Riding when pregnant...

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Pinkatc

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I'm 18 weeks pregnant today and just starting to feel the strain in my favourite pair of breeches! My midwife is remarkably chilled about me carrying on - my husband has banned me from anything too crazy so no XC or hunting. How far along were you before you stopped riding? I was planning to carry on til the bump stops me getting on comfortably! :p
 
I think it all dpends on how you feel and how sensible the horse is. Wth my first pregnancy I carried on riding the usual horses but after a fall I lost the baby and I didn't ride at all with my following pregnancies.
 
i decided not to ride for the first 12weeks as i'd lost 3 previous pregnancys. However i dislocated my knee being attacked by a horse at work when i was 12 weeks and 1 day :/ so neve rode at all untill my DD was 8weeks old!

MY consultant even with my history was more than happy for me to continue riding for as long as i felt physically well enough :)
 
first was two weeks before birth.

second 2 months as had loan horse so didnt want to risk it with someone else horse.

but i was 20yrs when i had my first so young and flexiable with my 14hh pony i had owned for a good few years.

i found ridding VERY COMFY and great for my hips it was the getting up/off that was rather funny.

i never done anything silly just plodded around.
 
I didnt know I was pregnant till 6 months so rode up until then (and had a nasty fall on the road with pony landing on top of me!), I carried on riding until the weather stopped me (extreme snow!). I would have ridden longer weather permitting. It is worth pointing out I only rode my elderly pony on little hacks!! When I went into labour I was only in 'proper' labour for 3 hrs and gave birth standing up - I think riding and general exercise was the reason I found it so easy! Good Luck x
 
I'm 23 weeks preggers and had a lovely hack out this afternoon! No problems at all with riding so far (although trying to get off without putting my weight on the bump is proving tricky!!). I've given up on my jodhpurs and am currently riding in Topshop skinny maternity jeans - much comfier!!

I plan to keep going until at least Christmas....
 
I stopped riding at about 5 months as my pony not the easiest at times so didn't want to risk riding any longer & the oh wasn't happy with me riding, but I know people that have ridden up to 8 months. As others have said it all depends on how you feel & what your horse is like etc :)
 
About 7-8 months. Stopped when horse stepped sideways as was mounting and I slipped and fell under her feet as not agile enough to get on quickly.

As someone else said, wasn't the riding that was the problem. I was lucky not to be stood on so hung up my boots after that.
 
I stopped quite early on at about 4 months I think, purely because my horse is not the best out hacking and being pregnant(with a much longed for baby) was making me more nervous, so we ended up in a vicious cycle. My muscles and ligaments are a bit iffy normally and I couldn't ride in the school to the level I wanted to because it was uncomfortable! So gave up before I got fed up. Did pop back on at 6 months, as my sharer was having trouble and I wanted to check that my mare was ok, but that was for 10minutes and my horse was in perfect condition, felt fabulous didn't want to get off!
My farrier told me his wife was at a showjumping competition the day before their first child was born, she had to borrow his show jacket because her's didn't fit. My friend rode for quite a while until her bump rubbed on the pomel, she had awful sickness almost throughout so I think riding was the only thing that made being pregnant bareable for her!

To be honest, do whatever you feel comfortable with mentally and physically but don't push yourself, its not a competition. Pregnancy has such a strange and very indervidual effect on your body so don't feel you have to ride because everyone else did, it can feel like that sometimes. Each pregnancy can be differant too so you might be ok with this one but not the next etc! Just wait till you are trying to ride again afterwards!!
 
I had to stop at 30 weeks as I was having a lot of pain in my hips - looking back I think I had SPD but was undiagnosed. Basically as I was teaching on a soft indoor sand school surface all day which was dreadful on an unstable 'pregnancy' pelvis, I had to choose between giving up work or giving up riding as I was just in too much pain to do both. Sadly money won out and I didn't get back on again until baby was 6 weeks. Missed it like crazy though.

Just before I stopped I couldn't trot or canter so pony enjoyed a couple of weeks of either walking or galloping which was great fun! I used to dismount leg over the front to avoid bump but after I accidentally kicked poor pony in the head when he looked up at a crucial moment, I took a bit more care dismounting correctly. Bless him, he put up with A LOT when I was pregnant LOL.
 
I was 18 and didn't know I was pregnant.

I smoked, drank, smoked cannabis, worked 50 hours a week at a yard, took the Pill and rode all through my pregnancy.

At 4.5 months I had a bad fall, which ended up with me having a head injury (and going a bit blind) and possibly damaging ribs (stupidly I never bothered going to hospital
notallthere.gif
).

I found out I was pregnant a month later and stopped everything risky immediately.
However it was too late.

When he was 2 years old, my son was diagnosed as autistic.

My husband scoffs at the idea that it was the pregnancy or the fall that caused it. He believes it's genetics. But I will always believe it's my fault.

I wish I could turn the clock back. No risk (to me) is worth it.
 
I rode until about 6 months with my eldest, but still worked on the yard until 8 months.
Didn't ride at all with the other 2 as I didn't have my own horse to ride and it wouldn't have been fair if something had gone wrong on somebody else's. Also, I wasn't as fit with them as I was with the first! I had all c-sections so being fitter didn't make a jot of difference to labour or anything.
One of my pupils rode the day before giving birth and was still competing at 7 months, I stopped lessons at 5 months with her as her mare isn't the easiest and it scared me! Her lovely baby is now 6 weeks old and she's sprung back into pre-pregnancy shape already, most unfair. Despite saying she would be back on board within a week, she had a short ride last Friday using MY Heather Moffat seat saver (I have loaned it to her for a month, MAX!). Bless her, she thought it would be so easy once the stitches had healed...........
 
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/best/396/141807.html

NO you should not ride whilst pregnant. Check out Royal obstetricians website etc

We all know its a dangerous high risk sport. On the ground and on board.

Trouble is we live in the have it all! Superwomen.

The main problem is the risk of a fall. Anyone saying they rode with no problem was just very lucky they didnt fall/get kicked etc etc
 
I rode till 4 1/2 months last pregnancy giving up cos we had to go down a narrow lane to get off the yard and there were ditches either side and was worried at just a little slip and a foot down there could cause a fall.

I think that its down to individuals and how they feel as well as the general risk level with the particular horse. Some nap / spook often and I would not chance it.... some the spook risk is so low it might be no more risky than crossing the road or driving a car :rolleyes:
 
indie999 said:
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/best/396/141807.html

NO you should not ride whilst pregnant. Check out Royal obstetricians website etc

We all know its a dangerous high risk sport. On the ground and on board.

Trouble is we live in the have it all! Superwomen.

The main problem is the risk of a fall. Anyone saying they rode with no problem was just very lucky they didnt fall/get kicked etc etc
Click to expand...

I didn't because I feared consequences, had already had miscarriages. But I would never stop someone else if they feel safe in what the'y're doing. You cannot manage risks in life - could trip on a step, fall over a rosebush (as I did last year). Life is tricky to you when you least expect it.
 
Each pregnancy is different so your should do whatever feels comfortable for you.

I rode till 23 weeks and then gave up for a variety of reasons. Partly because I was a lot more fearful riding than before and that didn't help matters, partly because I couldn't school effectively so didn't feel it was worth taking the risk for a hack in walk and partly because at the second scan the baby became very real!

One thing to look out for is that you will become progressively less agile. I found that lunging, for example, was impossible because I couldn't get out of the way fast enough (I have one that bucks like crazy on the lunge). I also managed to pull a ligament pushing a wheelbarrow and was just in pain for the rest of the pregnancy (anti-inflammatories were out and the physio wouldn't touch me!).
 
I'm currently 16 weeks and plan to continue riding until my body tells me to stop.

Midwife and doctor have both said they see no problems with continuing to ride as normal.

OH isn't thrilled, but then he's never been thrilled about me 'spending all my time with those bloody horses'!! My horse is big enough to hang on to, steady as a rock, and honest as they come and I have plenty of trust in him to keep us both safe on the odd weekend hack, and couple of schooling sessions a week.

That said, if next time I get on it doesn't feel right, I'll stop. But I hope that doesn't happen for a while yet!!:D
 
I stopped riding when I was about 16 weeks I think, only because the likelihood of me coming off my exracer was high, even just hacking or schooling! He's an exceptionally sharp boy most of the time! However, I still did all the rest, ie mucking out, poo picking and picking out feet as I had to as not got anyone else to do it, as they're at home! Tbh, it kept me fit and at times, just leading them to the field was probably more dangerous than riding my tb around a xc course!! My midwife was very keen on me carrying on! If I had a horse that I could trust not to mess about, I'd have carried on riding, no question about it! However, now I'm not so sure as my daughter was 6 weeks prem, due to me overstraining! Having her whisked off to special care unit after popping her out and having to visit her there for weeks was a wake up call!! I knew I was doing too much though, I was cutting 1 acre of grass a week, cutting the hedges also! And when poo picking I used to feel it straining on my belly! I was determined to carry on as usual!
Next time around, I'll do the same as I did, that's just me but I won't put the pressure on myself to do it as quickly as I did pre pregnancy!!
 
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