So just sustained an ER visit complete with MRI and both NSAIDS and steroids along with Robaxin for the most excruciating sciatic pain due to herniated S1 with nerve root compression. Have weakness of left leg and numbness as well. Has anyone else had this and come back after either non surgical or surgical intervention to ride, jump and compete regularly? What helped you? How long did you not ride? I am still on steroids and everything else to decrease inflammation and have PT and neurosurgeon appointment this week. I am doing gentle stretching to try to help “push” the herniated disc back and am limiting my sitting time, which aggravates everything terribly. Have 3 horses that I ride and want to compete into the future. Is this a possibility? Thinking Pilates, walking and getting a perfect saddle may be helpful for the future. Any ideas and encouragement helpful.
I had surgery on New Year’s Eve to treat a herniated disk at L3 L4 and also a disk fragment that got stuck in the nerve. It was not the result of an injury, just wear and tear. I woke up the morning after our last show of the season with major sciatic pain. It was pain, no numbness. I went to the chiro for 3 weeks and when there was no improvement, I got an MRI. Met with 2 neuros. Neuro #1 pointed to the fragment and said “this guy needs to come out, because this is not going to resolve on its own.” Neuro #2 didn’t want to do surgery - he wanted to do 3 months of pain management. Well, I didn’t want to do 3 months of pain management only to find out that I would have to have surgery in the spring, which meant I would miss most of the show season. I am very glad I went the surgical route. I was back in the tack in 6 weeks, and jumping at 10 1/2 weeks (he said 12 weeks…:lol:). I was at the gym in just under 4 weeks and did my own rehab since I had been to PT a bunch pre op to keep me comfortable, so I knew what to do at the gym. Stretching, walking, Pilates and not sitting a lot really help. My piriformis still gets really tight which aggravates the sciatic nerve, so I try to be conscious of how much I sit as I have a desk job. Fingers crossed that you can get some relief! Please feel free to PM me with any questions.
I had a herniated disc that was impinging my sciatic nerve. The injury happened during a time in my life that I wasn’t riding, so I didn’t rehab with that in mind, I just wanted to not hurt. It resolved mostly with stretching and Pilates. Doesn’t bother me at all to ride 3 a day now. Haven’t tried more. So while I can’t tell you how long it might take, but I’m sure you’ ride again!
I had a herniated disk L5, L6 several years ago. Tried every single PT, injection and therapy for a year. Finally got my neurologist to agree to surgery. 100% successful with return to riding.
Haven’t had a herniated disc, but did have a cyst that sat on the sciatic nerve which needed surgery to remove. Took me about 3 months, post-surgery, to be fully back to normal. Took a couple of years to figure out what the problem was. 
My advice is to stay clam and wait to see what the neruosurgeon says. Any sort of trauma like this will take time to resolve, so expect to have to stay chill for a couple or weeks, at least. Make sure your team knows that you’re an athlete (some folks still don’t appreciate the “horse riding” thing), and do your PT religiously - I’d expect there won’t be a whole lot while you’re in the acute stage, but it’ll ramp up later.
Ice was my friend for calming things down. Well, that and the oxy… 
Herniated L3-L4 and L4-L5 with compression. When I started treatment my doctor said I would likely need surgery within the next 5 years. I was a candidate at the time but was in my teens and my doctor didn’t feel strongly enough that I needed to address this immediately, so I did the meds, chiro, PT route. My chiropractor did manual traction, I did Pilates, and in a year there was no compression shown on a follow up MRI. It’s been 10 years and no surgery.
Your case may be more advanced than mine but mechanical traction is worth asking your treatment team about.
The riders I know who have had the surgery were all glad they did and recovered well. A friend who does not ride (she’s not an athlete of any type) had more mixed results and still experiences some sciatic pain.
I had several herniated disks a few years ago. With good PT I have been able to return to doing pretty much anything I want. The only thing that I cant do a lot of is sit trot on big gaits… but I wasn’t good at that before the injury either
I did, and I didn’t go the surgery route because it would have been a one way ticket to a medical release from the military. I wasted my time and my health with the injury for 3 years, continuing to ride, train, and serve in the field in an army capacity, around my flare ups, and when work called for it, during my flare ups (there were times I was in the field, walking with a cane-it wasnt pretty)
It all came to a head 2 years ago when I wasn’t sleeping for days on end because of constant pain, charly horses in my legs that would not stop, and a couple times, falling an being unable to get up. I had done massage therapy, every type of intense PT I could think of, took way too many painkillers, seen a chiro-everything I could do short of surgery.
My massage therapist suggested i pay to see a PT outside of the army, who specialized in neurokinetic therapy and craniosacral therapy. At this point I wasn’t riding, going to the field or doing anything other then existing day to day, with a cane to move like a sloth. I figured I would try anything. It worked. Three sessions with this therapist and I went from standing like a C to standing up right. I took a year off anything more then light riding, and worked on my own health and fitness. Got strong again, through running first, then started adding some body weight strength. Got truly back in the saddle a year ago. Started weight training again. I would love to see a comparison MRI of my back, because I have gone from being a regular at massage, therapy and the hospital to not having set foot anywhere like that in over a year.
I am 33, I suffered from hyper mobile joints my early life that used to dislocate all the time. I joined the army and abused my body that way. I have broken and dislocated bones. It’s not like I am the ideal candidate for healing without surgery because I haven’t always been good to my body for the sake of my career. But I never thought I would do more then light trail ride again, and now I ride anywhere from 1 to 4 horses a day, compete in low level eventing with my baby thoroughbred, and hopefully will continue to progress through the levels. I am pain free.
Thank you all for sharing your stories. It gives me hope and after this coming week maybe my options will be clearer.
I had a laminectomy done for a herniated disc at L5-S1 6 years ago. It was supposed to be a microdiscectomy, but they got in there and discovered that there was so much stenosis that they had to switch to a laminectomy instead. This was after doing PT for months and steroid injections (which made it worse). Surgery didn’t make it 100% better - I still have a fair amount of back pain, but it’s an amount that I can live with. I think I rode for the first time 10-12 weeks later and was back to showing in the GP classes in 5-6 months. Probably could have been sooner for showing if there were any horse shows by me earlier than late May/early June.
I realized I had serious issues when I landed over a jump, felt it go crunch and slid off the horse. Couldn’t feel my legs for about 10 minutes. It was terrifying. Long short - herniated disk and nerve compressions. I did medical pain management, chiro, had injections (made it worse) and surgery was proposed but not a route I wanted to go down at that time in my life.
Pilates and accupuncture saved me. If you haven’t tried it - would highly recommend. If you have and it’s not working - surgery is certainly a good option.
BTDT, with the exact same diagnosis.
My main piece of advice would be to not make any major decisions right away. I had terrible, crippling pain for around three months, and then it sort of miraculously started improving and has largely resolved. Apparently, about 60% of cases get better in that window. I was told that the really big herniations have a better prognosis than smaller ones. Mine was huge and ugly.
Strangely enough, riding was basically the only thing I did that didn’t hurt while it was going on. Driving to the barn was torture. But once I got on a horse, I felt like a human again. My PT said that riding probably activated all the muscles I needed to improve my spinal alignment. Who knows. But it was a godsend to have something that relieved the pain–and to have it be something I already loved doing.
If you read the clinical literature, the outcomes from surgery are not that great. On the other hand, having gone through this experience, I 100% understand why people do surgery anyway.
I’d definitely focus on PT and avoid sitting, and give it a little time. My PT did not recommend stretching. The work we did focused on strengthening. It might be worth talking to someone about epidural steroid injections to get you through. But I would avoid surgery until you’re sure it’s your best option.
Now that I’m out of the acute phase, I continue to find riding to be just fine. I have not needed to make any changes to my saddle or anything else. And I ride a lot. I am, of course, terrified about recurrence.
I had a microdiscectomy done on the disc between L5-S1 10 years ago. As teen, I had a bad fall where I landed flat on my back on hard ground and herniated that disc (among other issues). I managed with chiro, PT, steriod injections, and drugs for 13 years but then I started to have more and more nerve issues to the point that the constant stabbing pain in my leg was too much to deal with. I could ride but after a while I couldn’t feel a whole lot in that leg which made riding just awkward. Walking was torture, sitting was bad, and laying down was awful. According to my doc, surgery was a “when” not an “if” situation so I decided to pull the trigger while life was less chaotic and I could be laid up for a while without too many outside responsibilities.
Surgery wasn’t fun, but I don’t regret it for a second. I didn’t realize how much pain I’d been in for so long until it was gone. As for riding, I was back in the saddle in about 2 months. I don’t think I would have had the surgery any sooner, but I’m certainly glad I did. It’s not perfect, I still have bad back days, but the fitter I keep myself (specifically my core) the better I feel and nothing is debilitating anymore.
