For 16 years, Dorothée and her mare Tirelire have been a close-knit team. The metastatic breast cancer that affects the 54-year-old rider has not changed anything. Except perhaps one thing: Tirelire is now taking care of Dorothée.
As far back as I can remember, I have always ridden horses. When I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2022, which has since metastasized to my spine, I asked myself a lot of questions about what to do next with my horse riding. At the same time, I had my mare, Tirelire, for 16 years. I had to choose between leaving her in the field and taking a step back, or continuing to see her and ride her, as much as possible. Of course, my oncologist was leaning towards the first option. I chose the second…
« Piggy Bank understood very quickly what I was going through »
Sometimes I get frustrated to see that my feelings have changed, and that I can no longer perform as well as before. I hardly jump any more obstacles, I am not allowed to fall. When I am tired, I fall back on ground work and dressage. Feeling that I am gradually losing my level sometimes makes me sad, and it annoys me. But I quickly console myself thanks to Tirelire. She understood very quickly, and perhaps even more quickly than me, what I was going through. She immediately changed her behavior. As if, from now on, it was up to her to take care of me. Now, when I ride her, she points her ears towards me and waits for me to give her the green light to increase the pace. Then, with her very own look, she tells me ” are you sure? “, before slowly and gradually breaking into a canter. I am very lucky to have her. She did not choose to be with me, and it is my responsibility to get off my butt and spend time with her. A time that feels like a break, a moment in parentheses, during which I do not think about the illness, the treatments, the fatigue. A time when I am outside, in connection with nature… and my horse.
« I feel like my body, my back are loosening up »
My little moments with Tirelire are real breaths of fresh air that it would have been a shame to deprive myself of! Physically too, horse riding does me good. Even my physiotherapist noticed it! When I ride, I have the feeling that my body and my back are loosening up, unlocking. I feel more aligned and less tired. With the treatments, I lost a lot of weight, without any control over this weight loss. Horse riding helps me to regain those evaporated pounds. Having resumed a therapeutic part-time job, between my professional life, that of a mother, my medical appointments and my trips to the stables, the weeks are sometimes complicated from an organizational point of view. But with cancer, we learn that in life, as long as it makes us feel good, we have to take everything there is to take…
