Living with Multiple Sclerosis Part 2 - by Lisa L
At that time I was caring for my daughters horse and helping at the stables where he resided. I loved being there, I had some great friends both equine and human and they helped so much to cushion the blow of this terrible disease. Then late in April 2004 I mentioned to a friend that I was thinking of getting another horse but this horse had to be so special to cope with the parts of me that were not working well. It had to have the patients of a saint because some days it would take me five minutes to do up a girth or a throat lash. So she told me the story of an old horse that was being retired and was in need of a home. We went to see the horse that weekend. He had been turned out into a field with lots of other horses since he’d had a leg injury the previous Boxing Day. This old boy had damaged something, which may or may not come right and he could no longer do the work that paid for his keep but would do light hacking. So there and then I decided he was the one for me, I already felt we shared a kind of kinship and his owner turned his care over to me. The following week he arrived on the lorry, his wobbly legs unsteady as his hooves hit the concrete car park and his droopy eyes looked around with disinterest. I changed his head collar to one of mine and led him out to a paddock. He swiftly put his head down to eat and I smiled. “You are going to fit right in here old boy, I am going to make your last years the best.” I whispered to him as I stroked his thick coat.
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His name was Solo an apt name for one who preferred his own company, he was a light dun/mink colour, his points were not jet black as is normal with a dun but chocolate/black, his mane and tail were sparse. He had worked hard all his life and as I got to know him I realised just how much this horse had switched off to what was happening around him, he would just close his eyes and shut out the world. I felt at one with him because I that was how I sometimes viewed the world too, when the pain got uncomfortable or my movements were so frustrating and I wanted to rip my hands off or pull my teeth out, I’d just hide behind a smile. I set about feeding him up, he loved his food but dropped weight badly and if he had a bad night in the morning he looked like a bag of bones. I fed him blood food rich in B vitamins and slowly he gained some weight, his legs were getting steadier and the painkillers he had daily seemed to take the edge off his stiffness. So we had set about our journey of healing one another.
Solo had a stumbling problem I found out on one of our first rides. Probably because his tendons were weak or his legs just didn’t work well or because he carried his head high due to pain in his neck or back or feet or all three. Out on that ride he misjudged a road hump and fell onto his knees, the fall threw me forward onto his neck. I was devastated as I saw the large patch of scuffed away hair on his knees and the white chicken skin of the exposed surface below. I tried to jump off but before I got chance he had struggled to his feet, closed his eyes for a second or two, gave a little shudder walked over to a patch of grass put down his head and began to eat. We began our walk home, it was quite away and it was hot (the worse weather for my MS) as we walked along little beads of blood started to ooze from the bare skin on Solo’s knees. I remember thinking his circulation must be real bad because it had taken ages for the blood to get through and I wondered if it would be a sufficient amount to cleanse any grit from the wound, I worried that some would work its way in and get into his knee caps.
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