15.2hh tb.. am i too big?

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aspemm

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me and my mom and sister purchased a 15.2hh thoroughbred mare last year. she had a lot of problems that led to us not riding her and instead focusing on groundwork. a mix of no riding for a while and emotional eating has led me to gain quite a considerable amount of weight, leaving me at 13.5 stone. a family friend who owns a tb at the livery yard our mare is stabled at has said that im nowhere near too big for our mare but i am very apprehensive. i mainly ride 14.1hh+ cobs / cobby types as i am very mindful of the horses i ride as i am aware that 13 stone and above is quite the weight for a horse to carry. i have never ridden a non weight carrier or really any kind of overly athletic breed like a tb and so am very nervous that i am too big for her. i am getting mixed answers everywhere and just want to come here for some opinions. please do not sugarcoat it, i dont want people on here to coddle me if i am too big for her. i would rather wait and lose the weight if i am too heavy for her right now than get on with false confidence and damage her back or worse. thank you for reading, sorry for the mini essay!!
 
marmalade76 said:
I would say you are too heavy for a lightweight horse that's been out of ridden work. I would find someone lighter (under 10st) to bring her back into work and go from there.
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yes thats what i was thinking. my mom is around 9st and will be the first one on her back most likely. thanks for being honest, i see too many people on horses that clearly cant comfortably carry their weight and didnt want to be one of them.
 
You want to be within 15% of her bodyweight, ideally less for bringing her back into work. That includes the weight of tack and clothes etc. Given shes a small TB I think you will be over the advised limit. Thank you for being so conscientious!
 
Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for thinking of your horse first. I'm afraid it's very likely you are too big for her. Some other people will tell you you aren't because it makes them feel happier about their own weight if they see similar sized people riding horses too small for them. Don't listen to them, keep listening to your horse, she's lucky to have you.
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Yes you will be too heavy. Riding schools usually have a limit of 12st on any horse , so for a light weight horse you're way over the limit. Why not use this as motivation to lose weight , to have a goal in mind ?

And it's not just weight that matters, one also needs to fit into the saddle. You could be light weight enough, but if you don't fit in the saddle and your bum gets pushed out the back of it , this will cause the horse pain.
This can happen with cobs as they often have short backs so have to have smaller saddles.
 
Cinnamontoast said:
I’d say she needs a lightweight rider, particularly as she’s been out of work. Can I ask why you bought such a comparatively small horse?
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shes our first horse and we were planning on getting a cob, not a small tb. mom jumped the gun and she was almost an impulse buy. next horse will be a cob that can comfortably carry all three of us separately.
 
Sossigpoker said:
Yes you will be too heavy. Riding schools usually have a limit of 12st on any horse , so for a light weight horse you're way over the limit. Why not use this as motivation to lose weight , to have a goal in mind ?

And it's not just weight that matters, one also needs to fit into the saddle. You could be light weight enough, but if you don't fit in the saddle and your bum gets pushed out the back of it , this will cause the horse pain.
This can happen with cobs as they often have short backs so have to have smaller saddles.
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yes i am working to drop 2st at the very least. the school i ride at has a 14st weight limit for their very best weight carriers and even then i feel guilty getting on anything below 15hh, though their cobs do carry me very well and show no reluctance to trot and canter. i also always make sure the saddle fits me when i mount up as i dont want to cause any unnecessary struggle for the horse.
 
aspemm said:
shes our first horse and we were planning on getting a cob, not a small tb. mom jumped the gun and she was almost an impulse buy. next horse will be a cob that can comfortably carry all three of us separately.
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I did the impulse buy, but the other way round, went looking for a warmblood and ended up with the cob in my profile picture but stopped riding when he developed arthritis and I put on weight following an accident. Good luck with the fitness regime for both of you!
 
Firstly thank you on behalf of the horses (who can neither thank you nor complain) for caring enough to ask the question AND acting on the answer even though it's probably not what you wanted to hear. That says a lot about you as a person and a horse woman.

Secondly, following lengthy box rest after sticking her legs through a fence my horse lost a LOT of muscle. I took around 6-8 weeks working her in hand, particularly over poles to strengthen her core before getting back on board. There's loads you can do with your horse in the meantime whilst you lose weight that will benefit them physically and mentally, it will build trust and communication between you both and it will also help you be more active which will assist your weight loss.

Wishing you every success in meeting your weight loss goal and lots of fun along the way.
 
I’ve been riding a 15.1/2 TB ex racer on a regular basis for over a year now. He’s very well muscled and extremely fit, as is still pulling and raring to canter after 10 very hilly miles! I’m 9 stone, his owner and other regular rider is probs nearer 10 and she doesn’t let anyone bigger ride him as they just don’t have the bone structure to carry much weight. So sorry I’d say currently you’re too heavy.
 
Thank you for being horse centred.

Whether you sit on the back of the saddle has a lot more factors at play than seat size, if the seat is the right shape, and open, then the ideal is to have it sit you at the base of the wither when the saddle is in the right place and fits the horse. This means your leg drops too, if you knee gets pushed forward then you're more likely to sit on the back of the saddle.

I agree you're too heavy.

For groundwork be aware that a lot of NHS work doesn't build the horse physically and it may be working on disengagement which works against strengthening. Equally a lot of traditional English groundwork can focus on range of motion (eg polework) or otherwise be too much for a weaker horse (eg backing up a slope). To help your horse really be ready to carry you at, say, 11st, have a look at the FB group Slow Walk Work as a free, easy way to start delving into the world of postural groundwork. It will also help the horse-human connection. Start with the featured posts.

And for weight loss my go to for my saddle fit customers is @rebelfit, focusing on mental (relationship with food) and physical health.
 
I agree that it is a bit much for a 15.2 TB.

But remember that racehorses will have to carry 12.7lb for a 3 mile point to point, or even more sometimes. A lighter weight TB would go for Ladies races as they carry less weight.
 
I think it could be really harmful to compare racehorses to ex racehorses in terms of carrying weight. Racehorses come out of racing in a much worse way than most people realise - I used to think that TBs, especially OTTBs, "wore their muscles on the outside", but this is tension, long term tension which takes a long time to go away. It comes from dysfunction, from unhealthy lives, from saddles that don't help them move well, from too heavy riders, from one handedness.

We do not ask them to move on surfaces, to circle, to go in an outline (even if I disagree with the latter concept for ridden horses at all it's what people do), instead they run, which is entirely natural if they were doing it of their own volition, and yes, obviously they would run for miles in the wild on occasion. Horses will never show in the wild the extended patterns we ask of them in regular ridden work.

Even if horses retire sound there are all sorts of issues that need unwinding, so I would never take them as examples to be followed.
 
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