How long to recover after first time riding?!

[UseHerName]

I trekked 3.5 miles on Friday and I still hurt! Is this normal?! How long till i can walk upstairs again?! How often do I need to ride until I don’t feel like this after each outing?!

It’s putting me off going out again!

Anyone? Obviously I’m new to this

The day after is usually the worst, so I would have thought tomorrow you'll be fine. As you've found, riding uses a completely different set of muscles to most other exercise so you will be stiff after the first few times but the more you ride the fitter you'll get and the better you'll feel pilates is also helpful for building similar muscles, and a hot bath and Epsom salts is also helpful! Were you wearing the right kind of trousers (no prominent seams) and comfy/supportive underwear because this is a big help too!

It sure does use a whole other set of muscles I didn’t even know were there maxelly! I do Pilates or yoga twice a week but a session of that was nothing compared to how wrecked I am!

I was wearing under armour sports leggings and massive m and s pants so prob not the right gear at all

I felt a bit better after a yoga session today but my range of movement is awful compared to usual

Was great fun though!!

I ride nearly every day but yesterday I did polo for the first time and my thighs are definitely feeling it today!
You’re using muscles that you haven’t used before and the DOMS will be bad. Please don’t let this put you off riding, it’s a truly amazing sport.

It was very enjoyable polkadotties

Glad you enjoyed, its wonderful exercise, great mental benefits as well as physical! Finding the right pants may help, take it easy the first few times (not sure how long your ride took to cover the 3.5 miles, but maybe stick to half an hour at first?) and you may also find some horses easier than others, personally I find broad, wide backed cobs the comfiest but some people find they kill the hips and prefer narrower, finer thoroughbred types. Keep at it anyway!

I have a horse who’s a super fine, narrow TB. Over covid I’d hardly ridden anything else, had a sit on my friends IDXWB and my god. My hips where shot for about 3 days!!!

I hadn’t ridden at all during the last lockdown and had my first lesson back in May - going up and downstairs was excruciating for a couple of days and I was only completely pain-free the day before my next lesson the following week. After my second lesson I was sore for about a day and since then it’s been fine. I will feel like I’ve been ‘stretched’ if I’ve done lots of no-stirrups but apart from that it’s all good now

If you haven’t ridden for a while and then go and do 3.5 hours you’re going to know about it the day after !

It gets better the more often you go.
Wait till you get lunged with no stirrups

@lastqueenofscotland

I have a horse who’s a super fine, narrow TB. Over covid I’d hardly ridden anything else, had a sit on my friends IDXWB and my god. My hips where shot for about 3 days!!!

I’ve got a full ID so I know all about hip pain 😂

It does get better. It's like doing any new kind of exercise though, and you'll feel it at first. I promise it gets better!

The best way to recover is to go for another ride! Seriously! Use the same muscles again and it will stretch them but not as badly as the first time

My first lesson I was in agony the day after (and the ones after that). Second lesson, just a bit of a twinge the day after ... I am hoping that it gets easier as I go on. I have xero core strength, so looking forward to getting fitter!