Horse lover’s new hips keep her riding
In 2006, at age 47, Joan Horton feared she would have to give up her passion – which also happened to be her livelihood.
“It would lock up, and I would have to shake it out,” the lifelong horse trainer and rider said of the problem she was experiencing with her right hip. “It was really painful.”
At first, Dr. Bruce Bynum, a Corvallis Clinic orthopedic surgeon, tried to ease the pain with cortisone injections. It worked only for a short time, and Horton knew she would need to have it replaced. She was told having the procedure done at 47 meant she would need it replaced again in a few years, which was fine with her. “I didn’t even want to walk,” she said. “It was awful, especially at the end of a long day.”
Dr. Bynum put in an artificial hip in 2007. After about five months, Horton was back in the saddle, at which time her left hip started acting up. “I guess it is very common that when one gets done the other will eventually need replacing as well,” she said.
She said the results have been really amazing. “I can ride and do a lot,” the now 55-year-old said. “I am basically able do everything that I used to do.”
Horton is unsure of why her hips needed replacing. She was told by Dr. Bynum that she had arthritis in them, and she also surmises spending hours riding animals that weigh more than 1,000 pounds might have something to do with it. “It’s not super common,” she said, “but I’ve known several trainers who have had bad hips. You’re using your legs all the time, moving them back and forth on the horse. It’s not just getting on and off, it’s not just kicking them, you’re pressing and pushing, so there is a lot of wear and tear.”
Horton is doing a lot less of that type of movement these days. In 2013, due to arthritis in her shoulders, hands and wrists, she closed the horse-training division of Horton Farms, the business near Monmouth she co-owns with her husband. “Physically I was really breaking down,” she said. “So now I just ride on my own.”
And she can continue to ride for fun because of her new steel hips. “Dr. Bynum keeps really good track of them,” she said. “My hips feel great.”
