Riding Schools allowing Pregnant ladies to ride???? Stupid or not???

nic85

nic85

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My cousins wife is just pregnant with baby no 3 ( I only found out recently) and has been joining in with her 6 year old sons riding lessons but has stopped for now due to being pregnant. But my cousin has said she will start up again after 12 weeks.

I told him that the riding school may not let her ride due to being pregnant but he has just informed me that they said shes ok to ride after 12 weeks and not to be stupid??!!!
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Is it me or is that a bit stupid?
I rode when I was pregnant as it was my Job at the time (I did actually fall off to but was only 12hh from the ground, but stopped after that) and I know many of you on here rode through your pregnancies, but they were your own horses!!

So what are your views on this ??
 
I did'nt ride my horse when I found out I was pregnant albeit she's as good as gold if anything had happened I wouldnt have been able to forgive myself plus she's 17.3hh....I think it is personal choice but is she insured at the riding school whilst pregnant??
 
Thats just it!! I dont know if riding school insurance would cover it as im sure risk assessments for a pregnant lady would be ridiculous would it not??!!
 
Know local riding school insurance won't cover them for really young riders(toddlers) or OAP over a certain age so would think they would err on side of caition and not cover pregnant women but dunno
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would get RS to check their policy only way to be sure
 
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Surely it is up to the pregnant woman whether they want to ride or not.

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Yes thats fine, but what if something went wrong?? Would it make the RS insurance Void or what?? Im not sure how insurance for RS works but I wouldnt have thought they would knowingly allow a pregnant lady to ride???
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I would be very surprised if the riding schools insurance covered riding whilst pregnant - I know if it is your own horse it is a different matter.

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Yes it does as the riding school has to asset each client, so her being 'up the duff' after the 12 weeks should be taken into account for her lessons.

Make it safe, make it fun and make it safe!
 
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Surely it is up to the pregnant woman whether they want to ride or not.

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Yes thats fine, but what if something went wrong?? Would it make the RS insurance Void or what?? Im not sure how insurance for RS works but I wouldnt have thought they would knowingly allow a pregnant lady to ride???
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See above
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My old RS will not allow anyone to ride if they're pregnant due to insurance reasons. I can see the arguement from both sides tbh as if something did happen to the extent the woman lost her baby and tried to sue, the RS would be like "umm well it was your choice".

I don't buy the whole "well just keep lessons safe" thing either. One of the worst falls I ever saw when I was working at a RS was after a lesson had actually finished. Someone was walking the horse off on the way back to the yard, horse spooked back and rider went flying straight onto concrete! My point is if that the only way of staying 100% safe around horses is not to go near them (which I understand is hard if you've got horses and I really do think it's an individual choice) but you just never know what'll happen being on a yard. RSs have to cover their backs for every thing these days!
 
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Pregnancy isn't an illness! Riding is a high risk sport at any time. Maybe she will have to sign a disclaimer.

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Ooo...thats an idea...will ask once I get a reply message!!!
 
I continued to ride through my pregnancy (own horse) but my instructor wasn't happy to teach me. Fair enough - I respected his decision. He did give me a lesson on lunging my pony effectively, which I found very useful towards the end of my pregnancy.

A
 
Each to their own I say when riding your own horse but I don't think riding schools should let them ride when pregnant
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, there just leaving themselves wide open to too many risks, just my personal view though, I'd of thought there would be some kind of regulation on it when it comes to insurance or even personal rider insurance?
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As long as the riding school's insurance covers it then I don't see anything stupid about it at all. They are simply allowing her to weigh up the risks and make her own decision about whether or not to ride.
 
I can't imagine a RS would allow a pregnant woman to ride due to insurance restraints. Yes at the end of the day it is her decision, but would she still feel the same if she were to have an accident whilst there and god forbid lose the baby???
 
It is a personal choice whether you ride during pregnancy, but I dont see how in todays litigous society how a riding school would agree to a pregant woman riding ( even on a safe plod in the school) not without her signing a whole mountain of disclaimers if anything happened and she lost the baby if she fell off, or had complications whilst riding at the school.

Plus if she could get insurance for it it would either have to be an exclusion for the pregnancy or her premiums would be phenomenal!
 
Surely she would have to sign a disclaimer, to state that she doesn't hold them liable

therefore it is her own decision as to whether she gets on the horse or not when pregnant.
 
I rode trail horses when I was 5 (and again at 7) months pregnant. I used to take my own horses down to Devon when we went, but to allow the whole family to ride out together we always needed to rent horses from a local trail place. The children rode our own horses and hubby and I rode the trail horses. The riding place knew I was pregnant and didn't seem to bother at all about that. I certainly wasn't bothered even though the horse I rode was lively and a bit bad mannered. The guide had no problem with us bombing around the moors and neither did I. If there had been any issue then I would have ridden one of my horses, but there wasn't. Mind you this was over 10 years ago so perhaps insurance has changed now.

When I was running my own trail riding place; no I would not have allowed a pregnant lady to ride out on one of my horses. Simply for insurance purposes and not because I think it is wrong, because I don't think it is wrong. I think what is wrong is the fact that people are not allowed to take responsibility for themselves and if something goes wrong, then that is their affair and they shouldn't bring others down because of that.
 
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I think what is wrong is the fact that people are not allowed to take responsibility for themselves and if something goes wrong, then that is their affair and they shouldn't bring others down because of that.

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Which is exactly why insurance premiums are so damn high and RSs have to set down criteria over who can and cannot ride. All it takes is just one person to accuse the RS of being negligent because they weren't asked whether they were pregnant or not...
 
Im tempted to ring the local RS's and ask if they would allow pregnant ladies in the lessons...It could be pointless research but I want to know!!!
 
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I can't imagine a RS would allow a pregnant woman to ride due to insurance restraints.

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Well one of the riding schools I rode at did. A very pregnant woman came out hacking with us a few times - she took herself off (with an escort) while we cantered but that was her choice, not something they insisted on.
Also, how are they to know if someone is pregnant - in the early stages especially - unless they tell them?
 
Agree with DrSunflower - at 12 weeks, no-one's going to know she's pregnant unless she tells them. I have to say, whether the RS allows it or not, i wouldn't want to be the instructor with the responsibility for the pregnant client in my lesson. Even knowing intellectually that she was accepting the risk, I would feel absolutely awful if she came off and hurt herself, and God forbid, lost the baby. I think i would probably refuse to teach her.
 
In the early 80s I was a helper at a riding school..... there was a lady there that used to come for her weekly lesson and did so for the whole of the 9 months......

She actually gave birth within hours of her last lesson!!!

But that was back in the days where if you had an accident, it was an accident and not a moneyspinner!!!
 
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Also, how are they to know if someone is pregnant - in the early stages especially - unless they tell them?

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Well - if they suddenly leave a lesson which consists of a LOT of sitting trot without stirrups (I was in a bad mood that day!) you MIGHT suspect it
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- and when they come up afterwards to apologise and to THANK you for the easy termination then you KNOW! (Her husband had been abroad for 4 months and she was 8 weeks pregnant!!
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I totally agree with Sooty - pregnancy is not an illness and a pregnant woman's body is still her own. She doesn't become public property when she is pregnant so it is up to her to decide whether or not she wants to participate in a high risk sport. In the first few weeks of pregnancy she might not even be aware herself that she is pregnant so I am not sure how the riding school staff are expected to know
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If it did invalidate a RS's insurance if pregnant women rode there, then surely we would have a lot of Male Only riding schools or ones where you had to produce a letter from your gynaecologist stating the date on which s/he performed your hysterectomy?
 
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