My baby girl is a little over two months, and I been itching to take her with me in the carrier. I am struggling to find time to ride with someone watching her.  Is it too dangerous? I hope this isn't too dumb of a question...

I would just be doing slow work

Not worth the risk to me.. 

Are you referring to her riding with you or sitting next to the arena in her carrier while you ride? 

In the backpack carrier on me..

Have you looked into maybe finding a day care maybe like twice a week or if maybe you can find a church daycare to watch your little one for a few hours maybe twice or 3 times a week so you can get some riding in?  

No I have not. I'm hesitant about daycares or being around many people as her as I don't want her getting sick. 

Even the best horses could have something freak happen and its not worth risking injury to a baby.  Take a pack n play with toys or even buy a cheap battery operated swing to take to the arena with you.  We also have an infant swing we put on the horse walker to entertain kids when there isn't horses on it.

Thank you for the responses. I will figure something else out. I too have felt it might be too dangerous. 

If your wanting to ride at home I would get a playpen and put it under a nice tree or over hang and put you'ur little one in it while you ride and that way you can check on her while you ride since you dont want a daycare, when my boys were babys I would sit them in a playpen under a nice shade tree and ride for about 45 mins or how ever long I could get away with more riding if they fell a sleep. hope you can get it figured out

Do you know of any grandmothers close by who wouldn't mind watching her for an hour or two several times a week?  As a grandmother myself, when my grand baby goes to school I wouldn't mind helping a young mom out several days a week for a couple hours. 

I would never... I have a 5 week old and I have let him nap in his stroller next to the arena while I worked a few but even then I didn't ride any colts because if something were to happen to me noone would be there for him. I am looking into finding someone who can come out a few days a week and hang out with him while I ride. Too bad we didn't live near each other! Another mom would be perfect because we could take turns!

A friend took her toddler riding.  He was behind her on the horse when a pheasant flew up and the horse reared  and dumped them both on the ground.  Her leg was broken and the child had some swelling, bumps and bruises.  I'm sure mom trusted the horse but a bird flying up underneath a horse is one of those things.

I never put mine on the horse with me. If I did, I'd definitely not want to put her in a carrier - if something happened worst case scenario, I'd want to be able to clear her from the horse or any other danger and wouldn't want her attached to me. 

That being said, I took mine with me to ride almost every day from the time she was 6 weeks old.

My go to option was to leave her locked in her car seat with the truck running on AC or heat, as needed. I tried to time her naps with my riding. I can't even imagine the number of tanks of fuel I ran through doing this the first two years. I even took her to some races and put her to sleep in the running truck before my run and just had friends stop by and check on her till I was done. 

Get one of these if yours is still teeny - it'll be the best $50 you've  ever spent: https://www.amazon.com/Dream-Me-Karley-Bassinet-Blue/dp/B00AWMP862/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Dream+on+me&qid=1581101116&sr=8-5. They keep the bugs off, you can put a blanket over them to make shade, and they stay nice and cool. 

Once she got older, she stayed in her play pen and if I didn't have shade, I'd back my trailer up to the arena and put her playpen in the back of the trailer with the door open, so she had shade but I could still see her. Lots of days she stayed in her stroller, though that definitely wasn't her favorite. 

As she's gotten older, I can set her up in the corner of the arena with her trucks and a bucket/shovel, and she'll play by herself for hours while I ride. 

Good luck. It's a royal pain in the butt, but you can get it done. And it teaches them to be patient and play by themselves, which I think is good for them too. 

This is a great point, and something I was always worried about. The arena that I ride in is right off a busy highway with people I know driving by all the time - if something happened, someone would see it and I'd know she wasn't just stuck in the truck or her playpen alone with me being hurt. I would never ride completely alone at home with her, just in case something happened. 

Babies take a long time to develop good neck strength to hold up their own head. Walking on a horse probably wouldn't both them too much, but the bouncing at the trot and lope could potentially really cause some serious neck/spinal damage at this age.

Agree with the other suggestions of finding someone to watch baby for an hour or two while you ride.

As far as daycare goes, yes, it's scary when they are so little (2 months) and you don't want them to get sick. But most children tend to enter daycare at about that age. Yes, they will get sick but you also want your child to develop a good immune system.

My youngest is 29 so it has been a long, long time ago but when they were tiny I would have them asleep in the truck.  Once older they would play in the play pen in the shade while I rode.  One thing that is very important to do in my opinion is to call someone and tell them when you leave to ride and that if you don't call them back in a set amount of time to come check on you and baby.  I don't care how well you ride and how broke the horse is, **** happens sometimes so for mine and babies safety I always did that.

I would maybe consider walking on a broke down, retired Western Pleasure Horse but even that would make me nervous.  Crying in a carseat or playpen is still much safer for the baby than on the horse with you.  Also, I would encourage you to wear a helmet.  Traumatic Brain Injury is not as cool as it sounds, I am speaking from a place of experience and if you can't find a babysitter for a couple of hours while you ride it will be hard to find one for weeks/months/years while you recover.  Don't give up your riding because it will help keep you sane, but definitely be safe and make wise choices.  

My husband and I have a 5 month old, plus 7 horses of our own and sometimes client horses that need ridden or worked, and of course all those horses need fed twice a day, so we have to get creative. 

We are very fortunate that his mother lives in the apartment attached to our house so she usually just walks over to sit with our son when we both need to be outside. However, there are a few times that she's gone and we have to figure out other things to do. When it was decent weather, we'd bring him outside and take turns holding him while the other person caught horses or saddled or rode, and if he was in a good mood, we could lay him down in his portable wagon right outside the arena fence and both sneak in a ride. I know one afternoon, I had him asleep in the wagon and got to trot & lope circles close enough to him that I could hear if he started crying. I didn't get a super long ride in, but horses got exercised a little bit at least. I've learned that I can saddle quickly and get started riding in a hurry when I know I'm limited on time, and all my horses are 14-18 years old so I know I can hand walk them while holding him and therefore do a lot of my warm up and cooldown that way.

I did a lot of baby wearing with long wraps, you can support the baby better and have better hip position than narrow based carriers. It gave me free hands to do chores, brush the horses saddle and lunge them so they could get some exercise.