The First Two Rides After a Baby

I got to ride my horse again!  It’s been months since I last rode – three months, three weeks and one day to be exact – but who’s counting?  (┛◉Д◉)┛

-  “Hai Mom!”  -

Here’s a brief history of my other “horse riding after babies” experiences to fill in the back story. You can skip if you want to, or have the TLDR version:  I’ve had three children, two by caesarean and one by natural delivery.  After every birth I’ve needed time to heal before I could ride again, but it did vary as to how long that had to be.

When I had my first baby – my son, who is now 3 and a half years old – I rode six weeks after he was born via emergency caesarean.  Of course, in typical over-achiever fashion, that was too soon and I found myself quite sore in a not-so-good way afterwards even though I’d only walked and done tiny bit of trot on Copper for about 20 minutes.  I then had to wait another two weeks before I could hop on again to give myself time to recover from the ride. 

With my second - my two year old daughter – she was delivered naturally, but came out pretty quickly in the end which caused tearing that needed stitches. I rode my horse Joey at around six weeks postpartum –and wrote a post about it here. I could get back in the saddle sooner with the natural birth, and probably would have been even faster to get back on if it hadn’t been for the stitches.

Baby number three was born by another not by choice, but necessary, caesarean.  This time I was so grateful that it wasn’t an emergency situation, so thankfully the trauma from the whole delivery hasn’t been as big of a problem like my first birth turned out to be.

This is actually really important, because if you don’t acknowledge your mental state from the birthing process, good or bad, you can end up burying a lot of emotions that need to be processed. I say need because your life will be effected by emotions that aren’t dealt with. Your thought processes, your attitudes, your relationships – yes, including those with your horse – will be effected.  I found this out the hard way after suffering from PTSD and PND for six months after my son’s dramatic entrance to the world.

This time around, I made sure to give myself as much time to heal as I needed before swinging back into the saddle.  It’s been a lengthy process – I wrote up the recovery plan details so that I could keep track of them – but it definitely included snuggles with the horse and grooming sessions to get my pony time in and keep my sanity while I waited to ride again.

Back in the saddle after baby number three:

So at seven weeks and four days postpartum I finally rode Copper!  Yay! I was this excited to be back in the saddle – exhibit A:  Biggest grin ever!!
\ (*≧▽≦)ノ

Of course, he’s lost ALL of his topline and muscle development that we were starting to get last year. This means we can only do very gentle rides consisting mostly of walk work, lateral work to stretch, and loads transitions to keep his back swinging freely to establish good contact. This isn’t really a problem though, because I’m just as unfit as he is so we BOTH have to ease our way back into it so we don’t get injuries!

Keeping that in mind, our first ride on Friday was a gentle tootle around the arena.  We bent deep into the corners, working on the three-stride corner. Then I had him do some shoulder-fores, leg yields, and transitions from walk to halt.  We did do a few minutes of trotting. I didn’t ask for anything more than rhythm while trotting, because that’s all he has to give me at the moment.  He’s lost a lot of strength and can’t really hold any bend, but I did get a few moments of a nice lifted and connected back which was great. We ended with some smooth leg yields and called it a day. It was lovely!

I could feel my abs and inner thigh muscles the next day, but in a good, you’ve-done-some-exercise way, not a Ouch! You’ve-over-done-it way. This had me cheering so I just had to ride again on Sunday.  Maybe it was too soon, but I just can’t keep away now!

This ride was not as pleasant though because Copper really wasn’t feeling it.  He was happy enough to see me - he whickered hello and came striding up to me with pricked ears and that soft eye “I’m glad to see you” look.

But then we had an argument over mounting. I insisted he keep his feet still and he was all “Nope! I’m outta here!”

We were still debating where the feet had to be -

Copper: “Back a bit?” 

Me: *taps dressage whip on flank* “No. Here.”

Copper: “Sideways? Ooh, I know! Forwards twenty steps!!”

Me: “Wrong answer horse!”

- when my phone rang.  Turns out the little Pumpkin had decided that she wasn’t going to have that two hour afternoon nap I was sure she was ready for after all and I needed to come home stat to feed the baby.  *pout*

So I finally put an end to the discussion and managed to mount him without him moving. (Still have to work on the feet moving once I’m in the saddle though.  He’s not rock solid like I want him to be.)

He was off and away, and when I tucked my feet into the stirrups Copper nearly jumped out of his skin!  He really had a kink in his back and he took off trotting, wanting to canter.

I only had five minutes to ride at the most, so I let him trot on. Trying to get him to walk then would have just made him explode because he would have felt trapped. I kept him at a moderate trot with half-halts on the outside rein and a steady one-two sit trot rhythm with a weighted seat.

We did some bending all around the jump paddock, and his head was bopping all over the place – he didn’t want to come into contact. I encouraged him to stretch down with a loose rein walk.  That slowed him down enough to do some leg yields, some more loose rein walk, and then finally we finished with a less tense horse and two nice leg yields – one in each direction.

He was happy when I dismounted though.  I guess he was feeling that ride we had had on Friday too, because I’ve never felt him have such a big ‘hump’ in his back before. He was so tense! It was one of those “I’m riding a nucelar bomb that’s about to blow” type rides! I debated getting off, because I’m not fit enough to ride through any shenanigans, but end up staying on because I felt like we could work through it if I was tactful and stayed out of his face.

-  “Meee?  Tense??  Nawww….”  -

And I’m glad we were able to do that. It was good practise.  It helped me figure out how I need to ride him through those stressful moments so that we both feel safe. 

Despite that last ride, it has been so awesome to get back into it, and now we just need to work up our strength.  Lots of hill work here we come!

See ya,

bonita

Coming Back to Horse Riding after a C-Section Delivery

- Waiting at the gate. Copper’s happy to see me! -

It’s been a while hasn’t it?

I have been to see Copper twice since Charlotte was born, but as I haven’t been cleared to exercise yet I haven’t been riding.

To be honest, I haven’t really been up for it anyway.  Charlotte was born by caesarean section due to some complications, and while she has been happy, healthy, and growing like a weed, I haven’t been recovering so quickly.

It’s been four weeks and one day since she was born, and I’ve spent the vast majority of that time in bed. And I’ve needed to, otherwise I get really sore through out my core and back, and across my wound. And (TMI alert!!) I make my bleeding start up again and usually it’s quite heavy when that happens.

My body is really shattered, and it’s going to take me quite a long time to recover.  Probably a least a year before I’m back to full strength.

In the mean time I am doing all I can to aid the healing process.  I’m taking Arnica tablets three times a day, rubbing my belly and scar with Arnica cream every day.  I wear a support bandage 24/7 to help my posture, and I’m taking my supplements as often as I can.  Which should be every day but let’s face it – I’m nursing around the clock and I can’t remember what day it is, let alone what my daily routine should be!

As far as physical recovery goes, I have an exercise routine mapped out to help my core knit back together with my pelvic muscles. I’ve started with Osteopath treatments to wake up the severed nerves and muscle and make my body realise it can knit those together again – not just healing them separately.

Then I plan to do Feldenkrais – which is a method of training yourself through repetitive movement patterns to be aware of the way that your body moves and holds itself so that you can retrain bad habits and create better function.

After I’ve started with the Feldenkrais, I want to pick up some Pilates to start working on regain my fitness, then after a few months if I’m feeling strong enough and up to it I would like to take up Kettlebells or Ballet!  I haven’t decided which yet – and I might end up doing both.

It certainly will be fun to pursue these new forms of exercise, but it’s all because I want to be fitter and stronger so I can ride better.  That’s what it’s ultimately about for me.  

- Happy pony! -

Dressage.

Riding my horse to the best of my ability. Improving my health so I can get the most out of each ride. That’s the end goal, and I’m excited to see how my cross training improves my horse riding.  I think it will be beneficial to my flexibility and range of movement which I hope improves my dressage seat. 

I will have more updates once I get started with my exercise routine and hop back on Copper.  I think it’s a good idea to keep a record of this journey as it’s a fairly big one in terms of where my body is now and how much it has to heal, and of course, how that’s affecting my riding in the mean time. 

Just so you know, Copper is as happy a clam chilling out in his paddock with his herd.  I’m the one who’s missing the riding!

See ya,

bonita

Welcome To The Newest Member Of The Herd

i ♡  i

We are delighted to announce the birth of our baby girl:

 
Head: 35cm
Length: 53cm
Weight: 4.175 kg or 9lb 3oz!

“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for Him.”
~ Isaiah 30:18 ~

i ♡  i

See ya,

bonita

*surrender*

Yup.  This is about the sum of it.

See ya,

bonita

This Week…

I sat around melting in the heat, getting bigger and bigger. Copper stood around enjoying his holiday, getting fatter and fatter…   : P

Yup.  Life. 

See ya,

bonita

Let Your Hair Down

I went to visit Copper yesterday for the first time in three and a bit weeks. He was standing right at the gate of the paddock and was not impressed with me at all!

I called to him, and he was like -“Yeaaahhh, I think I’m ah-gona go over here now…” And took a few steps sideways as if to walk away!  Lol. 

He wasn’t grumpy. Just completely, utterly unimpressed. But I dragged him out anyway, and checked him over. He was fine, managed to keep out of trouble as far as I could tell which is great. Yay for unbroken ponies!

I spent a while grooming him, and then sent him round the yard for some free lunging. He actually was moving pretty nicely, stretching down at a walk, and lifting his back while trotting. I like that he remembers how to move properly once you show him how.

Yes, he’s still lazy like any horse, and won’t work as hard as he can to move correctly, but he seems to appreciate the ease of moving properly, so his gaits are so much better than what they used to be – far more balanced and uphill.

I turned him out again after that, and you should have seen the look of surprise on his face!  He was totally shocked that that was it and I wasn’t going to ride.  It made me laugh – he’s not usually an expressive horse by any stretch of the imagination, but you could easily tell that he was all like “Huh??”    XD

 

The problem is, of course, after three weeks off not riding, I just don’t feel like I can get into it before the baby comes. Your body changes so swiftly towards the end of a pregnancy. Your joints, muscles, and centre of gravity are changing everyday. 

I would still probably be riding if I hadn’t gone away, but I did and at 36.4 weeks I don’t think I’ll be forcing myself to hop back on.  I shall spend the time doing ground work, taking it easy.  The time has come to let our hair down and relax.

See ya,

bonita

Holiday Cheer!

Happy holidays everyone!  I hope they are as fun for you as it would be going for sleigh ride like this. Imagine gliding over soft powdery snow to the sound of sweet tinkling silver bells and the happy snorts of a spirited team of steeds such as these…

Can’t you just about hear the fellow on the right saying to his team mate: “Rightyho old chap, on the count of three – let’s show them what speed really means!”

See ya,

bonita