Sidelined

We were in the indoor, and only had about 2/3 of it.

There was much cantering in a circle, which was naturally easier for me to do than rise in the trot, so I wasn’t feeling too bad about not being able to jump. [Lie.]

But there was also only so much that I could take, as my ankle was really sore [did I mention that I belted my left ankle against a metal thing in Stockholm on a press trip? It really is too stupid to explain.] And again, just being around the horses was great for morale, so I was happy enough to sit there and rotate my foot.

A couple of the polocrosse teens were hanging out in the lesson.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ one asked.

I explained, about the torn muscle, the Achilles, the heel, the arch of the foot.

‘How’d you do that?’

Well, see, there was this dressage test, and he wouldn’t canter in bounds, and bang bang, and then it was okay, but I, er, was watching the World Cup —

‘Oh my God, you were in South Africa!?’

Uh, no.

‘You did that watching the television?’

Yeah.

Expression of disdain that belongs in the dictionary next to the definition. [Sigh.]

Offside, Too

At the end of the session to which I brought this new injury, my physio and I looked at my foot and just shook our heads.

This was going to be one for the books.

I was limping. I had on my magnets, and I had on the compression bandage. I was popping arnica tablets like a refugee from a Jacqueline Susann novel. I thought about my … well, it wasn’t just my leg anymore, was it? It was my Achilles, which was an old injury and a total nightmare, it was my heel that I couldn’t put any weight on, and it felt like the arch of my foot was curled up. In fact, my left foot looked to be about an inch shorter than my right.

How long was it going to take me to get back from this???

Offside

So what happened was: I healed the torn muscle in my left calf from trying to convince Malabar to canter on a twenty metre circle within bounds.

It only took about two weeks, which was a total miracle. Then I was back on for two.

Then the USA scored a third goal in a match against Slovenia in the World Cup.