Getting A Little Older, what do you hate the most?

soulfull

soulfull

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Now while I am NOT old at 48. I have rheumatoid arthritis, which affects not only joints but muscles, tendons and even internal organs too
So I am never sure whether problems are caused by the RA or just getting older :(

I hate that I get injuries really easy and then take forever to heal

I hate it when sometimes I feel fragile

I hate increasing health problems

Latest silly example... I forgot to disconnect my air jacket and as I can only dismount by putting right leg over the withers, my right leg caught on the lanyard and I was stuck. I had to pull it with my leg to set it off so I could free myself
Luckily Emil was a complete saint and just gave me a funny look

At the time I thought I was fine. However I have developed traumatic pleurisy/ sore arm muscles where despite my air jacket I landed on my left shoulder and upper arm. I think my arm pushed the underwire in my bra against my ribs

I would like to point out this was not caused by my jacket squashing me!!

I'm just so fed up of my body not doing what I want it too!!
I finally have a lovely if slightly green horse and a lorry, but am mostly not up to doing what I had planned. :(:(
 
Get a teenager! I have many health issues too, but forever running round after my teenager, I don't have too much time to stop and reflect!
The actual thing, though, I do hate is that I don't bend like I used to, am similar in age to you and have "ordinary" arthritis amongst many other things. I can not longer mount from the ground, even on a 15hh horse!
I do get very fed up, also, but keeping busy, we have 3/4 horses, and I work,does help keep me moving to a degree!
 
I know EXACTLY how you feel Soulful. My problems are my hips, rode out this morning with a friend on her arab and could only manage 20 minutes before I was in such pain. He is a little wider than my TB and I have to ride him in a race exercise saddle. If I fell off I would simply just shatter. So I can only ride little TBs who are not at all quite, at my age I should be looking at more suitable horses to ride. Getting older is gahstly, I am 10 years on from you BTW!
 
Its the lack of bendiness and increased healing time for me in my 50's. Although I'm fitter than most of my age, I can't spring into the saddle so easily these days.
In my youth I did ballet and gymnastics and just can't twist myself into those contortions anymore. Still determined to grow old disgracefully though.
 
Glad its not just me then. Soulful I know exactly how you feel too, at 51 I have finally got myself the perfect horse(touching wood here), a fab little 3.5t van and am able to get out and about. In June I was diagnosed with a life changing (if hopefully, not life threatening condition) which at times makes riding difficult. I am determined to carry on riding though for as long as possible and have just bought a little trap to attempt to break the shettie to drive so that if and when I cant get me leg over I might be able to fly round the lanes in a defiant display of old age :)
 
Oh gosh know what you mean OP. I've got no excuse as work in the fitness industry, but still it's all something of an effort at times!

Its like........

You used to be able to gob down crisps and Mars bars and still stay beautifully svelte with the body of a goddess (well, ur, anyway, not quite, but hey); now if I even think "Mars bar" I'll put on at least a stone!

You never knew where the scales were in the house; now you're on them constantly.

You just know that some time soon you're gonna have to get another (bigger, of course) pair of breeches as to get into the ones you have, you've got to lie down on the bed/floor first in order to be able to zip the damn things up.

A mounting block is a necessity not a luxury.

You had to get off the other day out hacking and couldn't remount because (a) your jods would've split if you had; (b) you couldn't get your knee up far enough because it gives out on you if you put any pressure on it and (c) you couldn't find a decent bank or hedge to use as a help-you-up. So you had to walk home.

EVERY day you lose an everyday item: i.e. keys, specs, whip, hoof pick, or whatever. Your yard-sharers/fellow liveries are continually having to pick up stuff you've left around, like headcollars/bridles, and various other kit.

You get in the car to go somewhere....... only you've forgotten where exactly.

Ditto the telephone, you pick it up coz you're gonna ring someone, but have forgotten who.........

You can remember the time when you squeezed yourself into a size 10 jods (OK so a LONG LONG time ago:) - but yes, you did it!

You can remember the time you could go riding without having to stuff your ample cleavage into two bag-sacks the size of a haynet and when you did sitting trot it wasn't like a bag of ferrets jumping around. Now, you've stopped doing riding lessons simply because you dread being asked to do sitting trot.

The last time you bent down to pick out your horse's hooves, your back locked - and you had to go to the chiropractor for a very expensive set of sessions (now you try to get OH to do it).

One advantage: you can get as inebriated as you want to coz you tell yourself your increased body volume will just soak it all up, and it DOES, doesn't it..............???:):):)
 
The worst thing about getting older is..............getting older. People patronise you, you aren't as strong or flexible as you once were, and you have a head full of all the things that can go wrong, so you are much more accident and injury aware.
That's just for the rest of us (I'm 65 :() but you have my sympathy for dealing with RA. My mother had it for almost 30 years, and it is no fun - by the time she had had it for years she was just so tired of constantly being in pain. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy - I just hope the treatment is better now than it was then (basically it was pain relief and joint replacement when they got too damaged).
If you want to do things badly enough you will find a way - and carry on finding those ways, without the stuff you enjoy you will succumb to depression and that is even worse. I have made a mounting platform I can step down onto my horse from, and run my home and rather large garden by pacing myself and taking breaks. Just find ways to do stuff, it will keep you from even more premature ageing :)
 
Thanks everyone. Nice to know I'm not alone!

MJ you made me laugh. Although I had forgotten that I forget things :(

I would just love a few days/week or so without pain, it really is annoying/upsetting

Jill your so right it's the constant pain. Unfortunately medication doesn't seem to have got much better. I am lucky in that I don't have much joint damage yet. Mine is affecting muscles and tendons as much as joints. It moves around so fast it makes my head spin.
 
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My sympathies too :)

I'm 51 and have had bad arthritis since I was 39, I hate not being able to ride for hours; I can manage about 2 but then have to get off and walk for 20 minutes. Don't even bother to try and mount from the ground, never needed to tbh.

I had a bad fall 4 weeks ago, and I still haven't healed :( even bruises take longer to go now.

Still, better to be doing exercise than none at all, I think most people with arthritis would cease up it they stopped!

I childmind part time too..............No wonder I'm in bed for 10 lol.
 
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TOTALLY know where you're coming from: not as quick or supple as I once was (I'm 54), BUT there are compensations - I rarely have to be quick these days as I've usually sussed out whatever's going wrong before it happens; I now have the experience to choose exactly the right horses for my job; if I don't feel like riding now and again, I just jolly well don't (have spent enough of my life out in howling gale/snow/rain, in pain, tired, whatever); I have very nice saddles that fit me and the horses which helps a lot with pain/tiredness; I have finally engineered the perfect, convenient, labour-saving yard after years of making do.
 
I envy the young nothing except their skin and their joints oh and I would love to manage on five hours sleep like I used too.
Apart from that I am content .
 
I am 64 and can still run circles round people a lot younger than me. My problem is my memory and I worry about so much, ie driving a car where I have never been before or has loads of traffic. Or just worry about things I wouldn't even consider giving the time of day to. My mother dies of atzeimers sp and I am sure I am going the same way.
 
Know exactly how you feel. Head (and OH) says stick to small quiet ponies, for driving, while my heart says I want to hunt a Welsh Cob again or explore the moors on a Fell with lots of attitude - like I used to. In my dreams I am still young and galloping along bareback with the wind in my hair but then I wake up and find I can't even move without that first cup of tea!
 
Hugs to ALL of us!

I have just schooled Emil. I first had a little chat and asked him to be really good but also try hard for me. Lol. Bless his cotton socks, apart from 1 buck when I confused him by asking for w-c before we had even cantered on that rein, he did everything I asked. And the pain is no worse than it was before I rode :)

Glamour puss. Have u ever had a test for RA??
The reason I ask is that when diagonosed in women in their 20's (me included) it often starts in the knees. Tiredness is another major symptom too
Might be worth getting a test, especially if you've ever had unexplained pain anywhere else that vanished as quick as it came
 
I'm nearer 49 than 48 and my knees and spine are 20 years older than the rest of me :( I don't ride anymore and was glad to give up TBH when I retired my horse. My memory used to be brilliant, now I do things like put a cup of tea in the fridge and carry the milk carton to the sofa. And I have no doubt that the dreaded menopause is settling down around me. Right now, if a naked man walked past I wouldn't even bother to look :( f My skin is going slack, I've put on rolls of fat ( I suspect my contraceptive implant is responsible for that) and I look and feel like I've swallowed a few tractor tyres despite an hour's hard labour at the gym every morning, walking and cycling at weekends and the day I eat as much as 1800 calories it will be a miracle. Oh yes, and having been VERY shortsighted since I was 7, now my eyes are going the other way too and I can see I'm going to have to give in and get some reading specs soon. I've also got arthritis in my big toe and neck. Shoot me now, someone - PLEASE.
 
I know what you mean OP, I fell (not off a horse) and broke my leg 6 years ago and things just haven't been the same since! Long rides are agonising and I can only mount from the special block OH made me. Then 3 years ago I fell off a 16.3 onto my head on the road and suffered whiplash injuries. An idiot drove into the back of my car last year and I'm *still* getting whiplash symptoms, despite extensive physio

ETA I forgot to answer your question OP!

I hate the lack of flexibility and inability to bounce.

Oh, and I'm 58
 
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I appear to be older than most if not all of you. I hate how I am less agile and flexible, weaker, slower, more nervous/aware of dangers, less energy, feeling the cold and often in pain.

How I now complain more.

As for my memory!
 
Know how you feel too! Not having the stamina, energy or strength I used to have, I find hard to accept and also I am no where near as quick with my reactions as I used to be. Bit stupid then to land myself with an OTTB 4 years ago!
 
The great thing is we are all determined to keep going and that is the main thing. I can remember when I was young close relatives in their fifties (younger than I am now) saying they were old and couldn't do much any more. Horses and ponies, no matter what you do with them, are a discipline and keep us at least mentally younger. Those without this kind of discipline will age quicker and never have the sense of achievement that we have. Even if we only do one small thing a day with our equines at least we are still going forward not 'waiting for God'.
 
I thought I was old and decrepit until I met "Madame" in Morocco a few years ago, a lovely very grand French lady. She lived in the desert because of her arthritis and rode her 27 year old Arab stallion every single day with the help of her groom, and a very sturdy mounting block. I watched her, very carefully, get on her horse and walk sedately for 40 minutes. Then she just as carefully got off. The combined age of her and her horse was 112. And she's still riding. I want that to be me.......
 
Stiff joints are the nuisance for me. This has slowed me down a lot in recent years. I sold my youngster because I didn't feel fast enough to stay with him. Things are not improving either. OH and I are firmly of the belief that growing old is "Not For Wimps" and neither is there any grace involved.
 
When I came back to riding after my 3 decade plus break, I had a lesson. It was a one-to-one half hour, and I was as weak as a kitten at the end. As I chatted to the young instructor, I kicked my feet out of my stirrups and swung my leg over the back.... and came crashing down, every joint in my body felt like it would shatter, and went over backwards! :eek3:

The quick-witted instructor caught me before any harm was done and she and the horse regarded me in astonishment. :redface3: Since then, I dismount with extreme caution, and lower myself gingerly while hanging on for dear life. :redface3:
 
At 66 and with a lot of arthritis and various metal bits already installed I feel everyone's pain! :) I've had to give up riding because I was not helping my horse with my stiffness. I did pop on a friend's horse a while ago, he's much narrower than mine and it was lovely. I was so pleased I could still ride but did pay the price later. Memory is also a problem, some words just won't come to me apart from in the middle of the night and forgetting where I'm going is not fun!
 
At 59, the thing I hate the most is the feeling that time is running out on me. My parents were both 82 when they died. If I follow suit then that's only another 20 odd years left to do stuff! Think it's time to make myself a personal bucket list and get on with it before my dodgy hips, increasingly poor eyesight and spectacularly bad memory (amongst other age related issues) get the better of me.
 
Oh God, I don't want to get old - I'm already broken and I'm 28! I have about 3 joints on my body that actually work (one shoulder, one wrist and one ankle), have just had spinal surgery and whilst loads better still can't bend over properly and have permanent weakness in one leg, I forget words and things like why I walked into a room/where I'm supposed to be due to several serious concussions. Added to this I have 2 chronic medical conditions which have to be managed...

It's all downhill from here isn't it :p
 
As Soulfull says, hugs to all of us! I like Cortez's positive attitude and MiJods made me laugh! Having come back to riding late, (42) and now aged 50, I don't like the thought of time running out to do all the things I wanted to do as a teenager but couldnt as I didnt have a pony. And I dont like how much more scared I am now of stuff happening to me than I was in my teens. Mind you, I did go out for a hack yesterday - my last day of holiday - with great confidence saying 'well if I come off and end up in hospital, it just means I wont have to go to work tomorrow'.

three cheers for us elderly horsepeople - lets see who can keep going longest!! :)
 
Good post Tobiano! At 58 my biggest worry is that I won't be supple/strong/brave enough to start my 4 year old this year, and maybe start her off on her endurance career. I've actually started doing 10 minutes yoga every morning, been doing it for the last month have just begun to feel the benefits.
 
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