A major injury is a struggle that is not often seen in a teenager. A constant everyday pain and inability to participate in most fitness activities can be devastating , especially during high school.
Humburg suffers a hip impingement, but she doesn’t let it stop her from doing what she loves. Humburg’s doctor advised her to stop riding horses to prevent further damage to her hip. She gave him a hard pass, choosing to take the risk of making her hip worse. When passion and caution clashed for Humburg, she followed her heart.
“It’s hard to give up something you love when you’ve devoted all of your time to it,” Humburg said.
Humburg’s relationship with her horse Sam, is one of the reasons she’s so passionate about riding. She believes that if she didn’t have a good relationship with him, riding wouldn’t be the same.
“Sam and I get along really well, and that’s probably the main reasons I actually want to go out and ride. I had a horse named Roy for a couple of years. I never wanted to ride; we just didn’t get along,” Humburg said.
Humburg’s stepdad and grandpa want her to stop riding because of her hip impingement, but other than that her family fully supports her.
“Generally I feel like whatever harm her riding is doing, the fitness is doing more good than harm,” Addison’s dad, Greg Humburg said.
Addison’s started riding horses when she was about seven. She found out about her hip impingement when she was twelve, but it didn’t become a problem to her riding until she was fourteen.
“I was upset at first, but I told the doctor and my family that I was still going to ride horses,” Addison said.
To help her hip she does stretches to make her hip stronger and to keep it loose, but Humburg still holds concerns for her hip.
“If I keep riding I will eventually tear a ligament and I’ll have to have a hip replacement earlier than a normal person,” Addison said.
Beyond riding, Addison’s hip affects her everyday life.
“One time we were watching a movie in English class, and Addison had to leave because her hip hurt so bad,” sophomore Lexi Odle said.
Addison has left school a couple of times and has had countless amounts of trips to the nurse because of the pain in her hip. She also has had many incidents where she hasn’t been able or stand up because her balance is off due to her hip impingement.
“I can’t even distribute my weight evenly,” Addison said.
This becomes a problem with her horse because if her horse turns too sharply she loses balance in her hip, which could cause her to fall off her horse.
“Quitting isn’t an option… you have your horse and you put all of your time and effort into training it and it’s just satisfaction because this is something you did,” Addison said.