Selma Blair has been bravely sharing her life with multiple sclerosis (MS) with fans, showing the world the normally private highs and lows of life with the chronic condition.
And in an emotional Instagram post this weekend, the Anger Management star proved that even something as small as riding a horse could be very meaningful while battling the disease.
Blair, 46, posted photos of her emotional reunion with her horse, Mr. Nibbles, and revealed her MS symptoms had kept her from riding him for months.
Show jumping is a hobby for the actress, and while she wasn't ready to put Mr. Nibbles through his paces yet, being close to him again obviously meant a lot to her.
"My magical unicorn," she captioned the photo.
"[He] held my body while I broke open with gratitude. I haven't been able to ride for four months or more. I haven't been able to get to him, so my saint of a trainer, @kjrides brought him to me."
"It was a fairytale. My horse in my front yard, with more emotions than these words can hold."
She ended the post with a promise to herself, "I will heal. I will ride."
Blair first opened up about her MS diagnosis in October, assuring fans that she was still working and making the best of her bad news.
"By the grace of the lord, and [willpower] and the understanding producers at Netflix, I have a job," she wrote. "A wonderful job."
"I am disabled. I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it."
MS is a chronic condition with no "cure," and affects more than a million Americans.
Damage to the brain and spinal cord caused by MS can affect a patient's movement, and cause lasting damage to their body. It can also affect senses like sight and tough, and usually becomes more severe over time.
Patients with MS often go through periods where their symptoms improve or worsen, and Blair tells fans she's in the midst of an "exacerbation" that's making hers much worse.
When she announced her diagnosis months ago, Blair listed riding her horse as a goal she was working towards, along with playing with her son, so the reunion with Mr. Nibbles obviously meant the world to her.
The actress also recently updated fans about living with her "new normal" at Thanksgiving, writing that she was "grieving" for "the things I took for granted." That included being able to turn a cartwheel to impress her son, which she tried and failed to do.
"And I tried to laugh. As did my son. But it was a turning point," she wrote.
"Five months and still the same way. Or is this my new normal? And then more gets taken away."
Still, Blair is still determined to look on the bright side and hope for the future, sharing a photo of herself sitting on Mr. Nibbles with the caption, "I can."
Let's hope that Blair's symptoms get better with time, so she can get back on Mr. Nibbles and go for a ride soon!
[H/T: People]
