Horse and baby?

[Greyhorses]

How possible is it to have a horse on DIY livery if you have a baby?

Does anyone pretty much manage alone or did you sell/loan when you fell pregnant?

Just trying to decide what to do. I found a new home for my pony as he is very unsuitable for me however I have been offered another much older and calmer pony in exchange. We have been 'seeing what happens' on the baby front for a while but I am not pregnant. I am so tempted by pony but I am not sure how possible it would be to cope with pony, baby and working part time and whether i should just let my pony go and give up for a while. Then again it might take ages to get pregnant, if at all so I could loose out on a good year of riding if it does not happen...

I think it depends how much you want to make it work. I managed horse and baby with no real problems. It was when I went back to work it all fell apart, and I had to let my loan horse go back to her owner. I got another one once DS started pre school though, and am managing it all without any major problems again now. I have known people manage horse, job and baby, but it does seem to take an awful lot of work to do all three justice.

Hello,

I am pregnant and don't plan for my horse to go anywhere once the baby arrives. I am currently doing all the jobs but not riding, I have a sharer that rides and contributes towards his upkeep but when she goes back to university I will probably look for someone else that can do jobs once the baby has arrives to give me a bit of a break. I am on DIY but split jobs with another livery so only go up once a day and he's quite low maintenance. I know loads of people that continued to keep their horses after babies so I am hoping it won't be too much of a problem, I don't plan on going back to work full time anyway.

Hi, it's totally manageable. I have 2 horses on DIY, a 2 year old child, another baby on the way & a part time job. On the days I work I get up very, very early (pre-5am!) to do the horses & pay another owner to bring them in for me at night. Now my DC sleeps through the night I often get up early even on my days off & do the horses before DH goes to work. It's quite a peaceful start to the day, just the horses & me. When we were still in the baby phase I had the baby in the buggy in the stable whilst I mucked out, in all weathers. It did take a lot longer though; if baby cried, needed breast feeding etc. Riding is tricky though, I tend to only ride at weekends when DH can babysit. Although in the summer months I ride very early in the morning before DH goes to work; you have to be a morning person!