I have seen the flyer stay 'No mare's in heavy
foal'. As with all of this sport, common sense should be your guide.
I rode a mare several yrs ago during part of her pregnancy. Would have
continued past the 5-7 month mark but there were not rides my work schedule
allowed. I had read where they are doing stadium jumping with mares
obviously pregnant. It would be the same training as before but you
can't expect to take one out of the pasture and with no conditioning and do a
fifty. mas
> I can not find my rule book anywhere. Can someone please
check for me > requarding the rules on competing in endurance rides on
bred mares? I > think it is a rule that you can not.. but it may be up
to ride > management..
There is no such rule in AERC. As
with other things, individual rides can make rules more stringent than
those of AERC provided they post them in writing in advance of the
ride.
I can't remember the last time I saw this rule in place at a
ride--it has fortunately become a bit of a thing of the past. There
is nothing inherent to this sport that precludes the use of pregnant mares,
and in fact, some mares are a whole lot nicer to ride when they ARE
pregnant. I campaigned a 19-year-old pregnant mare in 1985, and ended up
PNER Mileage Champion and Reserve Points Champion, as well as in the
AERC Top 25 (back when they used to do such a thing). She never had a
bit of trouble, and did her last rides (back-to-back 50s on
Thanksgiving weekend, Top Tenning both days) when she was about 7 months
along.
On those rare occasions when I run into such a rule, I usually
question the RM about it, even when I'm NOT riding a pregnant mare.
Having practiced primarily equine reproduction, I sure often wished MORE of
my patients had the fitness level of a competing endurance
horse...
