Brace Yourself

Or myself.

I always talk about Rico's injuries and how obnoxious they were to deal with, but I have had my fair share of injuries that have taken us out of competition too. The worst one, and the one that haunts me to this day, is my back injury. And in order to deal with this injury while riding, I wear a back brace.

You can kind of see it under my jacket
(top hat worn before helmet uproar, not
making apologies for that)

I was seventeen and in my first year of riding dressage when my back first started to hurt. I thought it was normal for dressage riders.

Being an "equitation" rider as a kid with terrible trainers who would yell "arch your back" over and over had left me with a propensity to over-arch my already (biologically) over-arched lower back and fake it in the sitting trot.When I started eventing, I didn't have access to a good trainer who could teach me how to sit. I've always been a *pretty* rider (not always too effective though) so I looked relatively elegant in dressage tack so the trainer at the time thought that was great.

I started riding Larkin, a thoroughbred x percheron with a jackhammer trot. I moved up to first level (before the rule change so sitting was required) and sat the trot like I always had. Arched back, hovering a little over my thigh, and generally allowing the jarring trot to travel up my spine.

Thanks, you jerk! Actually Larkin was incredibly sweet

Soon I had two discs with very little cartilage, some remodeling of those two joints, and facet syndrome. This causes quite a lot of pain when re-injured, a small amount of chronic pain on a day-to-day basis, and occasional sciatica. I also learned later that I had/have ongoing ligament damage which makes my back even more unstable than it already was.

In addition, the x-rays revealed that my spine is naturally more arched and doesn't sit down into my pelvis as well as it should, leaving me with a very unstable spine and SI joint.

I deal with my back injury with regular exercise, which includes crossfit. Ever since starting crossfit a year ago, I've only had minor pain and no serious reinjuries. I've chosen not to wear a brace at CF because it is not my primary sport. The weights are also predictable. Your barbell isn't going to spook and accidentally wrench your back in the same way your horse might. So I've chosen to take a bit longer to get my back strong with lighter weights rather than use a brace to lift heavier. My back squat and deadlift are still miles less than what they should be, but my back is strong.

Back/butt not actually shaped like that... back brace

I also am careful about reinjury. The smallest thing can cause my SI joint to become inflamed. I've thrown out my back getting into my car, sleeping in the wrong position (or on a bad mattress), even bending over to get something. When it does hurt, I immediately take two days off of crossfit, ride less, and ice/foam roll. I may see the chiropractor, who I've been seeing for ten years now and who has helped me quite a bit.

Riding horses is obviously not the best thing to do for a back injury. I had to stop riding Larkin. I took time off to find a horse with a smoother trot, which ended up being Rico. Yes Rico wasn't so jackhammery but he was quite bouncy so... I also bought a back brace!

Found at Dressage Extensions, link above- FYI I wear a medium and I'm 5'6 ~125-130lbs. 

The black one hides nicely under my non-shad show jacket, and I typically wear it over a tank top but under a shirt when I'm riding daily. When I moved up to the FEI levels I got a white one (from a different website) to go under my shad but over my show clothes (damn things are itchy). That one is a little smoother than my black one so you can hardly see it from afar.

White back brace for shadbelly

The brace helps quite a bit! What it does is it forces me to engage my abs, which are strong but lazy (like Rico!), and it helps to keep my SI joint stable. I ride in it every single day, every single horse, except occasionally on trail rides or riding around bareback.

FYI, back braces are excellent holders for phones, the extra cord on headphones, and trainers' radios. Also checks for trainers, snacks on a trail ride, extra sugar cubes, and camera lens covers.

I used to try to wean myself off of it, but it is necessary if the horse bucks/kicks/twists/etc and I've been injured too many times when I've tried to stop wearing it. Not worth it!

Even at horse shows 

Even on adorable ponies who sometimes buck

Even on passaging horses

Especially on nutty baby horses

damn he's cute

Speaking of cute baby horses, we have our second show tomorrow morning! Wish us luck :)