Calculated & Educated Risks

When I went to my first hydrotherapy session, 8 weeks post op, and told my therapist that I had sat on my horse at 7 weeks post op, he did a very good job of not looking completely aghast. I wondered if  I hadn't have said that it was actually my surgeon that suggested it, if he might have said I shouldn't have done it. But we kind of got to talking about how such things are both a calculated and educated risk.

 

Part of the reason I got on my horse was because of what my first opinion surgeon said about me doing it. "Not a realistic expectation with your back" he had said, back in 2012. Also, my current surgeon that had done the op had had scope surgery for FAI himself, and he had got back to his cycling and skiing pretty quick, so he knew how I was feeling mentally about getting back on my horse as soon as I could.

 

My therapist referred to the show jumper Nick Skelton. He won Gold at London Olympics 2012. He has 2 knee replacements and a hip replacement, as well as a near fatal neck injury in 2000. Nick Skelton must know that to fall from a horse now,  with these replacements and neck lesions, gives him a higher chance of severe injury. But he does it anyway, because he loves it, and because he is taking a calculated, educated  risk. He knows what he is doing, he knows the horse, and yes, he also knows the consequences of falling off. But a lot of variables need to come together for a catastrophic fall, and he has control of many of those variables through knowing his horses training, and his own abilities.

 

I loved this thought process coming from my therapist. It made absolute sense! I was taking a calculated, educated risk getting on my horse, because I love it and  because I know he was well trained, that he is a calm relaxed horse, that I do know what I am doing. It would be a different thing entirely if I was getting on a rodeo bucking horse, the variables there certainly suggest I would  hit the dirt!

 

And anyway. We all take calculated educated risks every day. From driving our cars to getting on an a train on airplane.