I am reaching out to see if there are any equestrian athletes out there with Chiari. My daughter is an eventer and was recently diagnosed with Chiari Type 1. It was an incidental finding and has not had any other symptoms aside from a brief sharp headache and short term blurred vision that let us to the ER to begin with. She doesn't have a syrinx, has adequate CFS circulating but has an 8 mm herniation. No cognitive symptoms, no routine headaches, robust gag reflexes. She is very passionate about her sport and her love of horses. I'm trying to find the best way for her to continue to enjoy horses safely. She wears a very good helmet and wears an air vest for cross country. Any tips, experiences, advice is appreciated! Thanks!
G mom, like Rebecca said a Chiari malformation can go a lifetime without becoming symptomatic, but a whiplash type injury or head injury can get the whole mess started up, or even no injury for that matter- some people just become afflicted out of the blue. I rode horses as a child and young adult and was bucked off CONSTANTLY (I think the trainer I went to got “a deal” on her horses as they were all behavior problems and may have been meant to “go to pasture”) but no Chiari symptoms showed up until a whiplash in a car accident in my 30s. You know the risk is there and that can be blessing and a curse. You have to weigh being cautious in a sticky area and also doing what she loves. Sorry I can’t say yes or no because if it was my child I would be having the same struggle, I wonder if making her wear a soft neck brace while she rode could prevent an injury…or cause a problem that I haven’t thought of??? Not sure.
Jenn
Thank you for your feed back! SO HARD!!! She is very well trained and experienced with her form and her horse is a gem. She rides english so there is so much with posting and positioning that keep her fluid with the horse. I think I will talk it over more with her neurosurgeon too. The air vest shoots an airbag around her neck and her lower back if she gets a certain distance off of her saddle. Maybe need to shorten that distance. I know to some it may sound silly to be debating this, but this is her sport. Her only sport. It is all of her thoughts and dreams, what she writes about in school, and all of her goals she has set for herself. I let her ride yesterday, but no jumping and she came home with the biggest smile imaginable. For now, she can work on her dressage skills and we will wait and see what the spine MRI show. Thanks for the words of wisdom!
A positive about her sport is that it requires excellent posture and a strong core- all good things for Chiari.!!
There is no science here, this is going from the science of medicine to the art of medicine.
I agree that talking to your neurosurgeon is the best answer.
Understand that where the cerebellar tonsils are in a Chiari patient is supposed to be CSF so a Chiari patient does not have a same shock absorber capacity as someone without a Chiari.
I'm a liberal neurosurgeon. I have 7 kids of my own. My goal for my chiari patients is to have them lead normal lives. I have patients with Chiaris playing football and doing gymnastics. Horse back riding is the sport that scares me the most(well, as much as any of the X-sports) because the potential for injury is with neck flexion/extension. Her helmet is important but actually increases the risk of significant flexion/extension. If she suffers a Chiari-related injury from falling off the horse, you're talking Christopher Reeves.
She should probably be wearing the air vest whenever she is on the horse(and I have to plead ignorance there but does it come in contact with the helmet to rigidly fixate the neck, like the HARMS system in NASCAR?).
Looking at your picture of her in your profile, assuming it is a recent picture, she is still young and a long way from consideration but….she may not be allowed to compete at Olympic level events with her Chiari diagnosis(I know special olympics uses Chiari as a disqualifying condition).
Make sure she knows, if she is hurting, this is not a "no pain, no gain" situation and she needs to let you know how she is doing.