Rider health

More of life

2010-02-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

Can't believe how time goes by, but that happens when you're busy. Two big thing have transpired: one- I get married to a lovely lady named Elaine. This marriage of a Cherokee lady to me, a Comanche, is going well. Part of it means leaving Hawaii, due to the ravages of the economy on my pension fund, and moving to the mainland. Such is life. It was a great experience here, but it's time to move on.
The second thing- through ThinLine and my daughter Elizabeth Warson PhD, I've established contact withthe Lakota Indians on the Pine Ridge SD reservation. They will be producing a line of authentic Sioux tack for ThinLine which we will be marketing starting in the fall. These are the most impoverished Americans, yet they are rich in culture, tradition, and artistic talent. We plan to work with them in a positive manner to bring their artistry in things equestrian to the world. Keep riding

New Activity

2009-07-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Haven't had time to post recently, as I've been traveling to the mainland on horse business. I've been named as a consultant to the ThinLine company, the one that makes all those really great pads, reins, and just about everything else except the saddles. A French scientist and rider is doing a pressure point study to determine impact on horse and rider's backs. We will be working on this for a few more months and plan to publish in a widely read horse magazine so all riders will be able to access the information. Even though I'm no longer in clinical medicine, my office is still the tack room, my operating room is now the arena, and you riders are spiritually my patients. Look for more work on making riding as safe and pain free as it can reasonably be. It's the journey that I've wanted to take all my life. Keep riding.

Competition

2009-06-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

Competition - it's what it is all about. We not only compete among ourselves, but also against other venues such as golf, boating, and other areas of income disposal. The horse industry has ignored the fact that we are competitors for peoples' spending. In tough economic times, we suffer also, as recent horse sales attest. In order to prevail, we must demonstrate to potential customers that their spending is better placed in horses than elsewhere. To do that, I believe that we must show the positive character building nature of a child's relationship with a horse. There are plenty of places to be critical. Here we must be encouraging in a positive manner. There is a natural bond between children and horses that, if properly nurtured, will result in a lifelong relationship. Say what they will, the other competitors cannot argue that there is no car, boat, or whatever that can nicker when you go out to feed it in the morning.

2009-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hawaii----paradise! The beauty is that, absent a rainy day, we can ride any time. Having passed the course on winter feeding, unsticking frozen waterers, and drying off horses in the cold, I have finally found my reward. So have the horses. They lounge around in pastures where the Kikuyu grass can grow 3 inches in a day, the water is clean and pure, there are no predators, and every day is just like the other 364. Having a place like Hawaii to ride in makes your inner juices flow. Mine center around where my career was centered - getting riders back in the saddle. I feel fortunate that Equus magazine has decided to run some of my articles on such subjects as riders' hand, eye, knee, and ankle problems, among others, to provide some useful information and solutions to these problems. Guess you can't stop being a physician even when you've retired. Perhaps you have rider health questions yourself. If so, feel free to ask here or in my email at JJjf1@aol.com. Keep riding.

Rider health

2009-02-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

A sick rider on a well horse is no better than a well rider on a sick horse. While we all love our horses and do our best to care for them, we often neglect our own health issues. This can result in decreased enjoyment of the horse and rider relationship, and may lead to discontinuing riding altogether. As our rider population ages, if rider health issues aren't properly addressed there will be a decrease in rider numbers. This will negatively impact the horse industry economy. As a practicing Neurosurgeon, I spent 30 years learning about the equestrian health issues. Although there was virtually no literature to read, I found ample opportunity to study these issues, think about what I saw, and treat them. In the beginning, I was wrong about as many time as I was right, but I stuck with it and my aim on reality improved. My joy was finding patients who had been told by well meaning but uninformed doctors that they should stop riding. Getting these patients back in the saddle was as much a joy to me as to them, and reinforced why I became a physician.
Following the publication of my book (The Rider's Pain Free Back) devoted to prevention and treatment of equestrian spine problems, and the upcoming articles in Equus on rider health, I decided to blog as a means of further communication with the riding community. It's here for both of us, so please feel free to contact me regarding any health problems you are experiencing that are reducing your riding enjoyment. The gate is open.