Thought I'd seen it all, but ....

I have heard of more than one people on here saying they did similar with their babies! Beggars belief really!

My old neighbour put her newborn in a basket seat on the pony, but neglected to do the girth up properly. The saddle slipped all the way round and the baby was hanging upside down with the horse's hooves inches from its head. She kept riding and leading until her 5 year old pointed out the problem to her. She thought the story was hillarious.
 
I wasn't kidding.

Life is inherant with risks, if you thought about it too much you wouldn't leave the house! Although don't a majority of accidents happen in the home?

Presumably the woman risk assessed the activity and decided to go ahead. She should know her horse, we would hope. Ultimately, it is her decision.

There are multitudes of things we do on a daily basis that could be considered dangerous. We take our babies in our cars that travel at fast speeds, we strap them to the back of bicycles and ride in traffic, we push them in front of is in buggies. I have seen mothers push their buggies out into the road expecting cars to stop for them.

Danger is everywhere, accidents can happen at any moment. My friend broke his ankle walking aling a path. Life is for living, not fearing.
 
Serephin said:
I wasn't kidding.

Life is inherant with risks, if you thought about it too much you wouldn't leave the house! Although don't a majority of accidents happen in the home?

Presumably the woman risk assessed the activity and decided to go ahead. She should know her horse, we would hope. Ultimately, it is her decision.

There are multitudes of things we do on a daily basis that could be considered dangerous. We take our babies in our cars that travel at fast speeds, we strap them to the back of bicycles and ride in traffic, we push them in front of is in buggies. I have seen mothers push their buggies out into the road expecting cars to stop for them.

Danger is everywhere, accidents can happen at any moment. My friend broke his ankle walking aling a path. Life is for living, not fearing.
Click to expand...

By all means go ahead and do whatever you like with your own life (have a read of the Darwin awards, just shows how shallow the gene pool really gets in places), but not when others are dependent on you. I see bikers out in the summer, doing well over 100 mph on the local dual carriageway, wearing shorts, t shirts and trainers. Fine by me. Their decision to become road pizza. When it comes to kids, and others, and they are dependent on that person - be it in charge of the horse, the bike, the car or whatever. Nope.
 
Whether you think it's fine or that the woman is a gibbering idiot, she is breaking the law.

Safety equipment. Children under the age of 14 MUST wear a helmet which complies with the Regulations. It MUST be fastened securely. Other riders should also follow these requirements. These requirements do not apply to a child who is a follower of the Sikh religion while wearing a turban.
Laws H(PHYR) Act 1990, sect 1 & H(PHYR) Regulations 1992, reg 3

Personally, I think she's an idiot.
 
Oh okay, so it was just the absence of a helmet that everyone was getting upset about. Well thats easily sorted out isn't it. :p
 
I'm currently 6 months pregnant & still riding, which I know many people on here also did/do up to a point. I have been made to feel like the most selfish person on the planet by my family. :( But I'm comfortable with my horse and have owned him for 12 years. I don't jump or go for mad gallops - I know there's never NO risk, but he's as safe as you can get.

My mums argument is "well when the baby is born, will you strap him/her to your chest and ride like that?" I say "no", she says "so what's the difference riding when you're pregnant?" I can see her point, and don't really have a come-back..... :o

I wouldn't dream of riding with a baby strapped to my front/back, yet have no qualms doing what I'm doing. I'm guessing the woman the OP saw probably also rode whilst pregnant and sees no difference now. So when you think about it like that, IS it really that different to riding when preggers? :confused: :confused: :confused:

It stresses me out!
 
Dizzydancer said:
Never seen that, however my bil to be has just had a baby they are keen cyclists so have made a side car out of wood with car seat in to take baby out- that to me is dangerous enough, roads are too busy to be that wide.
What you describe is insane.
Click to expand...

Tell your bil to get one of these beauties, I so want one! What's not to love, safe and Dutch cool :cool:

http://bakfiets.nl/eng/modellen/
 
It is certainly not something I would do or approve of doing but I kind of get where seraphin is coming from the most dangerous thing we do with out children is strap them in a car. The risk of being killed or injured is about 100,000 time more likely than a stranger attack yet we strap them in the car to avoid them meeting people and walking in public Pet rant of mine. Let the kids go out and play and dont drive them everywhere they will be much healthier and considerably safer.
Best place for a kid is walking across fields with a dog or a pal enjoying the freedom of no adults and the fresh air Gives them a sense of responsibility and calm too. We live in a world of scaremongering and fear repression such a shame
 
I don't think I see such a massive difference between this and riding when pregnant which I know a lot of people do on the basis that "I know my horse and he's very safe".

Personally I wouldn't do either!
 
No comparison to riding when pregnant. When baby is in the womb he/she has the ultimate safety system and is well protected . I could almost forgive bay in back pack on horse in a fied, but on the road. I just imagine the poor thing crashing down on tarmac head first - makes me shudder to even think about it. Still, its her conscience.
 
Yeah there's a lot of protection in the womb but I wouldn't fancy a crashing fall on Tarmac when pregnant either!
 
To clarify, I wouldn't judge someone who did ride when pregnant, I think we all make our own evaluation as to risk and probability etc. As someone said, the biggest risk is on a car and I that every single day.

I think a certain amount of attitude towards risk is social conditioning.
 
It's crazy the things people do to put kids at risk, I started a thread ages ago for a rant because pics had come up on my facebook feed of a woman I know (we're not friends btw) cantering her horse with a 1 yo sat on the pommel with no hat on! :eek::mad: What she thought would happen if something went wrong I don't know! :mad:
 
Personally I think that life isn't only about safety, you have to be allowed to have some fun too, within reasonable limits. Problem is that what is within reasonable limits for one person, is beyond reasonable limits for another person. However, if people should be really safe, maybe we should all walk around wearing Michelin man suits, both indoors and outdoors.

Riding with your young child on your horse is not something I can imagine myself recommending, but then on the other hand, most parents have both hot water and other things in their home that can cause burns, does all of them know that in the United Kingdom "26,000 under-fives are burnt or scalded in the home every year. A hot drink can still scald a small child up to 15 minutes after it is made"?

If someone feels that they have to ride with their young child "onboard", then I think it sounds safer to do it with the child in some type of Baby Björn baby carrier/backpack thing, rather than have them "loose" on the pommel (the later definitely crosses my limits for what is reasonable). But I don't understand why a rider that wears a helmet herself, doesn't protect her child's head with a helmet? :confused:


My opinion about riding whilst being pregnant, is that if you ride a horse that is as safe as possible, avoid riding across busy highways etc., basically, if you try your best to ride as safely as possible, then of course accidents can still happen, but accidents can happen anywhere, doing anything, so what should a pregnant woman do for nine months? Wrap themselves into a cocoon and not come out until the baby is born? Maybe best to not place the cocoon at home though...

Statistic for the United Kingdom:

More accidents happen at home than anywhere else.

Every year there are approximately 4000 deaths as the result of a home accident.

During 2002 there were 2.7million home accidents requiring hospital treatment.

More accidents happen in the lounge/living room than anywhere else in the home.

(The statistic in my reply comes from this site http://www.rospa.com/homesafety/adviceandinformation/general/facts-figures.aspx .)

MichelinManReadingPapersm.png



ETA: Found another page on the same site which says that "Every year in the UK more than 5,000 people die in accidents in the home". Maybe that is from more recent statistic?
 
Last edited:
Greylegs said:
...I know child care can be expensive but what was she thinking!!???
Click to expand...

Maybe she was the child minder? :eek: Imagine that, and the poor mother thought she had left her child in the safety of someone she trusted?

If you see her again OP, if you can take a picture and report her! Absolutely disgraceful negligent behaviour.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top