I wish I was thin and supple...

[Zayna]

:(

I feel so old. I was an A.I. years ago, I do not know how I had the energy to work with horses, run a yard, ride all day long, get on school horses and do demonstrations... where does your energy go?

I'm 47 now, weigh nearly 12 stone and feel knackered. My sister has a couple of ponies and I help with them but it is so HARD, and riding... well, my position has gone the same way as my waistline - up the Swannee, I'm not light or balanced any more, and I wish I could just wake up in the morning two stone lighter and ten years younger.

I also cannot get clothes to fit across my ridiculous bust, I'm looking on the internet for waterproof jackets knowing full well a size 16 won't zip up...

:mad::(:(:(

[posie]

don't we all?!?!
x

[Zayna]

don't we all?!?!
x

Hmph. I was hoping someone would appear with a magic formula, not join in with my misery... :D

[posie]

hang on.....
....
...
nope sorry - my magic wand seems to not be working today! ;)
chin up - at least you are in the position to be able to still play with horses. x

[Carmen]

I really wouldn't feel so down and upset. Im only 28 and feel knackered all the time. My flexibility is at zero, and as for fitness - well that just non existant.

When i was younger 6 - 23 i used to do gymnastic, trampolining (both for midland championships) and played rugby for the 1st premiership. So you could say i was mighty fit. Now, im struggling too. All i can say is do something about it. Why don't you start yoga like me and start going for brisk walks?

[Zayna]

I really wouldn't feel so down and upset. Im only 28 and feel knackered all the time. My flexibility is at zero, and as for fitness - well that just non existant.

When i was younger 6 - 23 i used to do gymnastic, trampolining (both for midland championships) and played rugby for the 1st premiership. So you could say i was mighty fit. Now, im struggling too. All i can say is do something about it. Why don't you start yoga like me and start going for brisk walks?

I tried yoga, I'm too lumpy for it. :D

I'm expecting that suddenly being thrown back into mucking out daily and being on a yard in a morning instead of being in bed will fitten me up gradually. I've cleaned my diet up a bit as well, so hopefully in a few weeks I'll feel more cheerful. It's just such a shock to my (old) system!

[Liz1949]

I am older than you, and just as lumpy and stiff, if not more so.

However, two weeks into my camping trek with my pony, I need to wear a belt to stop my jodhs falling down, I am more tanned than a sunny holiday has EVER made me and I get up at 6am most mornings. Mind you I am 'in bed' (or rather in sleeping bag) asleep by about 9 or 10 pm every night.

The situation can be improved - it is just that we must suffer for having let it deteriorate in the first place!

[SpringySpring]

It's never too late to change. Small changes can make the world of difference. Eating well is the best thing for lack of energy, and gentle exercise, swimming, cycling, walking etc will help loosen you up.

Good luck and remember to smile :)

[Bob's mum]

Don't beat yourself up so much, there's plenty of people of our age that couldn't even get on a horse let alone ride and muck out :D

Chin up, make small changes, enjoy what you can do and have the occassional glass or 2 of wine !

Sorry, suffer the same with the boobs, so no advice there !!!!!!!:):)

[*Sez*]

It's never too late to change.
It really isn't :D

I'm 23 and have a physical disability as well as depression and chronic fatigue. I've always been overweight, but in the last year, it just got worse and worse (comfort eating :o ) and because I didn't ride all winter, I found myself at the heaviest I have ever been. I lost all my motivation, my fatigue was crippling me and the pain was unbearable, partly because the extra weight was putting too much strain on my joints and my muscles were wasting away and couldn't compensate.

In April, I had an epiphany and realised what a bad relationship with food I had and that I was doing no good sitting around moping because I couldn't do anything. I had always had such determination not to let my disability control me, but there I was, having virtually given up. I was a waste of a life.

I am not on a diet of any kind, and chocolate and cakes are still permitted but I am watching what I eat and I'm trying to eat no more than 1500 calories per day. So if I feel a need to eat that scone with jam and real clotted cream, that's okay, so long as I balance it with something low calorie for lunch and dinner. As a result, I have been losing 1lb per week. It's not a fast process, but I now only have 3lbs to go until I've lost my first stone. I've also begun swimming (one of the few activities I can cope with) twice a week. Only very short sessions at first, but now I am managing 40 - 45 minutes in the pool before I have to admit defeat. I've begun riding again, and although I'm still not managing as much as I want to, I have noticed that it's getting easier, my balance and position are improving and I am finding that I'm less stiff and sore the day after.

The key is to make small changes to your lifestyle, which eventually add up to large accomplishments. :D

[jacs205]

don't know if its an option for you but I am really stiff too but we got a Wii fit a few weeks ago and the yoga and balance exercises on it seem to be making a bit of a difference to me

[sancho]

Well having suffered with ME a few years ago (you never fully get over it) I still have fatigue problems and, coupled with one thing or another Im the heaviest I have ever been and know it!

Saying that tho, if I didnt have my horses and riding to look forward to, I dont know where I would be!

As Goth Rider has said, small changes.

I seem to remember someone saying they were going to organise a weight loss thread........

[Zayna]

Gosh, what lovely lovely people you all are!

I'm sitting here now feeling much better. Sipping peppermint tea, had my lunch which was a WW chicken caeser wrap and a green salad. Brekkie is Fruit and Fibre - I nibble it dry as I'm working at my desk, wash it down with a cup of coffee!

And I just loved this.... Don't beat yourself up so much, there's plenty of people of our age that couldn't even get on a horse let alone ride and muck out


Thanks, Bob's Mum!

Zayna x

[*Sez*]

I seem to remember someone saying they were going to organise a weight loss thread........That was me! I was told, however, that we already have a "Healthy Thread" which covers the same thing. :)

[Trewsers]

I'm not thin but I am supple!!! I wish I could still get into the dress I had for my 21st birthday (its still hiding in the wardrobe covered in webs) but hey ho - not likely! I think I am reasonably fit - I ride every day and do all the lugging / chores associated with keeping horses (specially harder when at home and no proper yard facilities like concrete and power and water). Anyway, sounds like you are eating proper healthy food - very disciplined eating fruit and fibre for breakie - (I find all cereal vile!!!). Keep up the good work!! If I could just be rid of my lager weakness, Storm would have less weight to carry around.........

[eml]

I am glad I am not the only one with miniscule mini dresses lurking in wardrobes!

I know how you are feeling Zayna, I am a bit (well decade) older than you and was stiff, unbalanced and constantly tired until last year.

Solved problem inadvertently by 'losing' (deliberately) all staff, leaving daughter and I running yard with a few weekend part-timers. I work much harder in winter now but have far more energy, actually doing yard work is fantastic weight training and suppling work.

As to the impossible bust size a well fitted bra and a lightweight body protector made my life much easier :D

[Trewsers]

IAs to the impossible bust size a well fitted bra and a lightweight body protector made my life much easier :D

Yep, definitely agree with that:D My bp acts as a support bra as well as protecting my ribs!

[colettybetty]

Another oldie here, I'm 47 too. Last year I was permanently exhausted and was always trying to conserve my energy for the important stuff -looking after my 3 horses. Big mistake,I started having riding lessons with a mean riding instructor who made me work until my legs gave up and I was dripping in sweat. Gave up dairy and wheat for a couple of weeks and ate lots of fruit, fish, meat and veg. Sounds awful, but it kick started my system, returned to eating bread, but less of it and having cow's milk in my coffee and felt loads better. Getting fit with riding properly made a big difference too, the fitter I got, the more energy I had and the less rubbishy food I wanted to eat.
Course, the problem is, I sometimes forget and fall back on the 6 packs of toasted tea cakes....

[Trewsers]

Toasted tea cakes - yum!!! Your tea cakes aren't as bad as my addiction to Mcdonalds - oh dear - if only I didn't like their fries......lol..............I am so hungry these days after mucking out and riding - I know its no excuse - I really need to stick to "proper" food.....

[blues mum]

tell me about it. nice healthy breckfast. out to field at nine, poo pick , pull ragwort
3 and a half hour ride, :eek: ( I dont do it often.) then school pick up.
by the time I get in asda at 4 i am starving.
I had a duck wrap, packet of pringles, and a creme egg !
now I know I should have had a ww wrap and a fruit salad, but when i'm that worn out I just dont care:D

[flump1967]

What I really hate is the way my head remembers what to do but my body can't live up to it :rolleyes:

If you are looking for a good jacket for big busts (not many bigger than mine) try this one from Musto - it is lovely and very much cut with boobies in mind :p

http://www.ekmpowershop3.com/ekmps/shops/highflyers/musto-paddock-jacket-fw---ce0170-96-p.asp

[spamchops]

I know what you mean about the head bit, I trained as an AI ten years ago, rode several hours a day and was fit and strong on a horse. These days, it is a struggle, especially on typical riding school types. We trained on some super horses, eventers, ex grade A schoolmasters, medium dressage horses and now I have to put up with some right duffers! Too busy for my own though...

[Skib]

Welcome Zayna -
Anyone who qualified as an AI, however long ago, is a welcome addition to this board. Don't dismiss your capabilities.
I for one came to NR with a total phobia of all instructors, and it was people like you who sorted that out. Putting a human face and knowledge into the equation.

I have just lost a bit of weight - inadvertently by walking six miles a day and eating very little on holiday. And I do feel better. But that is up to you.

But for me feeling tired after working in a stable seems inevitable. It is hardly surprising you are tired. All last year I helped out at a yard once a week. And the next day I was too tired to ride. Even just grooming, rugging up and handling horses is like a good work out? And uses your brains too? One reason I stopped was that it reduced the days I was able to ride. So, if you are working as well as riding, hardly surprising that the riding is not wonderful?

well, my position has gone the same way as my waistline - up the Swannee, I'm not light or balanced any more, and

I do have a magic formula. But you might not like it. When you qualified and the same is true today, students taking the PTT were taught to look first at the riders' position. That is partly because position is visible, so, if you are training a teenager to teach riding, you (the BHS) start with something that is basic and can be marked? This was explained to me by a Fellow of the BHS.


But you are older now and you don't need to pass exams or be marked. You have the benefits of maturity, one of which is judgment and discretion. Enough to know now that position is not uniform and may not even be fundamental to good riding.

For me the good news is that the older and stiffer you get, the more beneficial it is to have a horse carry you through the countryside.
In other words you have a real meaningful task for the horse and the horse, as a working animal. has a purpose in life and an intelligent, well informed rider - there is a partnership now of mutual benefit.

Stiffness - we are all stiff and some people recommend off horse exercises. But I need to loosen up on the horse. I ride rising trot as soon as I can on leaving the yard and I try to remember to trot too on the way home. Otherwise I find it almost impossible to get off.

The stiffness we feel is not necessarily going to be the kind of stiffness that affects the horse. The horse likes softness in our hands and arms - and in our seat bones. Both of which can be increased just by giving them thought. Another great recipe for lightness in the rider is breathing slow and deep - conscious of how many steps the horse takes on each inhale and exhale. Usually you'll hear the horse start to breathe properly as well.

If your balance truly is off, in the sense of not sitting straight across the horse, or being to one side or the other - that may or may not be fixable. I am irreversibly lop sided, but that doesn't mean balance cant be helped by a lunge lesson or two or a bareback lesson (nothing dramatic like canter).

When you have fixed what can be fixed and understood how to minimise what cant - the horse will oblige you by carrying you just the way you are. Hundreds of disabled people ride with greater limitations than you or I.

The great thing is to feel happy when you get on the horse. Don't let that BHS AI inside your head condemn you or run down what you are doing. I cant make you younger. But I'd like to think that your new self is better, as far as horses are concerned.
And it is the horses who will give you what we can't.
My OH started riding last year aged 67, a sedentary office worker all his life. Just getting on a horse once or twice a week (he wouldn't claim it to be riding) has made him seem younger than he was. People who haven't seen him for a while, remark on it. He's fitter, more agile and with a glow from the open air. And it is horses that did it.

He was a no hoper and non-starter as far as most AIs would be concerned. Give yourself the same chance as you would have given to him.

[Zayna]

Well. There are some fantastic replies here, thank you all so much.

Skib - what a brilliant post, I'm sure I'm not just speaking for myself, I bet there are a few people who felt inspired by your post. Reading that made me feel... worthwhile, I guess. It's hard to explain.

I have come back in at the deep end after many years of just dabbling, and it's shocked my system. I thought I'd forgotten everything but my brain has tuned in like I've never been off the scene, but my body is left behind. I've still got 'feel', I can feel what horses need, I can see round corners, I've still got experience which money can't actually buy, and I didn't realise it.

I was also worried that I'd been left behind as far as feeding and minor ailments go. There are so many new products on the market (and so much PINK stuff, wtf is that all about? :D), but I've caught up sooner than I thought I would. I've still loads to learn, but the basics still apply, they still work. There's just a few additions, some of which work and some which the marketing boys tell you will work.

I'm horse mad, it's in my blood, it always will be and you can't take it away from me.

My fitness will come, it can't not. I just feel so bloody LUMPY at the moment. When I get on a horse it feels like I've always been there, I look ok and ride well for the first half hour but try and canter for a while and it nearly kills me! I can sit nicely and be effective for a while but then get puffed out and end up bouncing around. :o

Anyway I shall stop rambling now and get on with some work so I can earn extra cash to buy the boy I ride a new pink bridle with a diamante browband. Just the very thing... :D

What a lovely board this is. Thank you all.

Zayna

[dizzybee]

I am over 50 overweight and stiff and unflexable but love my life much more now than when I was young and a size 10 but if anyone has a magic wand knocking about I would love the loan of it :D:D:D:D:D:D

[Dogrose]

I've definitely gone downhill since I hit my 40s, thinking about it, the changes have been:
I can't lose weight easily any more, ten years ago I could lose a stone in a couple of months just by giving up chocolate, now if I give up chocolate I just don't put on any weight.
I don't heal up very quickly any more, it takes more than a week to recover from a half hour lesson, mostly its the tendons at the top insides of my legs, I still get pains in them even if I don't ride for a few weeks.
My body has problems coping with changing energy requirements, when I was in my teens I could do anything for any amount of time- cycle 20 miles, dance all night, on nothing but black coffee and cigarettes. Now I have to carefully eat slow release carbs an hour or so before I excercise then have something fast release just before or my blood sugar and energy can crash- it can be so bad it leaves me feeling ill for days.
I get very severe joint pains sometimes, usually in my right hip, after I have been walking a while (about after 4 or 5 miles), also sciatic related pains and similar nerve pains in my arms. I think my skeleton is kablooey.
Trouble is my brain is still teenage :D

[peppip]

I was talking yesterday at the yard and 3 of us came to the conclusion that we are all only 18 in our heads but the bodies are definitely letting us down.
Although I was quite pleased that one of the 'girls' thought I was her age 44,
if only!
I am determined to not get any heavier, I have been creeping up in weight for the last few years but I didnt take much notice until I weighed 10st7lb.
So I have tried just cutting back on butter and having smaller portions at meals and it worked, I got down to 10st 2lb but then I just had to eat toast and I'm back up to 10st 4lb now. As to exercising, I am unable to fathom how it makes you feel better, I just feel unable to move after I have been for a very long walk or worked really hard in the garden. These days if I hack out for 3/4 hr and do a bit of rising trot I have to hit the painkillers for my aching knee. I dread to think about when I am old!

[Suzanne2]

tell me about it. nice healthy breckfast. out to field at nine, poo pick , pull ragwort
3 and a half hour ride, :eek: ( I dont do it often.) then school pick up.
by the time I get in asda at 4 i am starving.
I had a duck wrap, packet of pringles, and a creme egg !
now I know I should have had a ww wrap and a fruit salad, but when i'm that worn out I just dont care:D

Never shop when hungry!

[Zayna]

I'm enjoying this thread, love everyone's input.

The good news is that I've lost 2lb after 7 days of eating sensibly and poo picking faster. I guess that's about right, 2lb a week.

So this time next week, I'll be another 2lb lighter. :D Well, in theory. :o

[Mary Poppins]

I haven't really got anything positive to add as ended up eating chocolate and wine at the weekend. I am sleep deprived from my teething toddler who has an ear infection and upset tummy, plus I am having a stressful day at work (hence I have turned to NR for a few minutes of sanity). However, I am looking forward to a x country lesson on Wednesday, dressage comp on Friday and am also hopefully going to discuss a potential share horse this week. Without horses I would be 10 stone heavier and a raving alcoholic from all the stress.

[Ro5ie]

I'm 50, my horse is 27. He's certainly doing better for his age than I am!

I don't worry too much until I see photos or videos of me riding - then its back to the gym and the dieting!

I do find that Yoga helps my flexibility though. Give it a try. You don't have to force yourself into all those awkward postures. Just do what you can do and eventually you'll be able to do more.

[beakysian]

I'm enjoying this thread, love everyone's input.

The good news is that I've lost 2lb after 7 days of eating sensibly and poo picking faster. I guess that's about right, 2lb a week.

So this time next week, I'll be another 2lb lighter. :D Well, in theory. :o

Well done you, that's a great sustainable rate!

I mainly pop up to agree with everyone who is encouraging you on and to put forth that no-one is too lumpy for yoga! In my yoga group there are several women clearly weighing well over your 12 stone and they get the benefit and can do more things than some of the skinnie minnies. It's a case of finding an instructor who can adapt things you find difficult. Yoga (like pilates) will certainly help you with your position - it can strengthen your back and core muscles so you won't get such tired back muscles in the saddle, helping you sit better longer.

Also, referring to your original post, have you looked at Bravissimo or similar for a supportive sports bra that might then help you find a waterproof jacket that will zip up?

Hope it keeps going well!

[carrimclaren]

Another oldie here, I'm 47 too. Last year I was permanently exhausted and was always trying to conserve my energy for the important stuff -looking after my 3 horses. Big mistake,I started having riding lessons with a mean riding instructor who made me work until my legs gave up and I was dripping in sweat. Gave up dairy and wheat for a couple of weeks and ate lots of fruit, fish, meat and veg. Sounds awful, but it kick started my system, returned to eating bread, but less of it and having cow's milk in my coffee and felt loads better. Getting fit with riding properly made a big difference too, the fitter I got, the more energy I had and the less rubbishy food I wanted to eat.
Course, the problem is, I sometimes forget and fall back on the 6 packs of toasted tea cakes....

Pah woman, you don't look 47 anyway and you're in fab shape so shush :D

[kirky]

Zayna- you might be lumpy but I envy your knowledge of horses from being trained as an AI. Sometimes when I am being taught I do it well but I haven't a clue what I am doing half the time, I just feel about a bit and hope!

PS I have started Pilates once a week so I am hoping that helps my back and tum for sitting trot-yuk-evil thing.....:)

[Midori]

Up to the age of 52 I was fit and well, but I soon started to feel unwell, stiff and tired, short of breath, etc.

It took more than 4 years for the doctors to decide what was wrong, and even now it is only because I printed stuff off the Net that my doc admitted that I had Fibromyalgia. I'm not sure that is all of it though, certain things don't quite add up even now, but the doctors don't have the time or inclination to try to help anyone approaching retirement age.

I'm moving soon, perhaps I'll have better luck with my next GP.

Cheers, Midori

[stormy's mum]

im not lumpy but i have no flexibility. im tired all the time due to school and trying to take care of 3 dogs of my own plus a service dog. been helping my friend with her pony too . yoga is a great way to relax and get more flexible though im too stubborn to try