Am I to heavy to break my highland

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thatsmygirl

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I'm not going to post my weight yet, everybody around me says I will look tall but will not be to heavy.
So what weight would u feel a 14hh 4 year old highland would be ok with.
 
For a young horse I'd say no more than 10 per cent of his body weight, including saddle. If you know his weight, you can work that out without having to say what you weigh.
As he gets older and muscles up he'll probably be able to carry a higher percentage but there's no point in putting extra stress on a young horse.
 
It depends how much work you expect the pony to do, in my opinion. We keep sessions short and undemanding but would not really want the rider to be much more than 10 stone, but we do back them before 4. Stress has a lot to the work load, i.e. what you ask them to do and for how long. I'd rather a slightly heavier rider than someone who did the wrong things!
 
I'm a very experienced rider who has broken horses before, at the mo im just at the stage of leaning over him which hes being good and taking a few forward steps. everything will be short sweet sessions. iv lost 1.5 stone and am still planing on losing more to ride him as iv had him since he was weaned and can't bare the thought of selling him.
 
Well the science of it is maximum 20% of the horses bodyweight including all tack etc. But for babies or older horses 15. Something like that.
So for your horse work out 15% of his bodyweight, knock off the weight of the tack and the figure you're left with is acceptable rider weight.
 
Depends on his conformation, how developed he is; how much groundwork put in place to strengthen his muscles and how much you intend to do with him in order to have him considered as 'broken in' personally if I would say 10 stone as a start point assuming that the saddle was half a stone. Then as the months went on I would expect him to be stronger and once he's finished growing and the bones have 'set' I would have no issues with a 12.5 stone rider and a half stone saddle- unless of course his Confo is poor or back muscles weak.
 
thatsmygirl said:
The 20% rule I'm not quite sure off as that would mean he could carry around 14stone which is far far to much.
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I follow that as its the one with science behind it!
I should have said though...it's 20% of the horses HEALTHY bodyweight not too thin or fat.
The 20% rule for my 13.3 welshie is 11st 3 and she carries that and has carried more without batting an eye.
But it is proven that riders over 20% rule cause horses higher heart and respiratory rate etc and muscular strain. If the horse is fat, then knock it down to 10 or 15% as fat horses should carry less.

ETA-horses with good confirmation or short back and sturdy legs+well fitting saddles can carry weight better too than one with a weak, long back.
 
I think a 14hh old fashioned highland probably could carry 13-14st of good rider quite happily, but backing a young horse is different so I would say around 10-11st.
 
thatsmygirl said:
The 20% rule I'm not quite sure off as that would mean he could carry around 14stone which is far far to much.
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The 20% includes your tack and clothes. Stand on the scales in full riding kit, holding your saddle and you might be shocked (I was - my saddle is not light) at how much it all adds up to.
 
10-11.5 stone for backing on conformation I'd say. And then perhaps 13 stone when matured? That's what I'd be comfortable with.
 
Ok thanks for all your answers :)
I'm actually 11.4 stone but am still on a diet ( just for this lad I will amit) my non horsey friends think I'm mad but I can't sell him. I'm 5ft 9 as well but think his tank of a body will take my legs up. But it's only going to be me riding him and he's picked up my voice so well I don't think I will need me long legs anyway.
 
Highlands are a slow growing and slow maturing breed and shouldn't be over challenged when too young. His joints won't be fully settled til he's 6 or 7. I wouldn't be putting more than 9.5 stones on him and wouldn't be lunging etc til he's at least 5 and then not too much.
 
He's a highland - used for bringing dead stags off the hill! How much do you think they weigh? I agree it depends on his conformation and the amount of bone, but assuming all in order I wouldn't be worrying too much. I agree too much going round in circles isn't good for young natives of any breed!
 
He's a good put together lad, short tree trunks for legs as I call them and quite compact. I keep getting told he will be fine but I worry. I haven't done much lunging with him, just enough to know what to do by my voice. The rest have been done round the fields and lanes long reining which he loves, v forward going young lad. Even had a bit of fun going in/out of cans and over poles which he loved. Tbh I'm not going to continue him properly until around summer so have a few months to lose more weight and the floods we have at the mo is stupid and making everything hard. Even the older horses are sick of swimming daily instead of hacking
 
I'm 5'8" and broke my 13.2hh fell at about 11.5-12 stone. 4 years later I'm 11 stone, aiming him at worker classes. I'm sure there will be many on here who think it's terrible but my vet, physio and 2 instructors all think we're fine!
 
I have a 2 1/2 year old who is about 15hh now and built like an Ardennes! He will be sat on this summer when he is 3, by lightweight riders (under 9 1/2 stone) then I am hoping to climb aboard the following year at about 11 1/2 stone.
However chunky and hardy the breed, I'd always think its worth starting off with a lighter weight - just seems logical to me.
 
My baby is 4 but is very backward, will literally long rein her,lead her off mine then literally lean over her. Will get someone else to sit on her! Then break her next autumn/ spring depending on what she is like.

Your baby will be fine but 20 mins about 4 times a week then turn away.
 
Frankly, in my opinion, these sorts of discussions are a bit pointless! I have heard experienced breeders saying they don't break their Highland ponies until they are seven, but I suspect these are half starved little runts off the West Coast hills! So, should that be taken as a rule?

As for applying a mathematical formula to decide what weight a pony should carry, I wouldn't even think about it. Surely the art in managing livestock is mostly about reading the body language? As you might gather from this post, I don't like rules, especially mathematical ones! So stating an age and saying what that pony should/shouldn't be capable of isn't really very helpful. Surely anyone contemplating the breaking of a pony should be able to read what the pony is telling them?
 
I'm currently battling my weightloss to be able to break my section d in this summer, I'm 14.5 stone (being abit generous there probably) but I've joined weightwatchers again and I would like to be about 10 stone byt the end of summer but 12 stone by the end of May when I will start backing him, it's a long ask but I'll try :) hope you have fun backing yours :) ps highliands are meant to carry stags and big burley Scottish blokes so I would say they can carry allot of weight cx
 
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