How soon can we get back in the saddle and ride after giving birth? It’s a question riders ask online again and again, but the answer is different for everyone. If you’re Ros Canter, then it’s possible to win Mars Badminton Horse Trials less than four months later, while other equestrians find they need much more time to recover, and this can be for a wide range of reasons.
If there is one topic that’s almost guaranteed to cause fierce debate, it’s motherhood. Natural births versus caesarean sections, breast or bottle, spoon-fed or baby-led weaning – the list goes on, and the arguments are endless.
Then you throw horses into the mix and things get even more complicated. Is it safe to ride while pregnant? Can you find the time and energy to ride when you have a small baby to look after? How do you feel about doing what’s essentially a risk sport now you have an infant depending on you?
Ros, pictured with her family, won Badminton on Lordships Graffalo less than four months after giving birth to her second daughter Seneh. Credit: Peter Nixon
How soon can you ride a horse after giving birth?
All this has been widely discussed, but what isn’t talked about as much is the physical effect that pregnancy and childbirth can have on women, and when we should return to the saddle, regardless of whether riding is your hobby or your livelihood.
Riders are generally a hardy bunch, and there can be the attitude that having a baby is something you do in the off-season, that you’ll be out for a hack as soon as the epidural wears off and be back in your best competition breeches by the following weekend. The official advice, however, is to wait until around six to eight weeks postpartum before you start strenuous exercise, for those who had straightforward vaginal births, going up to three months if you had a caesarean section.
“Healing time can really vary from woman to woman,” says Justine Elliott, a chartered physiotherapist who specialises in women’s pelvic health. “The advice is to wait until your postpartum GP check before starting to do any strenuous exercise, but in reality it’s difficult to put a time-frame on healing from childbirth.
“It depends on how the pregnancy was, the difficulty of the birth, how the mother is feeling postnatally. Nor are C-sections the easy option – it’s major surgery, which involves cutting right through the stomach muscles, and these need time to heal.”
Results of a survey showing how long riders took to recover from childbirth and the common physical issues they experienced.
The early factors
Everyone knows that labour isn’t exactly a hack in the park, but perhaps we are guilty of downplaying just how traumatic an event it can be in our hurry to get back into the saddle.
“Unlike an injury, recovery from childbirth is multi-faceted – physically, emotionally and hormonally – and one aspect might recover more quickly than another,” says Pilates instructor and former midwife Chloe Beazley.
In the days and weeks following the birth, there may be obvious short-term issues – soreness and swelling, particularly if there was any tearing or an episiotomy, pain around a C-section scar, uncomfortably full or leaking breasts, postnatal bleeding and bladder weakness, to name a few. By the two-month point, a lot of these will have healed or at least improved, but some of the other effects of pregnancy and birth might continue for much longer.
“Even if a new mum feels well enough to start riding again, she might find her balance is affected and her reaction times are slower, which can be an issue particularly if your horse has had some time off during your maternity break,” says Justine, who has owned and ridden horses from a young age.
“One of the risks of returning to exercise too quickly is prolapse, particularly as altered oestrogen levels from pregnancy and breastfeeding can cause some ongoing laxity to these structures, plus the process of giving birth puts a huge amount of pressure on these internal muscles.”
Mother and dressage rider Jessica Leroy had to stop riding early in her pregnancy after a freak riding fall while hacking left her with fractured vertebrae in her neck. Fortunately her baby was fine and Jessica made a good recovery from her neck injury, but a lengthy break from riding followed by a quick return afterwards ended up causing problems.
“I had a quick birth with no external tearing, and I was back on my horse about two-and-a-half weeks after my baby was born,” says Jessica. “But then I had an internal prolapse, which might have been caused by returning to riding too quickly or doing too much yard work in late pregnancy.
“I wish the postnatal information given to me was more in depth, especially regarding the risk of prolapse. My health situation could have been avoided with proper guidance, and I’m now paying the price mentally, physically and financially as I’m having to see a private physio and gynaecologist.”
Another potential issue is that of diastasis recti, which is a partial or complete separation of the rectus abdominus muscles (or the six-pack muscles, for those lucky enough to be familiar with them).
“These muscles have to adapt throughout pregnancy to allow space for the growing bump” says Justine. “As many as one in two women will be left with a gap in these muscles, which can take time to heal and may need special targeted exercises. But seek professional advice, as doing the wrong type of exercises can end up doing more damage than good, and take longer to repair.”
Ongoing challenges after birth
Pelvic floor issues – and accompanying bladder weakness – is another barrier for making a speedy return to the saddle. A bit like running and trampolining, the impact and the “squatting” position of riding can put extra pressure on a weakened pelvic floor and make it harder to switch on these essential muscles.
It’s a common issue, and women of all ages, even elite athletes and teenage gymnasts, can suffer from pelvic floor weakness. That said, it isn’t something to be ignored or classed as normal, and these conditions can often be improved with professional help.
The pelvic floor muscles form a big part of your core, something that many mothers find to be lacking after childbirth.
“Core strength is vital to riders, whatever their discipline,” explains Justine. “Many new mothers find a sudden disconnect when riding, that their bodies no longer do as they want them to do and they struggle with a lack of balance. So much changes in your body throughout pregnancy and it can take time for things to settle; plus there may be weight gain, postural changes, muscle weakness – all of this can affect your riding.”
There are lots of physical changes that can affect when you’re ready to get back on a horse.
Grand prix dressage rider and trainer Sarah Sjoholm-Patience found her core strength to be the biggest challenge after the birth of her daughter.
“All the basic skill set was still there, but my core strength was so much weaker,” she says. “It took six months for it to return to how it was, while my pelvic alignment has never quite been the same since.”
Sarah was back to riding and coaching “as soon as the stitches were out”, which isn’t uncommon among professionals when riding is your income and career.
Showjumper Yazmin Pinchen rode up until five months pregnant, with her doctor’s consent, and returned not long after the birth of her son, but even a short maternity break saw her dropping down the rankings.
“There was huge pressure to get back competing and getting my points back up so I could compete at certain shows,” she says. Since then, the FEI has announced changes to the maternity rules for dressage, showjumping and driving to offer further flexibility.
Most women will change shape during pregnancy, with postural differences and weight gain commonplace, despite what we see on celebrity mothers’ Instagram feeds. Even if the baby weight drops off quickly, women might find their shape has changed and their pre-pregnancy clothes don’t fit as they did before. Showjumper Jessie Drea got a shock when going to put on her Team GBR jacket after the birth of her first son.
“It didn’t fit, so I asked for a bigger one, and the replacement didn’t fit either!” she says.
Jessie stopped riding early on during both pregnancies for medical reasons, but was back in the saddle within days of giving birth both times. Like many new equestrian mothers, riding provided her with a big psychological boost and gave her a break from mum duties, but she did feel a degree of pressure to bounce back.
“One year I was on Nations Cup teams and going to the World Equestrian Games – the next I was having a baby,” she says. “I thought once I went back I’d be exactly the same as I was despite having had a break and a baby, but of course you’re not the same, your body changes so much.”
How preparation can help a smooth return to the saddle
Whatever your views on riding during pregnancy, doing some form of exercise and keeping active while you’re expecting may well mean a more straightforward birth and quicker recovery.
“Being in great physical shape prior to and during pregnancy is the best way to ensure a quicker and easier recovery from labour and delivery – studies have shown this,” says Chloe Beazley.
Badminton winner Piggy March missed an entire eventing season when she had her son Max in 2016.
“I’d missed the whole season so I wasn’t under any pressure to rush back,” she says. “It meant I had the whole winter to get fit again, so once I started riding again I just built things up gradually.”
One thing Piggy did was to start weekly sessions with a personal trainer.
“I was keen to start doing some rider fitness work, which I hadn’t really done before, and that was very beneficial. She got me back into shape and back into my breeches in time for the following season.”
Pictured at Badminton in 2019, Piggy says she “built things up slowly” following the birth of her son in 2016. Credit: Badminton Horse Trials/Kit Hougton
It is a challenge to get back to feeling like the rider you were pre-pregnancy, but it is doable. Some riders even report feeling better after childbirth, as it led to them focusing on improving their core strength. It’s all a case of managing expectations, taking things gradually and allowing yourself to enjoy your new role as a mother as well as retaining your identity as a rider.
“Be kind to yourself,” says Sarah Sjoholm-Patience. “Give yourself time to recover, put less pressure on yourself. Your baby is only going to be small for a short period of time, and our sport will still be there when you go back to it.”
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