Me and this splint are going to be tight for the next 6-8 weeks. Sigh.
Anyone who has followed this blog for a while may have noticed a trend. I ride, I get off, I repeat. Not every ride is an exciting one, and honestly, I’m okay with that. As much as I strive to make this an interesting read, at the end of the day it really is about me getting back into riding, and doing what’s best for me and for my main mount Luc.
But I’m not going to lie, there are those days when I wish my average ride was a little more exciting. Right up until it happens and then I yearn for the hum drum again. That’s kind of what happened this week. It started out with a nice warm welcome from Luc who decided to canter up to me from out in the big field with the rest of his herd. They’d only recently been let out in the big grass pastures, so I was expecting a bit of resistance when bringing him in. Instead he spotted Jen, my sister and his owner, and me and came right on over. It definitely makes you feel loved.
Grooming and tacking was nothing special, and neither was getting on or warming up. In fact, it was beginning to shape up like another of those rides where I spend most of the time working to keep a very relaxed and lazy Luc going forward. It was going moderately well, so I decided to pop him over a few very tiny fences that were already setup in the ring. It’s been a while since I’ve jumped, so I was happy to keep things small and relaxed.
The only problem was Luc puts absolutely zero effort into the small fences. It wasn’t so much jumping as a slightly larger canter step over them. There was a small oxer setup as well, so I decided to work on that too. The first time went well. Then I changed directions. That’s where this week’s excitement comes in. We got to a bad distance, I saw short, Luc saw long. He took the long, I got left behind and smashed my hand into the crest of his neck, then ended up sort of hanging of the side of him for a bit while I fought the pain and tried to get myself upright.
Lucky for me Luc is a good boy and came to a stop on his own. I managed to wiggle my way back to an upright position and seriously thought I may have just broken my pinky finger. I could feel it swelling and it made an odd clicking and popping noise when I moved it. Instead of getting off immediately, I decided I needed to jump the oxer one more time. This time we did it successfully. I hopped off and immediately took my glove off. The last thing I wanted was to have to cut the glove off if my finger swelled too much. They were new and this was my first ride in them!
Jen very nicely took Luc from me while I went and ran my finger under cold water for a few minutes. I decided it must not be broken as I was still able to move it, so after the barn opted not to have it looked at by a doctor. By the end of the day it was purple all over and swollen all the way down the finger.
Three days later I finally broke down and had it looked it. Apparently there’s a very good reason I’m not a doctor. My finger is indeed broken, and in fact the tendon has ruptured as well. Six weeks at a minimum in a splint! I’m now learning just how often I use my pinky finger. Apparently it’s more important than I thought. I think it’s going to be a long six weeks
