How do you cope not riding?

[dogrilla]

Hello,

Very glad to have found this board!

Am only six weeks pregnant and struggling with my conscience about whether to stop riding or not. Know it's been covered before, but do you think I'd be ok to carry on for a couple more weeks if I stuck to a sane horse in an indoor school?

How do other people cope with giving up riding for the best part of a year? Do you continue spending time around horses without actually getting on them or just go cold turkey?

Don't have my own any more but still ride at least twice a week, about to do my Stage II and do lots of RC stuff. Will be absolutely gutted not to have it to look forward to (horribly selfish I know!).

I think it's a really personal thing whether you ride or not .. I rode until a 17wks and only stopped as I have a fibroid that made it uncomfortable to ride. If my fibroid probs hadn't been an issue I was simply going to ride until I felt like stopping for whatever reason..

I have my own horses and it's hard to see them doing nothing but it is only for another few months and they are happy enough stuffing themselves in the field!

I has helped that they are at home so I am involved with them on a daily basis so it is only riding and competing I am missing.

Chin up though.. it's not forever!

When I was expecting dd I carried on riding my mum's lovely safe horse for a while but realised I wasn't really enjoying it because if anything had happened I would have had no-one but myself to blame, so gave up. I gave up riding as soon as I knew about ds. It is hard at first but as you get bigger you start to have other things on your mind .

As for being around the horses, I think it depends entirely on what sort of pregnancy you have. With dd I only had a tiny bump and no complications whatsoever, not even morning sickness. I just carried on as normal, and in fact the day before she was born I mucked out 3 stables by myself, carted all the water buckets and took a bale of hay along to the field, with no bother.
Ds was a different experience as I did have some sickness (it took me ages to poo-pick in the field because every time I bent over I felt ill),plus he was a heavier, lower bump and seemed to upset my balance more. I just couldn't manage things like water buckets and had to half-fill and drag them, and just felt a lot less confident about coping with the horses themselves.

So perhaps you should just wait and see how you feel .

Thank you both! Have been sensible and cancelled a cross-country lesson tomorrow. Only started feeling sick the last couple of days so I guess it feels more real now. Will see how I go, and in the meantime snoop at the pictures of your lovely horses!

Definitely a good idea to cancel the cross country! But don't stop riding if you don't want to! Congratulations btw

I personally wouldn't, when I was 5 1/2 months pregnant with my 2nd my mum got a new horse which I was dying to try. She bolted with me and I jumped off but took a nasty tumble. Luckily me and the baby where fine but would never take the risk again. Even the safest of horses could get spooked by something.

I rode up until 6 months with my first, only hacking and gave up when it got really uncomfortable - I have rather a sharp TB. I was also jumping some really big fences before I realised i was pregnant and wondered why I was so puffed out! with no 2 I managed 6 weeks before my back hurt. I would take it easy, and watch out for your back post pregnancy as for the first few months your balence will be out and you ligaments will be soft so it iseasy to fall off and even easier to put your back out.

I rode until 6 1/2 months, flatwork and hacking on my own horse. A couple of times when he was having a silly I did get off as he's not the most balanced of horses (though is getting better!) rather than riding him through it.

I can't see why you can't carry on whilst you are able to though keep it to the calmer aspects of riding! I'm 8 months now and a bit miffed about missing all the nice riding weather but am definitely too bumpalicious to ride now ...

i find it one of the hardest aspects of pregnancy- selfish I know but i was still teaching etc, just not able to ride! I think it is wise to stop jumping as mentally you might not be as'committed' which then presents problems as the horse picks up on this. For me it took quite a while to get up the same confidence afterwards but everyone is different. Picking out feet is harder later on too!