Showing while pregnant?

[Blackwater Farm]

This is kind of an odd question but I wanted to ask all of you that show minis if it is "taboo" to show while pregnant? The human not a mare. While I am not pregnant myself or anything I have just never seen a pregnant woman showing. I can understand not showing larger horses because of the dangers of ridding while pregnant (although I have heard from some women that they rode right up until they gave birth!) but what about the minis? Do they have maternity show clothing? I know the show ring is a place that is very steeped in tradition and I didnt know if that kind of thing was considered taboo. Thanks everyone!

 

[PrestigeMiniHorses]

I showed while I was pregnant with both kids. I just bought a larger size blazer and wore black maternity pants. It worked well. No one ever looked down upon me. I know theres plenty of others out there who have showed pregnant as well. I even did the hunter and jumper classes too lol

 

[LC Farm]

I have shown both mini's and Percheron while I was pregnant last year.

 

[~Lisa~]

I have seen people showing pregnant and they did quite well! I think as long as you or the person is up to it then by all means show and have fun. I know I rode and jumped my large horse while pregnant with my oldest

 

[MiLo Minis]

I think it is like anything else, if you have been doing it all along you can certainly continue till you are not comfortable but probably shouldn't take it up after you become pregnant. It is possible that you just didn't realize someone was pregnant while showing. Horse people tend to be relatively fit and wouldn't show as much as a couch potato

 

[ruffian]

My daughter showed up to a week before delivery. I was a nervous wreck but she was fine. Did tend to get more tired at that last show - or was "milking it"!!!

 

[Mock2Farms]

With my twins last year I showed up until I was about 7 months. At that point I was uncomfortable jogging, lol. I just wore slacks and a blazer.. I showed both my large horses and miniatures. I rode my large horses in shows up until about 5-6 months with the twins. With my son I rode up until I was 8 months and was showing everyone the whole time. I started showing again about 2 months after the twins. Would have shown sooner but there were no shows since they were born in Jan! I think as long as the women feels comfortable there is no reason not to.. My doctor even approved riding but only since I am experienced.

 

[Mock2Farms]

Here you go, I found you preggo show pics! lol I was about 5 months with our twins..

 

[Amy]

As long as they are comfortable doing it & can handle the horse, I see nothing wrong with it. Exercise is good !! As a judge I see nothing wrong with it at all -- as long as they are in fit condition. Certainly nothing to frown at.

 

[Ashley]

Talk to Sanny on here.............she can tell you all about it.

 

[Sanny]

Ashley knows me well and she is right!

Within the five years or so that we've been showing miniature horses I've had three of our five children and being pregnant has never slowed me down and I never had anybody say much about it other than "WOW are you big, when are you due?!?". Everybody was really nice and supportive about it and I'd get lots of people offering a helping hand if I needed it. I got lots of comments about how "skinny" I was this past show season and the reality is that it was the first show season that I wasn't either pregnant or still working on losing the extra baby weight from having recently had a baby so everybody finally saw the "normal" me. I've always gained a lot of weight when pregnant (60-70 lbs) so the biggest challenge was finding stuff to wear that fit. Mostly instead of buying expensive maternity clothes I just went up several sizes and found cheap used stuff like blazers or dressy shirts at second-hand shops and borrowed stuff from friends and wore everything with black maternity pants. My kids like being shown the show pictures when "they were in my tummy".

Our youngest child will be two years old in May and I showed two weeks before she was born (in halter, driving, liberty and I think I might have even done a hunter class) and then we went to another show when she was two weeks old. She loves the horses and likes nothing better now than being in the barn around them, and will choose horse toys over dolls. She definitely has the love of horses ingrained in her!

My doctor was very supportive of me continuing to do everything that I normally did as long as no pregnancy-related complications came up and felt that me staying active and moving was very helpful for staying in shape and having an easier delivery and also made it easier to recover and lose the weight and get back in shape after giving birth.

Whenever we did go to a show while pregnant (especially the one two weeks before my due date) we did make sure we knew where the local hospital was and had directions on how to get there and had all of our medical information with us. We always knew who at each show was a doctor, nurse or EMT in case the baby decided to make a surprise appearance at the show!

I didn't do anything i'd consider risky and all of the horses I showed while pregnant were really well-broke. I did think the horses somehow understood my condition too just like they seem to understand when a child is showing them. More cautious or gentle in some way. The most difficult thing? Body clipping horses. I'm not great at it anyway and having a big belly in the way and making me off-balance and awkward didn't make it any easier.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I didn't show this past season while pregnant, simply because I couldnt bend around to do a nice body clip LOL. But I did still work my horse 4-5 days a week.