How many of you ride/or have ridden your mares while they are in foal?  Have you ran barrels, trail ridden, etc?  How far along was she?

I usually quit them in October and don't do super hard trails.  I have run barrels on many of them and about 5 months along is about as far as I like to go.  Never had a problem with any of the mares doing that as long as the mare was used to being ridden all along.

I rode Victory when she was in foal with baby suprise up until 8 days before her delivery, mainly because I didn't know she was in foal!  LOL!  But I ran her on a Saturday in a small barrel race and got 3rd and then she had the baby the following Sunday morning. (8 days later)

What would be some down falls of running her later on in her pregnancy?  She is due in May.

Well, the downsides would be the mares would be using calories to work instead of developing the foal.  How would you feel working hard and doing something un natural while you were half way or more through a pregnancy?  I have seen people use their mares as far as 7 months but quite frankly just about everything is over with by the end of October anyway.  The big key here is to be able to keep them in shape on a regular basis so that means riding at least every other day, this is the way that you can keep from hurting them.  Also remember their hormones change a lot during preg.  I think that it is best to have something else to ride if you are going to breed a mare.   Like I said I have done it but don't do it any more, once bred here they just stay that way unless they are recovering from an injury and then sometimes I never get back to riding them as was the case with Shot.

Thanks for the info Val!  I have been riding her some and before I ran her I would be riding her alot more than what I am now. 

I agree with Val, once they are bred i do not ride them either.