Why I am still riding horses at five months pregnant

With a lack of advice on what activities are safe, I spoke to several women from across the sporting world on their experiences

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Sport has been my religion for 30 years, in both a professional and personal capacity. I am an alpha female and have always loved adrenalin-fuelled activities and taking risks. As well as riding horses competitively, having previously been an elite three-day eventer, I have worked as a sports journalist and said yes to every opportunity to report anywhere in the world.
For years I had absorbed myself in work, sport and pushing the boundaries, partly to fill a void. As I grew older, and the reality of motherhood became more of a distant dream – I was told that my chances of conceiving were slim – I became more ambitious with everything else.
So by the time I became pregnant at 42 – news that left me both surprised and elated – I had saddled myself with a lot of commitment. The positive test came just before I set off to report at the Paris Olympics and I had an exciting competition season ahead. Yet I was convinced that if anyone could juggle pregnancy with this mad life I had created for myself, it was me.
My retribution for such complacency came in the form of eight weeks of nausea, which started every day at 5am and tailed off around 10pm. First-trimester tiredness hit me like a train. For the first time in my life, I was taking afternoon naps. Paris was a bit of a blur; I reported on British equestrians winning gold medals and witnessed Noah Lyles’ victory in the men’s 100 metres final, yet these historic moments were mostly spent praying I was not about to be sick in public.
There was also a distinct lack of advice on what sporting activities are safe to do while pregnant. I made myself ride every day, although the nausea made me feel unbalanced and unable to engage my core. Fortunately, horses are intuitive creatures and mine were saintly as I wobbled around. I was also curious to see if I would be up to my annual winter ski trip by planning a visit to an indoor ski centre, only to be informed that they strongly advised against skiing pregnant. I spoke to other friends who felt the risks came more from colliding with other skiers, so it looks like I will be swapping the piste for the spa this winter.
When I hit the second trimester, I felt better but my outlook had changed. Competing added pressure and greater risk, and I felt uneasy about this. I was torn between whether I should surrender to my body’s newfound aches and take a complete break – hard when you have been living by a “no pain, no gain” mantra for years – or enjoy the last few months of sport before my life revolved around breastfeeding and nappy changing.
Riding is as spiritual as it is physical for me. The feeling of having a harmonious relationship with a horse is unsurpassable and since childhood, riding gave me excitement, confidence and focus. It also made life’s challenges seem surmountable. So, in the knowledge it was good for my all-round well-being and happiness, the decision whether to continue was tough. I decided that if I was not putting my baby at risk, I trusted my horse and would like to continue riding in some capacity, but I needed to know what that meant.
Researching “should you ride, ski, run, do yoga when pregnant” and “how quickly should you return to sport postpartum”, resulted in little scientifically backed information. So I called two professional riders who had recently had babies. Unlike me, fellow eventer Lissa Green had the pressure of having to make a living from her sport. She continued to ride and compete until the five-month mark, when she no longer felt balanced and in harmony with her horses. Dressage rider Natasha Baker came back to win her ninth Paralympic medal in Paris, 15 months after having her son Joshua. She decided to stop altogether at week 10 and was surprised how long it took her to get back to pre-baby fitness.
Baker had a similar initial outlook to me. “I thought, ‘My baby will just slot into my life and I will go back to how I was before’,” she says. “It was by far the most challenging time to even get selected for the team for Paris let alone then try to contend for medals. I stopped riding not because I was worried – I trust my horse with my life – but because my condition means I am riding without stirrups, and the nausea was just unbearable.
“Motherhood gives you a new perspective though,” she goes on to reassure me. “Riding wasn’t the be-all and end-all anymore, and that gave me a mental edge. I went into this year in a different head space and winning those medals felt like more of an achievement than previous Paralympics, knowing how challenging it was to even get there.”
Green recommended I see Kat Suchet, a women’s physiotherapist and encyclopedia of pregnancy knowledge. Suchet is an elite CrossFit athlete and mum of two. Her own pregnancy journey, combined with the lack of resources, inspired her to set up Hatch Athletic. Specialising in pregnancy and postpartum rehabilitation and physiotherapy, with online courses as well as in-person sessions for women like me: who want to navigate pregnancy and motherhood without giving up sport altogether. Her clients range from ardent gym-goers and CrossFit athletes to runners, riders, skiers and rugby players.
“Women are getting more and more active, so we need to up our game in terms of providing support for women during and after pregnancy,” she says. “There is not enough information or resource available and coming back to sport after having a baby should be treated like rehabilitating an injury.”
Having previously lived in Australia, Suchet notes a clear difference in the approach to pregnancy for sportswomen. “Because of their healthcare system, it means that anyone can access one of the many private women’s health physios and it’s socially acceptable to be seen during pregnancy and postpartum. Here, it is not the case. Unless you can afford private care, you need to have a problem to be referred to by the NHS. Then you have wait times and pregnancy does not wait. We have a limited supply of women’s health physios, but I think anyone serious about returning to sport [postpartum], should be seeing one.”
We discussed the risks and benefits of different birth methods, the importance of pelvic floor health and postpartum rehabilitation as well as how hormone surges and depletions, which come from breastfeeding, can help and hinder. I find myself thinking, “How can pregnancy be a natural life event?” as we talk about the risk of postpartum prolapse (when the pelvic floor muscles weaken so can no longer support the pelvic organs), which can result from returning to training too quickly.
Suchet recommends seeing someone after 20 weeks of pregnancy to have your pelvic floor and abdominal area assessed, and then make a pregnancy plan which includes pelvic floor exercises. She reassesses clients approximately six weeks after giving birth to make the postpartum plan, but suggests doing “as little as possible for the first three weeks post-birth”. She reinforces that pregnancy is not a collective experience and women have different journeys. Some breeze through, like CrossFit legend and six-time “fittest woman on earth” Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, who was back winning six months postpartum. Others really struggle. Whatever their experience, Suchet encourages women to listen to their bodies in pregnancy and postpartum: “If it feels uncomfortable, stop.”
It seems I must bury the ego and discard my ‘no pain, no gain’ attitude to sport. While I am still getting my riding fix every day, if anything involves pushing myself beyond mental and physical barriers, I will be relegating myself to the sidelines for now. Instead, I will be taking the time to reflect on how lucky I am and embrace more “goo goo ga ga” and less “go, go, go”. Besides, I have at least four years to train for the parents’ race.
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