Black and Blue Ribbons
— Karen Del Vecchio

While the heat of summer unfortunately will continue for weeks to come, summer’s unofficial end is on the horizon as my date for going back to work approaches. As a college counselor in an independent high school, I’m usually…

Pretty much anyone who’s read my column knows I work as a college counselor, live on a farm, and have horses. Another thing about me that most might not know, however, is that I love history. I…

My horse, Cherry, fractured a bone in her foot in May. She came to me 14 months ago with a variety of physical compensations, which I’ve written about in other columns and have been working to address. Although…

I wrote last week about how much horseback riding has helped me with body awareness. Another activity that has helped me significantly improve body awareness is Pilates. Pilates also has made me more conscientious while riding, which in…

Recently, someone mentioned that I seem to have heightened body awareness. I’d never really thought about it, but I guess I do pay attention to how my body moves (or doesn’t), my range of motion, and how different…

I rarely wear short-sleeve shirts, but it’s not because of the same reason I often wear pants instead of shorts. Rather, it’s because I sunburn easily. I practically live in sun shirts while working outdoors on the farm.

Some people like summer. Love it even. I’m not one of them. In fact, if I listed the four seasons for their weather attributes, summer would come in a very distant last. I live in the South, where it…

One of the great things about horseback riding is that when done correctly, it requires an enormous amount of body awareness. While many people see a person riding and think the horse is doing all the work while the…

I realized earlier that I don’t often think of myself as having EDS. It’s not that I don’t recognize or accept that I have it, but that I rarely ever use it to frame how I’m feeling. For example,…

Wow, did summer sure decide to turn on its furnace overnight here in Virginia. A day ago, it was in the mid-70s and perfect, and today it was 92 F and humid. Let me tell you, I am not…

Last week, I was able to see my massage therapist for the first time in over three months due to the pandemic. About 10 years ago, I learned that massage is an integral part of my pain management.

One thing that’s both particularly difficult as well as sometimes wonderful about Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is that, for the most part, it’s invisible. Except for my bruising, if you look at me, there’s nothing that would stand out…