Horses and human pregnancy - do they mix?

Hmmmm. I rode until 37 weeks when I was pregnant with both my kids. I even went for a ride the morning I was going in for my Caesarian with the second child. I had to use a mounting block the last six weeks or so...those were the days when I could mount without one......can't now!!!!

Back in February this year, when I was having hassles with Rebel, I hadn't ridden in a while. It was lambing time on the farm, very busy, and I couldn't afford to be missing from the lambing sheds through accident, so Rebel was given a holiday. At that time I lost a twenty week twin pregnancy, not even knowing I was pregnant until the week before I lost them due to one having a foetal abnormality. And I hadn't been near a horse for weeks, yet produced two healthy children riding all the way through, 13 and 17 years ago. So it just goes to so, there's an element of luck, or whatever you want to call it........riding doesn't necessarily cause problems in pregnancy.

The only time I would NOT recommend it is if you have a history of miscarriages of abnormal pregnancies. As for babies and horses....it never arose in my case.......but knowing what I now know about horses (and children!!), I certainly wouldn't have relished the idea of trying to juggle babies and horses...or certainly not at my age anyway.
 
Question

Why would you need to wait till the kids are sleeping? Couldn't you just hand them over to your husband and off to the stables you go? :)

My riding instructor entered her last show (dressage) at 8 months pregnant and since boarding/ teaching is her business she also continued to be around horses afterwards.
He husband works from home though, so it's easier to let him baby sit and be out and about I guess.
 
It's not always that easy to hand the baby over. We tried it with my first, who simply yelled until she was handed back to me. Since I breastfeed my babies I also found that they were far better if they were sleppy and settled before I started doing other things - a tired baby who decides it needs to sleep and then finds that not only is mother gone but SO IS SUPPER is not the easiest of creatures to comfort. Given the choice of breastfeeding or giving bottles for convenience I'm afraid I have to sacrifice convenience every time.

Add to that the discovery that certainly in the early days leaving my baby with someone left me an emotional mess who was just desperate to get back to her... well, you get the picture!
 
Re: Question

Originally posted by KarinUS
Why would you need to wait till the kids are sleeping? Couldn't you just hand them over to your husband and off to the stables you go? :)

Sometimes baby refuses to be handled by the father. Both I and my husband were like that as babies; each of us has been given horror stories (from our respective parents) about how much our fathers hated to be left with us because all we'd do is scream.

I had a client in Atlanta who had four pregnancies while riding for as long as it was comfortable. (I taught two of her children.) She even credited riding with helping her with delivery and with recovering afterwards--you know, the Kegel floor exercises for pregnancy also exercises muscles used while riding, and she thinks that riding helped her strengthen and tone those muscles to the point that deliver/recovery was much easier than it would have been otherwise.

She did say that posting was awkward later in pregnancy ;) and in fact she used a couple of polo wraps aroud her belly to support it and keep it from bouncing.
 
Hi youve opened a large topic!I have 3 kids.
with my first child I owned a Tb mare who was 9.I didnt ride when I was pregnant as she was unpredicatable so i decided to put her on loan...big mistake long story(not now) had her handed back when i was 8 1/2 months pregnant.
managed her fine juggling babysitters work etc.
2nd baby just left 'Lady' to have time off while pregnant managed chores etc ok but found that when id had the baby i just didnt have enough time for lady.she was a 'people horse' I even got her a companion but she wasnt happy.sometimes i could ride out nearly every day but then i could go for a week when i couldnt get a sitter for 2 kids. so she wasnt getting ridden enough so had to sell her.
Wasnt planning on getting another horse but figured something smaller and quieter type would be better than a Tb that needed exercising every day.Saw Bailey tied up on a chain and fetched him home.
He was 3 and had been breaking and bringing him on when found out I was pregnant again :rolleyes:
As he is quieter than Lady rode him till i was about 7 months as I was feeling too big and heavy to ride him any longer.I left him off and brought him back to work after the baby.
It is hard to get enough time to ride especailly with 3 as i can usually get rid of 1 or 2 of them but rarely 3 unless hubby takes them.Im lucky in that at the moment his job is split shifts so i can usually get to ride at luch time doing an hour hack or schooling with Bailey or Rose.Plus my sister is helping me out so she can ride if i cant.
alot depends on the age and type of horse......bailey was only 3 =cob type but alot quieter than Lady=thoroughbred when I sold her and she was 15 at the time!
also what back up do you have ie friends if you or baby is ill..can they help out if you cant get to the field.
and have you people to babysit..partner ,mum etc.
my hubby does look after the kids but he does grumble alot as the horses get more attention than him!(he doesnt like horses)
 
In regards to my earlier post:

I didn't want to seem callous for suggesting to hand over the baby to the husband to go to ride.
It seems that here in the states a lot of babies don't have the luxury of being fussy. By law your employer has to give you 6 weeks maternity leave and then it's back to work.
I remember when I lived in Germany our government supported new families for a whole year with maternity leave financial assistance.
Here lots and lots of 6-week old babies get dropped off at baby sitters when mommie goes back to work.
So sneaking in 1 hour of playing with the horses doesn't seem that horrible in comparison.
But I understand the problem with breastfeeding etc.

The posts have been very informative. If all goes well we will have our horses home in our backyard by next year and that would be wonderful. But sooner or later we would like to have a couple of little new riders of our own as well...

So Toots, go ahead and see how it goes! Maybe this will start a new NR trend like 1-2 years ago when all of us suddenly got their own horses! ;)
 
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