scoliosis and riding

stormy's mum

stormy's mum

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Feb 2, 2006
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im am now begening to do a bit of riding now as my knee has been doing pretty well lately. i have been diagnosed with scoliosis. does riding help straighten the spine or would it make it worse i find it hard to sit up straight because it makes my back ache. was just wondering the movement would help to relieve the pain
 
It all depends, do you know the degree of curvature? If it's over 30 degrees it's contraindicated because of the lack of mobility required for safety & comfort.

Of course I almost never write a short answer so here goes a snipit from my paper for our CanTRA homestudy (RDA) (I will try & keep it short:o)

Scoliosis can be present at birth or can be acquired. I'm guessing that it's mild in your case? If it less than 30 degrees, riding is a great way to perform similar boring & repetitive physiotherapy exercises in a more enjoyable setting.

Well we all agree with that part;):D

Using a horse as a therapy tool, the rider gains the added benefit from the passive movement it provides.

Make sure to do slow quality warm ups either before you mount or in the first 5 -10 min after mounting. You are the best judge to monitor yourself. If you want ideas, I can give you some. If you have someone or a mirror, that can help you with the proper way to execute the exercises & correct posture (like a spotter for people who lift weights)

If you tend to ride for a long period, maybe shorter periods would be more beneficial.

Are you currently seeing a physio?

hope this helped a bit.:)
 
I know nothing of this condition, but I do know that certain saddles can make your back hurt more, it's a question of finding a saddle that suits you better...
 
I have a little of that. i have found my back is better for riding i tend to slouch less and less now. i have a lot stronger back muscels and i have bad knees from a few years of dirt bike riding. so when i first started riding i had saw knees but now they are great it has doen them good :D
 
I have had scoliosis all of my life. Was and is at 35 degrees, top half of my spine. The lower half was rotated to the side.
Never stopped me from riding and did help me a lot. Gaited horses are better though at my age.
But when younger.. we have nothing but Trotting horse breeds.
While riding did not help the 35 * get better..it did straighten out my lower spine more..is as close to normal as it ever has been. And all because of riding a tolting Icelandic. Those Doc's were flabbergasted!

It did cause uneveness problems...so if you ride under a teacher/RI then make sure they know how to deal with a rider with scoliosis.
What is straight for your body is not straight for the rest of the world. But I would not give up riding just because of that.

I physically was never as strong as other people because of it..but it never kept me from trying anyway.
:D
 
thanks for your responses lms my curvature is about 5 percent so very mild am actually going to see a chiropracter i only ride for a short period of time due to my knee issues
 
Ooo...ask me...ask me:D:D scoliosis and riding is a bit of a pet subject of mine at the moment.

Ditto everything LMS said

Generally, if you were riding at the time that you discovered your curvature, then riding is unlikely to straighten your back. However, using riding to keep the back muscles stronger can help to slow the progression of the curve.

Riding should help to increase and maintain the flexibility of your back, meaning that any procedures undertaken later would have a greater chance of significantly reducing your curve.

If you get sore muscles due to the uneven strain on the different sides of your back, riding can help normalise the muscle tone and so relieve back pain.

And general points (shouldn't be relevant to you, but may be to others reading)
If you have had surgery and have lots of the vertebrae fused (particularly if they are in the lumbar region) then you should only ride in walk...especially if you also have instrumentation. This is due to both the reduced flexibility of your spine making it harder to absorb any upwards movement, and the fact that a fall could damage your back or instrumentation.

If someone has significant rotation as well as lateral curvature it could affect their pulmonary system, and so would be less able to cope with cardiovascular exertion.

Infantile scoliosis is fairly likely to correct naturally. However, if you teach someone with juvenile or adolescent scoliosis then you need to be careful because the curves can advance fast during growing periods...they may need their riding assessed at regular intervals to make sure that the right things are being done.

I'll shut up now:o could go on for a looooong time about this:)
 
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My little sister has scoliosis and in addition to using exercise to help strengthen her back as you ahve to sit up straight she found Alexander Technique lessons useful as it helped her to be more aware of what sitting up straight was. Don't know if you'd consider something like that (Pilates probably has a similar effect) to help you along the way
 
i have not had back surgery before surgery on other parts of my body though. pilates is something i might try good for back stregthening i suppoose i rode before i was diognosed so it may not help but its fun anyaway
 
I have scoliocsis too I feel that my back does hurt somtimes when riding but my spine is curved about 40 Degrees and its the middle of my spine, my back can somtimes go into spazm after riding for about 10 mins.

I had also been advised by my doctor to consider surgery to straighten my spine but with me nearly having 10 opertaitions since birth (i have so many problems, for example i only have 1 kidney and im hard of hearing) i dont want to risk having an recation to the anasetic.

It doesnt cause me problems as such its just when im sat on a horse my shoulders look uneven and also one side of me is stronger than the other.


XxTraceyxX
 
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That is really interesting info you have given. Thank you.

It also shows my age. I had to have Xrays every six months up until I moved out of my parents house. But the Doc's never told me I would have problems.
I went through Childhood thinking I was a failure at any thing physical. PE.. I always got F's.. yelled at I was not trying when I was... parents where no better. I do know now that the scoliois did limit me in what I could do. Even though I tried my hardest.
Back then the Doc's rarely tried to put rods in backs because more often or not it would cause worse problems.
The only two thing is I could do as a kid well.. is climb trees...and fling myself on any horse and ride like the wind.
There have been other issues with the scoliois, like having a child. It straigthen out my spine a bit,, hormones relaxing the spine a bit. Once I had my son,,and I did not have this comfirmed until later...and sure wish I was warned... as those hormones wore off.. my spine started twisting back to the way is was before... took me two weeks before I could walk again and had some unreal pain. Very scary not know at the time what was going on.

I have to admit..as I got older I only felt better riding Tolting horses. IE Icelandic's. In fact the only way to feel better, be a little stronger and not have my back muscles hurt is ride Dyfra. Walk and tolt...
How much stronger I was for me and how much better I felt was nothing short of a miracle.

My Fjord who I loved dearly..trotting breed only made my body feel worse.
After the accident she was sold to a very good home.

So for those out there with this back issue.. riding a gaited horse like an Icelandic will make a world of difference.

And yes...good warning..be very careful... I am still learning about what scoliois problems can do to you if you fall..makes things worse. Always..always double check all pieces of your tack before riding.
I have to wait until I sell one of my saddles.. but I would also recommend riding in a #3 safety Vest.

Now having had this accident..with all the resulting damaged on top of brittle bones and scoliois. Riding might not be smart...but I will try again..but only on my grey squirrel or grandma horses.
 
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i would like to try a gaited horse but i don't have access to one so will just have to stick to my trainers horse flame hes an arab so pretty smooth
 
I have a child with scoliosis and I was told when I first noticed his that it is VERY common in the general population to have a curve of up to 10 degrees.

pilates and anything that will strengthen and improve your core stability is excellent. My child wears a dynamic brace to control his and surgery has not yet been ruled out.

We have been told that anything over 40 degrees may be cause to consider surgery. Fortunately the brace has helped significantly reduce the curve.

10 degrees or less does not require any surgical intervention according to our orthopaedic chap.

I have quite a fantastic lordosis and I have to consciously make the effort to engage my muscles in order to correct it when rising, sitting and driving. It is a case of unlearning bad habits and forming new ones!!
 
Yes, I agree MrDCBags, small amounts of scoliosis are VERY common, and often unnoticed unless a doctor goes specifically looking.

The biggest thing to be aware of is that a functional scoliosis (ie from chronically bad posture) can be reversible...with a conscious effort and physio/osteopath treatment then the back can straighten again.
However, with a congenital or ideopathic scoliosis then natural straightening is unlikely, although obviously physio and osteopathy can help.

It's interesting what you say, ShariN, about gaited horses. I was aware that the flatter the horses movement, the more comfortable it was for people with back problems but it hadn't actually clicked that a lot of gaited horses are bred specifically for that flat movement.:)
 
my posture is awful so maybe learning to sit up straighter would be beneficial but its painful so i slouch all the time have not tried a brace but might have tooo if i continue to slouch
 
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