# Is lower back pain and riding connected?



## Lonestar22 (May 22, 2009)

I don't have a clue what it could be, I'm sorry. 

I get lower back pain while riding from a horse rlated injury a few years back, but nothing so severe as to put me in the hospital! 

Sending healing vibes your way!!! ~~~~~~ (<-- those are the vibes! lol)


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## tinyliny (Oct 31, 2009)

Horsea,

Don't assume that pain in your lower back area is skeletal in origin. Are you having any other symptoms, such as fevers? pain in urination, drinking excessive amounts of water? aching even when you are not riding?
You may be very clear that it's in the pelvis or lower back, but if it went on for a long time I would ask my doctor to do some blood work. There is the possibility that it's your kidneys that are bothing you.

If you think it's assosciated with riding, what has changed lately? New saddle? New horse? new ? Any sudden injuries?


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## Cowgirl101 (Oct 12, 2010)

I hope it gets better.

I have back pain a lot, sometimes I just sleep because it's so bad. But riding helps mine. It feel like a million bucks while riding and a few hour after riding.


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## Poseidon (Oct 1, 2010)

Okay. Round two. My internet dropped right before I hit reply. bahhh.

Have you tried a chiropractor? 

I had a somewhat similar problem in July. On a Sunday, I got a slightly annoying headache. Not bad, but it wouldn't go away with tylenol or excedrin. It continued to get worse over the course of the week until Thursday when I couldn't get out of bed. I went to the ER in a nearby town (it's a small town. I work at a summer camp 10 miles from it and the counselors are seen in there more often than probably needed because we all get sick. anywayyy) and they gave me a couple shots of morphine and a CT scan, but nothing. The morphine barely helped, if at all. I went home later than day because it wasn't fair to my campers or fellow counselors and I was in so much pain. 

A few days later, I went to the ER in my hometown . I told them morphine did nothing, so they jumped up to dilaudid. They did some tests to see if it was cluster headaches, but ruled it out and sent me home. Two or three days later, I was back. They tried imitrex..but turns out I'm allergic, so I got dilaudid again. One of the nurses suggested a chiropractor. I went the next day, if I remember correctly.

The chiro asked if I had been in a severe car accident because a vertebra in my neck was twisted so badly. I didn't know what had caused it at the time. I went riding back out at camp a week later and hit the saddle after coming out of a lope into a group of people and felt my entire back jam. I had another chiro appointment a few days later and told him that's what caused it. He said riding can be terribly awful for your back if you hit the saddle wrong even once.


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## Northern (Mar 26, 2010)

Tinyliny & I are searching after the truth about classical seat vs balance point seat on the Zettl & Parelli thread in Natural Horsemanship, & so the first question that I have is, "How do you ride?" Do you bow your back convexly with your pelvis tilted back, or on the other hand do you keep vertical & hollow the small of your back any?


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## Kayty (Sep 8, 2009)

Northern you and are on thinking on exactly the same page here. Hollowing the back and sitting on your pubic bone is a VERY common cause for back complaints in riders. If you're not sitting equally on your two seat bones and pubic bone, then it is your back that is copping the jarring of the horse's motion, rather than your pelvis which is much more flexible and forgiving when it comes to absorbing impact!


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## KawaiiCharlie (Nov 17, 2010)

I get lower back pain a lot too, it seems to be in the same place as yours. ive had it well over a year now, since i got bucked off my friends pony & then it got worse when i fell off my cousins horse while jumping...(he refused a 3ft jump, then jumped it from stand still & i went flying lol) i landed on my back both times, second time i was unwell for about a week, feeling sick & had a headache and weird metally taste in my mouth, like i could taste blood. since then my back hurts when sitting cross legged, after picking up something heavey, and laying on my stomache. could your back be related to any sort of injury while riding? like if youve fallen off and landed on your back? Hope you get it sorted soon x


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## Tymer (Dec 28, 2009)

Kayty said:


> Northern you and are on thinking on exactly the same page here. Hollowing the back and sitting on your pubic bone is a VERY common cause for back complaints in riders. If you're not sitting equally on your two seat bones and pubic bone, then it is your back that is copping the jarring of the horse's motion, rather than your pelvis which is much more flexible and forgiving when it comes to absorbing impact!


This is right on the ball for me. I had a lower back injury, and it was irritating to ride with. I adopted a more George Morris influenced seat (tilted forward upper body, but not to an extreme) and the back pain left.


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## Jacksmama (Jan 27, 2010)

Have you tried mild stretching before riding?


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## Shimla101 (Nov 7, 2010)

Well, I certainly wouldn't rule out arthritis either. I'm 27 and have suffered with arthritis in my hips and knees for about eight or nine years now. It's very common among riders (here anyway), especially in the right hip (since that's doing the most work when you mount and dismount). Of course, I also had five rather bad falls in a short space of time - because when the doctor told me to take four to six months off riding I told him to shove it (not quite so politely). So I guess that's possibly accounting for the constant back pain and regular headaches. Ibuprofin and cataflam are now my very best friends. They're cheaper than going to the chiro or physio, not that either of those therapists can do much for arthritis.


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## KawaiiCharlie (Nov 17, 2010)

KawaiiCharlie said:


> I get lower back pain a lot too, it seems to be in the same place as yours. ive had it well over a year now, since i got bucked off my friends pony & then it got worse when i fell off my cousins horse while jumping...(he refused a 3ft jump, then jumped it from stand still & i went flying lol) i landed on my back both times, second time i was unwell for about a week, feeling sick & had a headache and weird metally taste in my mouth, like i could taste blood. since then my back hurts when sitting cross legged, after picking up something heavey, and laying on my stomache. could your back be related to any sort of injury while riding? like if youve fallen off and landed on your back? Hope you get it sorted soon x


oh and by the way, im only 17. and talking of back pain, mines hurting now because ive been sat down for a while :|


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## Sarahandlola (Dec 16, 2010)

I get terrible back pain too in the place you described. But I think that is caused by the fall I had two months ago where I landed right on my tailbone and a bit above it. The doctors thought it was broke so I went for an X Ray and it was only torn ligaments. Ever since then it has hurt me. I also have fibromyalgia so that could be affecting it too :/


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