im not pregnant yet but hope to be soon ,i work with horses its a physical and sometimes dangerous job lots of heavy lifting and unpredictable animals !i dont want to give up my job but does anyone on here have experience of working in a job such as mind whilst pregnant ,with my first child i rode whilst pregnant but i wasnt working with horses then .

I have a horse and and will be 18 weeks tomorrow. I am still riding (although have stopped jumping and any fast work) and still carrying out all stable duties myself. The only thing I won't do is lift bales of shavings.

There is also a girl at my yard who is now 20 weeks and she works with horses for a living at a busy riding school, this is her 2nd child. She worked pretty much right up to having her first baby and is planning to do the same with this one.

I also have two friends who both give birth in the last month, they both cared for there horses, rode and worked a full time job right up to the week before having their babies.

So I think as long as you take some extra cautions you will be fine. I also think the fitter you keep yourself the better you will feel - it would be all too easy to give in to the pregnancy tiredness but you'll feel a lot better out getting excercise in the fresh air (I certainly do!!)
x

my friend has loads of horses and worked with them right up until she gave birth im around them a lot but i think its just a case of being sensible, dont do heavy lifting without a trolly or something you can easily push or pull let other people do as much as possible and common sense with the horses really. if it gets too much can you not ask for a less physical job for the time being? take care

asking for less physical job not really a option because my boss is a bit difficult but as time goes on i suppose she will have to give me something else to do .i can always just do the teaching in the latter stages ,its hard because its a family run riding school and they seem to work on different rules to what the law says about pregnancy in the work place,because im the most senior member of staff im the one who deals with the most difficult horses and the other girls arent experienced enough to handle them ! i have a feeling that my boss will make things very hard for me to start of with ,but then again the money i bring in from teaching is to good for her to lose out on ,thanks for your advice though will bear it in mind when the time comes

Hey hun,

know it can be difficult if you work for a small company but the laws for pregnant women have to be adhered to by even the smallest of companies, they're liable to prosecution if they don ... can be really hard to stand up for yourself in these situations and I totally understand that you're in a tricky position being the most senior member of staff but I think employers only get away with not following the law because we let them. Legally the first thing they have to do is conduct a risk assessment for you and if there's areas of your job which are no longer safe for you to do it is their responsibility to find someone else to fill in while you're pregnant, even if it means taking on someone new and having to pay an extra wage. You are legally protected from suffering any detriment (including loss of wages or attitude from the boss!) at work because you are pregnant so there is absolutely nothing they can do to argue with this. Most of us have no idea what our rights are and employers have a tendency to take advantage of this so I'm afraid it's down to you to make it clear you know your rights and expect them to comply with the law. Your job does sound dangerous in parts and it would cost your employer thousands if (god forbid) anything happened to you or your baby in the course of your work, not worth the risk for you or your bosses if you ask me. If you need any advice on your rights try ringing ACAS (0845 7474747) they should be able to answer any questions, good luck hope it works out for you. Oh and Happy New Year!

Love, Clare xxx