Courtenay Brown

Cosmo!

No I don’t really drink Cosmo’s. But that is the name of the spectacular creature I have the pleasure of riding while I am here in Maryland. How did I get so lucky!

um I'm busy eating

you appear to have a CARROT

The other reason I am lucky is my Seattle chiropractor, Phil, says that horseback riding is great for my back and neck! Riding encourages good posture and engages core muscles and balancing muscles. Not that I ever needed a doctor’s encouragement to ride, but it’s a nice bonus.

This has all come to light recently because I hurt my back right after arriving in Maryland. I woke up with a stiff neck last Thursday, figured I must have slept funny and it would go away, but it just got worse and worse and traveled down into my back and shoulders. Between not being able to turn my head to the left, and still not being able to walk properly thanks to my swim-exit incident at Wildflower, I was feeling like quite the gimp earlier in the week. But a chiropractor appointment set me straight pretty quickly. The problem is that I have reverse-curvature at the base of my neck – instead of curving outward towards my back, my neck vertebrae curve inwards towards my chest. This condition gives me a tight neck, which causes a tight back, numbness in my hands, and some grumpiness. I have known about it for a few years, and it’s one of those things that some chiropractors get all doom and gloom about, trying to scare me into 3x weekly appointments to avoid the inevitable fused vertebrae, etc. Groan. It’s just something to deal with, just like asthma (which I also have), and learning to swim at age 29 rather than, say, age 5. Everyone has their “something to deal with”, whether it be a full time job, no job and no money, residing in the Midwest, some chronic injury, kids, motivational struggles, you name it. I don’t mind my set of challenges, especially since they are giving me permission to ride!!!!!