Ankle Pain When Riding

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jo_pearl

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Hi Guys,

I don't know if this affects anyone else but I get serious pain in my left ankle when riding.
It feels like the pain is on the outside on the bone part of the ankle and feels stiff and then travels to the inside of my left knee. To the point when I get off I can't land on the foot and I'm in pain for a while afterwards. I have started to strap up the foot which did help today but there was still an ache in the ankle and was a bit numb but was pain in the inside of my knee.

I have the stirrups that flex on the sides and have not had any injuries to the ankle.

All help needed as suffer in pain in lessons and feel I can't ride as well as I could with out the pain

Thanks all :)
 
Have you tried putting your stirrups down a hole to reduce the angle of your ankle?

I've also always thought that the flexi stirrups would surely increase the angle your ankle flexes? Where as with a standard straight footed fillis iron it's got more stability.

I went on a fun ride today and my stirrups were up three holes so I could jump and get out the saddle. Left ankle went a bit stiff near the end of the ride and 6 hours later I am now paying for having short stirrups. Knees are throbbing and ankles have swollen! I have a history of ankle ligament injuries and knee injury though.
 
You might find stirrups with a deep footbed, like endurance stirrups would help as they give far more support to the foot and ankle.
 
Short term, ibuprofen is your friend as well as ankle supports. Also, if you can safely ride into an area with a cushioned floor to dismount....that all helps. When I was bad I was fortunate that my horse was stabled in a large american barn with superb rubber matting on the central gangway. I should add that I broke both my ankles many years ago and my problems/pain stemmed from developing osteophytes and some initial soft tissue damage.

I have always hunted and when out in the saddle for a number of hours I found it helped to vary the length of my stirrup leathers. Start short and work longer. The flexi stirrups as you call them helped me and I was notably better in them - especially for riding for five hours or so when hunting.

Longer term....you need to find out the true cause of your pain. Soft tissue/ skeletal or whatever and investigate appropriate 'aids' be they orthotics, rest, surgery or whatever. Gait analysis can also be helpful in determining problems.

Good luck!
 
I have a feeling that you may be tense somewhere up in the inner thigh. I know this sounds odd but it is the most common cause of ankle pain when riding.

I agree with justkickon and adjust your stirrup length and most of all, try to relax and sit up and release your pelvis.

I wholly assume the above on the grounds you haven't actually broken anything!
 
Thanks for your replies guys :)

I get exactly the same pain in any kind of stirrup. Even if I drop my stirrups down the pain relieves for a few seconds but then comes back.

I only get this pain when riding. I go to
The gym 5 times a week and can run all day and don't feel
No Pain it's the moment I get in the saddle :( I stood up today riding and the pain went cause I was like stretching my leg out if that makes sense. Once I dismount I walk for a few strides and I'm fine again!!! Don't know what it is!!!
 
jo_pearl said:
Thanks for your replies guys :)

I get exactly the same pain in any kind of stirrup. Even if I drop my stirrups down the pain relieves for a few seconds but then comes back.

I only get this pain when riding. I go to
The gym 5 times a week and can run all day and don't feel
No Pain it's the moment I get in the saddle :( I stood up today riding and the pain went cause I was like stretching my leg out if that makes sense. Once I dismount I walk for a few strides and I'm fine again!!! Don't know what it is!!!
Click to expand...

It has to be your posture. Perhaps you have trapped a nerve.

Have you tried with no stirrups at all? Could you try stretching your hip flexors and other associated tendons? Are you relaxing you psoas muscle? Sometimes people who have back pain have pain associated with this muscle. Back pain when riding is almost always associated with weak abdominals.

If it's not your posture then it has to be the saddle. Check it's not broken.
 
Have you tried riding without stirrups? If the pain is there without, then you will know it is something else you are doing (as tallyho! says).

Do you brace against the stirrups?

One other thing that helped me was my trainer saying "think about lifting your toes up, not putting your heels down". This helped relax my leg (in particular the ankle which I used to 'fix') and stop gripping through the thigh, which in turn dropped my leg down and softened the pelvis. Riding is a real science, and often you don't realise you are doing something until you think about it!
 
Thanks
For your reply Tallyho!

What are the muscles your talking about??

I do get lower back pain and I know my core muscles are weak but I'm working on them in the gym (not realising how weak they were until a dressage lesson last week!!)

It's not the saddle it's a brand new hawk event saddle+I've had a friend school my mare when I was in work and he didn't have an issue
 
jo_pearl said:
Thanks
For your reply Tallyho!

What are the muscles your talking about??

I do get lower back pain and I know my core muscles are weak but I'm working on them in the gym (not realising how weak they were until a dressage lesson last week!!)

It's not the saddle it's a brand new hawk event saddle+I've had a friend school my mare when I was in work and he didn't have an issue
Click to expand...

Your hip flexors are the ones in front of your hip either side of your groin... when you lunge you stretch these.

Your psoas is the one that runs from your lumbar region around the tops of your hips and down to the bottom of your groin.. part of your girdle and if you engage your pelvic floor, these will come into effect.

The other thing I can think of is that you are not putting your heels down and your toes are pointing out. This puts enormous strain on your outer leg muscles and in turn makes you grip with your knees. Try thinking "toe up". That usually makes people relax their ankles.

Well, I hope you get to the bottom of it. Good luck.
 
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Muscles_of_thigh_and_the_hip.jpg


If you google the functions of the muscles and the action they have on movement, it's explained pretty well.
 
Thank you JustKickOn

I am going to google the muscles and see if they can give me exercises and advise on how to strengthen my ankle and stop the pain

It's so annoying having this pain!!!
 
Having had ligament damage in my ankles from playing netball, the exercises that helped me most to build them back up were:
- Sitting down, make a figure of 8 with your toe, and back the other way, circle clockwise, circle anti clockwise and repeat.
- Standing up, raise up onto your tip toes, hold for 5 seconds, flat and then 'sit' on the heels and lift the toes, flat and repeat.
- 10 second 'flamingo pose'. Standing on one leg and not holding onto anything. Makes you realise how wobbly you could be!!

It takes a long time to build ankle stability back up, which is where supports are beneficial. However if you're using them and not working on stabilising the ankle as well, it's counterproductive.

Good luck, let us know how you get on :)
 
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