18 hand horses

Luci07

Luci07

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Just pondering. It wasn't so long ago that the odd 18 hand horse was something of a novelty. Often it didn't have the best confirmation either. Now I am seeing more and more, nicely made as well.

Not for me, I am far too short but do you think this is a breeding trend? Or because we can care for our horses or feed young stock better? Humans have got taller/heavier so maybe horses are too...
 
I think part of it is due to people wanting "Competition" horses. I mean alot of Dressage horses are flippin huge!

I am too short, I rode a 17.3 dressage horse once and I was kicking saddle flaps!
 
12 years ago when I bought my 18 hander nobody could believe his size but as the years progressed he became much more "normal" sized.

When I was a child a 16.2 horse was considered to be huge and now they're almost "small" horses!

I think that it is definitely a breeding trend
 
Friend has one in currently. Well bred and a really nice "person". She turned him away again at 4 and will be taking it very slowly with him at 5. However she wants to event and thinks that his size would preclude him from being competitive higher up the grades.
 
And why there is so much more lameness round nowadays? (Although that may also be better diagnostics). Horses were meant to be about 15hh, any taller and problems lurk. I bred a foal, intending it to be 15.2/16hh, he is 18hh, I can't even see his whole shoulder! He is out on loan.
 
That's my idea of a nightmare, have never ridden one that big and maybe it's grand but I find smaller horses so much handier to manouver, so why any ordinary rider wants something that big I just can't fathom.

I had a 17.2hh once and considered him an elephant, his stride was just so big. I'm tall but can get away with a 16.1hh and that's big enough and not quite so far to the ground either!
 
I think it is a bit of a trend, but im happy for it. Im 5'9 and feel silly on anything under 17hh now.
 
Yeah I think its just the trend now, have enormous horses for competition. My horse is going to look tiny in comparison when he goes out competing haha and he is 16.2. Its not as if he is small, but like others have said in comparison to the 18hh monsters you get he looks small.
 
I think it's very odd and something to do with modern breeding. Read some old books and you'll see 16.2 being spoken about as a man's hunter, while a week ago, I found a 16.3 for sale as lady rider had outgrown her. This was at RC level, mind and I can't quite see how that happens.

On the other hand, I can't talk. I own an 18.2 Clyde and love him to bits, but he's a nightmare to mount and tack up. He ploughs like a dream, but for jumping, no way would I want to sit something George's size. Striding, turning everything would be a nightmare to sort, plus the extra weight and strain on legs.

My old instructor, a true horseman, always used to say 'if it's over 17 hands, you're feeding fresh air.' This applied to his shires as well; I dread to think what he'd make of 18 hand hunters and eventers!
 
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I think there's a bit of breeding fashion to it, but wonder a bit if it's that more people have learned in riding schools with adult sized horses over the last 50 years or so and have had the opportunity to try something that would previously have been considered too big. The big horses were aspirational because generally the best riders in the group got them, and I remember the overwhelming feeling of the power and stability I had the first time I moved onto the 16.2 horse off ponies. I suspect that triggered my inclination towards giant horses, which is now thoroughly reinforced by the fact that I'm getting soft in my old she and a big horse makes the jumps look smaller! I'm hoping my jumping foal will go 17hh+, and at 5.4 there is no good reason why I *need* one that big.
 
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When I first got into horses 36 years ago a 17hh horse was rare and thought to be enormous. As the years went by my horses (homebred) went from 15.3 to 17.0, so as I am approaching my dotage I decided to breed myself a nice 16.2 out of my 17hh mare. I did my homework, selected a stallion who was 16.2 from a similar height background.........and got a 17.3 and possibly still growing at rising 7! I know his height to be correct because he was measured at Weipers (Glasgow Uni vet school) when he was an in-patient recently for sarcoid removal. So much for a nice sized horse to plod about on in old age then!
 
When I was young it seemed all horses got a scoop of oats or barley, a scoop of bran and one of pulp. Now everything has carefully balanced compound feed or if straights are fed there's usually a balancer too. Could this, over the generations, have boosted heights as has better nutrition in our own children? Just a thought.
 
Certainly when I first got into horses 20 years ago there were very few over 16.2hh and that was considered to be enormous. We did have one on a yard I worked on for a while that was 17.3 and pretty much everyone was terrified of him lol...but he was a sweetheart :)
 
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