Paddy Muir

Road to Recovery

Since I reported last from South Tees Hospital, I have recovered well from my brain injury and am back at home. It has most definately been a year to put behind us, my father sadly passed away last month after falling ill with scepticemia, a very sad time for us all.

Soon after my release from Hospital in July, I had a lovely holiday in Kenya, where some friends were to be married at the resort. It was a lovely wedding and we followed that with three days safari which was amazing. During the two weeks away I felt I had turned a corner recovery wise. Each day I felt I was back to normal until the next day - then I realised I was more normal - so the previous day I can't have been!!!!

Eventually I got my driving licence back which was a great relief - more to my sister who had picked me and two large dogs up every morning for over a month, to bring me 25 miles to the stables. During my first month at home I was restricted to basic stable duties sweeping up, mucking out, preparing feeds and muck picking the fields. I started to become obsessed with certain things - I could have understood if it had been clothes, diet, or household related - but muck picking!!! We have 4 small fields and the horses were out all day, some on a night too - so you can imagine there was plenty to fuel my new obsession. I am now an expert on which forks to use - depending on the weather the previous evening, which horses go into the furthest corners, and the mere sight of a dropping in a field left me in a minor state of panic!!! I am happy to say this obsession has passed and I can happily muck pick once a week now the horses are only out for half a day each.

Lucy, at 13 years old is juggling school sports with riding. She was competing throughout my recovery period and competed at Richmond Intro with a good double clear, and the her first Pre Novice at Aske Hall which she had a showjump down but a good clear XC close to the time. Rebel, her pony, has really benefited from a change of diet, he was always fed Dengie feed with his previous owners, but as he hunted regularly he was in need of lots more energy feed so was fed Alfa-A together with his main concentrate. He is only worked 3 or 4 times a week here, so we have him on a diet of Hi-Fi, Alfa-Beet and pony cubes together with 1 little scoop of 'Magic' supplement in his night feed. He is worked up the hills to keep him fit and put on the walker inbetween times when County hockey takes priority.

I have been riding regularly for the last month and am really relieved all the horses seem calm, not too fat and almost relieved to be working again. I put their condition and calmness down to careful feeding and plently of turn out. The feeding plan has been very simply Hi-Fi, small amount of Alfa-Beet and a scattering of oats or pony cubes - depending on temperament. Some horses have smaller rations of haylage and feed depending on their ability to gain too much weight. Which lead to another obsession - weight gain!!!

On leaving hospital, partly due to trauma and muscle loss, I was thin but very weak. Holiday food and lack of excercise soon altered that an I found myself with bits of body I had never had before!!!! So I made a concious effort to be more careful of what I was eating, cut out bread, chocolate and biscuits and that combined with riding again has gradually seen the disppearance of those extra bits thus leading to another obsession - clothes!! More expensive but slightly more normal.

Paddy