Riding/Competing with Epilepsy

horseywelsh

horseywelsh

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I know very little about epilepsy but I was just wondering how it effects people riding and competing?

Would things like club insurance be void if a rider on your team had epilepsy? Or is it the riders own risk to compete? What responsibility does the team manager/captain have on allowing this person to compete?

Any thoughts, experiences on this matter would be appreciated, as sometimes reading info from a google search can always portray worse case conditions. As said before I know very little on epilepsy and in know way want this post to offend people or suggest/infer they are not capable of riding and competing etc.
 
Gosh! Difficult one. I teach fitness and dance, and once a week take a class at a centre for adults with special needs, and one of my students there goes riding at a riding stables.

I don't know how they manage the practicalities of that, but I guess the riding stables has done risk assessments etc. and would know how to deal with someone being affected by epilepsy.

I think you'd need to chat with the team leader or whatever, if competing. Perhaps "para" events/facilitators would be able to point you in the right direction?

Personally I think it would be a fantastic challenge and whilst accepting there may be practical difficulties, I would hope these could be overcome somehow in the true horsey spirit of "can-do".

Good luck!
 
Epilepsy shouldn't prove a problem, provided it is well controlled. Ask the person in question if they have anything in particular that warns them a seziure may happen - some people get tastes, or visual auras. They can then tell you, and you will understand if they need to get off etc

First aid for epilpsey is VERY simple. http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/seizures/first-aid

Epilepsy Action is a good site for info.
 
I would suspect it depends very mcuh on the type of epilepsy, i.e. do they have absence seizures, tonic colnic seizure, 'drop' seizures..., they suffer from and how well controlled it is, and also wether they can feel a seizure coming on (a lot of the children I work with know when they are about to have a seizure, but obviously this isn't fail safe!), as all of these factors will effect the level of risk.
Not sure exactly how it would affect insurance etc. but people with epilepsy do ride so there must be something out there! and as above I'm sure a very long risk assesment has been written ;) :) I wouold try maybe contacting the RDA or one of the epiepsy awarness groups.
 
To add

A person may have epilepsy, but may not have had a seziure of any description for a number of years due to it being well controlled.

Also, there are several different types of seziure, not just the tonic-clonic type which is what we would all recognise as epilepsy.
 
I used to share lifts to riding lessons with a girl whose brother had narcolepsy. He would come and ride as well if he felt well enough - he'd had a few falls (not from horses!) and his mobility was limited.
There were two steady horses that he rode regularly, and despite being a bit stiff, he coped really well - with supervision he could come for a canter in the fields or out on a hack. He also did some of their 'in house' shows.
He really enjoyed it, and I believe it was helpful to him physically. He got very little warning of episodes, and once had one actually on a horse, but the instructor managed to keep the horse still and him on top until he came round!
 
I haven't had a fit for a good few years now but was riding when I was. Mine was classed as fitting after head inj (fell through plate glass window, hit head on concrete) basically my eyesight went and I needed to start wearing glasses and I also started having fits. I got a warning though - everything used to go sort of foggy, then like a black and white fuzzy tv so was always enough warning for me to get off and (usually) get on floor.
The really important thing is when someone comes round. Be really calm, and quiet - I used to get very aggressive after a fit, especially if someone was shouting at me or in my face. People can react in different ways but most will be disorientated, sleepy and just want to rest.
The advice we give for fitting is - don't hold them down, don't put anything in their mouth, just move dangeropus objects awy. When they stop fitting, check they are breathing and turn them gently on their side
 
We've had a few riders with epilepsy in the RDA groups I have helped with. The key is to do a risk assessment and inform everyone on what to look out for and what their roles are if the person had a fit. You would need to know to what extent the condition is kept under control with medication (many people with epilepsy manage it entirely with medication and they are able to continue with their lives as normal including driving), any signs that a person is about to have a fit, what kind of fit they are likely to have and how they are likely to react and what you should do as a side-helper or horse leader if they do have a fit. We never had an accident, as in anyone getting injured as a result of having a fit, but we did have a couple of instances of riders having fits that were dealt with safely.
 
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