PrintAfter the recent baby boom in high performance equestrian circles, how do these mothers balance feedings and diaper changes with competing at the top of their sport?
Sometimes, it starts with a secret. Dutch Olympic gold medalist in dressage and international reining competitor Anky van Grunsven was four months pregnant when she competed in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
“I didn’t tell anybody because it was so hot in Athens, and I didn’t want anybody to worry!” said van Grunsven, who is now mother to 5-year-old son Yannick and 3-year-old daughter Ava Eden. “The second time, my sister-in-law said, ‘Don’t start trying for a baby so early’, but I was three months pregnant in Aachen for the WEG [in 2006].”
Eventer Gina Miles, Creston, Calif., individual silver medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, planned her pregnancies with son Austin, 10, and daughter Taylor, 4, around her competition schedule.
“I was really fortunate that I had Austin before [my Olympic horse] McKinlaigh’s career and we started doing a lot of traveling,” she said. “I knew a winter baby was good because I could ride through the spring and summer, and when I’d get too big to ride would be around the end of the fall season, and I’d be ready to ride again in the spring.”
She planned for Taylor’s birth to be in the gap year after the 2004 Olympic Games. Things didn’t go exactly as planned though: Miles fell off a young horse when she was 15 weeks pregnant and broke her leg, which kept her from riding during her second pregnancy.
Timing was also key for one of van Grunsven’s biggest rivals in the arena, German Olympic gold medalist in dressage Isabell Werth. She gave birth to her son Frederik in 2009, at age 40.
“It was a dream to become a mother, and I became older and older, and it was time!” Werth said. “I think it’s normal that there’s a natural limit, so I had the feeling that it was the right time; we were lucky that it worked!”
Riding Through Pregnancy
While most doctors discourage women from taking up riding during pregnancy, most professional riders are physically fit and experienced enough to continue spending time in the saddle. After discussing the risks with her doctors, dressage rider Lauren Sammis, South Orange, N.J., rode until she was five months pregnant, but only at home on her longtime partner and FEI horse Sagacious HF.
“I was very comfortable on him physically and mentally,” added Sammis, a 2007 Pan American Games gold medalist. “There was a lot of trust there, and it was amazing to see the horse totally take care of me, 100 percent.”
Even the best in the world can fall off, so van Grunsven also opted for quieter horses during pregnancy. “With my daughter I rode into my eighth month, but I only rode the quiet ones, not the wild ones. I never had a problem with my belly, but my balance wasn’t good,” she said. “Salinero can jump, and I didn’t want to take that risk.”
American-born show jumper Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum, 41, who competes for Germany alongside her husband Markus, gave birth to a baby girl in February of 2010. At the advice of her doctor she stopped showing early in the pregnancy, but she kept schooling her famous mount Shutterfly indoors, even jumping him over small fences once a week for the first few months. A three-time World Cup winner, Michaels-Beerbaum quickly returned to competition and helped Germany secure the team gold medal eight months later at the Alltech FEI World Eques-trian Games riding Checkmate.
