Riding, pregnancy & pelvic girdle pain

horsemad32

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Ow! Lol. Every time I do any decent schooling, I end up with sore muscles around where the 'bump' is beginning to show. I also had extra-stretchy ligaments to start with, and now quite easily injure myself slightly when lungeing if the horse has a 'moment', when climbing over gates, or getting on/off, as well as when lifting heavyish things (although OH can do the bales of hay/shavings for now!). I doubt it helps that my horse is rather, er, wide shall we say?

This will get better, right? Or not? Are there any things that particularly make it worse that I should avoid? Exercises to do to make it better? How did other people cope?
 
can i ask how pregnant you are? I rode through my first pregnancy up to 30 odd weeks but after about 20 weeks i found trot uncomfortable so just walked and cantered. Eventually it was awkward dismounting as my bump would get in my way. When you are pregnant you can very easily over stretch ligaments as they get soft in preparation for the birth.
 
Get a pelvic support belt. This is what all the people at work seem to get when they have pelvic problems due to bumps.
If you see a physio they should be able to advise.
 
Congratulations!

I hate to put a dampener on, but you need to see the physic via your midwife i had PSD (or whatever its called) and I wish I had taken it more seriously.

I kept doing everything dispite the pain with my 1st - just crack on like we do :rolleyes:. Got pregnant with the second very quickly and was meant to be on crutches but as baby no 1 was under 1yo its not practical to be carrying a baby on crutches:confused: so kept going. I used to have to stop driving half way through a short journey because the pain was so bad!

6 years on the pain I get is un real at times especially after a hard flatwork session, long drive and for some reason pushing shopping trolleys:o I wish i hadn't tried to be such a hero back then for those few months.

Hope it gets better and yours isn't as bad as mine was, but please give yourself a break you may be doing long term damage.
 
I'm due in 6 weeks and sometimes I can barely walk due to pelvic girdle pain. My midwife just isn't interested.

Riding is a complete no-no for me now. I've never had a problem with any of my other pregnancies but this has been the pregnancy from hell. My baby is sitting the wrong way round and keeps kicking downwards so I think this is half the problem. I'm really not looking forward to when he does finally sit with his head down - it makes them feel heavier so I'm not sure if this is going to hurt me more. :(

I made the mistake of climbing over the gate the other day :( I was in pain for hours afterwards.

I find that keeping my feet up helps, as do warm baths. I've also developed a special shuffly waddle walk that seems to lessen the pain.I've only heard bad things about girdles being uncomfortable so I haven't bought one.

I just hope the pain goes away quickly after the birth. I'm practically housebound at the moment and it's driving me nuts.
 
You should try to get to see a physio through your GP. The physio can at least give you a belt to try. Im not pregnant but have a twisted pelvis and it helps me a lot, it may well be uncomfy to wear in pregnancy but least you could try it for free.

Don't just hope it will improve, one of my nurses ended up with a split pelvis this way!

Good luck with everything, it sounds very painful!!
 
I also hate to put a dampener on things, but I think if you are suffering onthe ground now, riding is going to make it worse. There really was nothing I could do apart from sit in a red hot bath at 4 in the morning cos I couldn't sleep with the pain. I'm sorry, that prob wasn't what you wanted to hear -it went away immediately after my baby was born though.
 
Thanks for all the ideas/thoughts. I will mention it to my midwife next time I see her. I get the point about not overdoing things too. Is there a particular support belt that's good, or will any one do?

Bizarrely, I seem to be most prone to injury on the ground, esp as I learn more what not to do - today I rode without incident, lunged in a bridle to prevent any pulling, carried stuff in half loads - yet when did I hurt myself? By stepping slightly sideways over an obstacle on the walk back to the car! Luckily OH is good at gentle massage and it doesn't hurt as badly now!
 
Take care of yourself. I managed to pull a ligament in my back trying to wheelbarrow water and I was in pain for the rest of the pregnancy (3 months!!). The physio wouldn't touch me because I was pregnant and I couldn't take anti-inflammatories either.
 
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