to react if I got something wrong. But I felt like I was able to come back and apply a lot of what I’d figured out on day 1 and improve on it. My body was a bit more cooperative, and we worked a lot on the timing of my aids. What I really liked about Megan’s instruction is that she knows the horse so well by now that she could be like “he’s gonna try to do this, before that happens you’ll start to feel this, when you feel that you need to do this to prevent it… but if you’re too late with your timing and this happens then here’s what you do to fix it”. Extremely useful. Like massively.
If I could feel it coming and be quick and correct with my aids, awesome. Sometimes I was a little too slow. Sometimes I just wasn’t effective enough. But by the end I could feel EXACTLY what she was talking about, I was able to get his hind end truly connected to the front, and it felt glorious. I could feel what we will at some point eventually be able to do consistently, and it was really exciting.
This horse is for sure way different. I’m for sure in a league that I’ve never before found myself in. It’s a little intimidating, sure, but mostly it’s just exciting. I do this because I want to learn and be better, not because I just want to go horse show and win ribbons. This horse will be a new challenge for me, and a huuuge learning opportunity. The curve is steep and it is long, but I’ve come home feeling really invigorated and determined to figure it out. I think for the past couple years I’ve felt a little bit stuck in a rut, a little bored, a little burned out, a little uninspired maybe. Two rides on Presto and I’ve come away feeling like I’m really ready to dive in head first again and give it everything I’ve got. He’s 100% the horse I wanted, and now he’s got a fabulous training foundation, so it’s up to me to rise to the occasion and see what we can accomplish.
I came home with plenty of homework and gave myself some action items, all of which have already been initiated. First and foremost, I gotta work on my seat/position and a more correct dressage seat. I contacted the local dressage guy that I like and asked about lunge line lessons on their school horses, and I have my first one next Tuesday.
Second, I have to address my own physical issues. Several people recommended Airrosti to me, so I have my first appointment set up for next Wednesday (what a week of torture I’ve got coming).
Third, I have to do a way better job of stretching and keeping myself loose, I can’t just go hard on the spin bike in the morning, sit at my computer for 8 hours, and then expect to not literally turn into a block of stone. So this morning I started yoga. What I’ve learned so far is that I suck at breathing and my hamstrings are worse than I thought. Good times.
We’ll see how these few things work out and then go from there. It’s a start anyway.
It was a quick trip, barely more than a day, but I got exactly what I wanted out of it. I knew I’d have holes that I needed to address, I just didn’t know exactly what they’d be. Now I’ve got a better idea, and I can start working on all these things while Presto finishes out his time with Megan. She’s also coming down to Austin next weekend for a clinic and bringing Presto with her so I’ll get to ride him a couple more times before he leaves for his Tour de California in October.
I also remembered just how much I love this horse. Have no fear, Presto’s personality remains unchanged, and sitting on him still feels like home. Megan commented multiple times how well we suit each other and that we look like we fit well together, which means a lot. I’ve always really liked his type, his personality, his brain, and how he feels to ride, and now that he’s had 6 months of good pro training it’s only cemented all of those things even more. He’s still Presto, just a way more educated version. Sending him off to her longer-term was without a doubt the right decision. Sitting on him it feels like THIS is my horse, for sure, the one a I’ve been waiting for. I just, ya know… have to learn how to ride him. Working on it!
