Bew BHS-imposed weight limit on schools

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I called a BHS-Approved riding school I go to occasionally to book lessons and was told they new have a 13 stone weight limit.....

.... and I had a gossip with another school (not BHS Approved) who talked about BHS imposing a weight limit....

.... seems a strange step (and one that will stop a lot of adults riding!) Anyone know if it's true and what the details are ???
 
Well, being 13.5 myself, I'm glad I learned how to ride as a kid as if I was an adult, I'd be ******ed even though I'm tall and not fat! Even at my skinniest which was 12 stone (and you could see my ribs), I was still too heavy for most riding schools so you can't win really if you are a tall adult. Best to buy your own horse and take private lessons.
 
A slight tangent (I'm not over 13 stone) but lots of people who do own their own horses still want lessons so they get the chance to ride other horses and don't become set in their ways. Or perhaps they might like to ride a schoolmaster. Even professionals go to others people's yards and ride other people's horses in order to develop, surely.
 
As far as I am aware the BHS leave it up to their schools to decide a weight limit appropriate to their horses. I know of at least one BHS approved school with a 16st weight limit - which is suitable for the horses they have.
 
I thought most had that sort of limit anyway. I actually think its fair enough. Firstly, lots of people lie about their weight & claim they are lighter than they are, or don't actually know it. And secondly, while plenty of horses can easily carry more, a 13 stone rider feels like 13 stone. A 13 stone beginner crashing up & down learning rising trot will feel loads heavier than they are. And thirdly, even if you have a horse that can easily cope with a bigger beginner, carrying one for an hour or two is different to carrying several in a day. And it would be a bit awkward saying 'you can't ride that day, the horse has a heavier rider early on & it will need lighter ones later'. Also, the issue of saddles, a tall athletic 14/15/16 stone person will be fine in a 17.5 or 18" saddle, but a 5'1 person that weight would be sat wrong, & therefore putting extra pressure on.
 
Yes I think It's sensible, our riding school horses work hard! There is also a huge difference carrying a 14stone rider who is balanced and can ride to a 14 stone novice unbalanced sack of potatoes!

Now, imagine your horse is working for 3hrs a day with 12-16 stone sack of potatoes bouncing round, would you be so willing not to impose a weight limit? Remeber these are riding school horses and alot aren't built correctly, or worked correctly, so haven't got the muscle your horses have.

We care for and love our riding school horses and ponies so have to think about it carefully. Of course we take each rider as they come but it is hard as the majority tend to overestimate their ability, so you allow the 14 stone rider who can walk, trot, canter and jump to come for an assessment lesson, only to find they can even do rising trot and bang down on the horses back. Food for thought?
 
Where do you draw the line? Most around us have a 12 stone weight limit tobehonest. I think it's a good idea as these horses work hard.
 
Round here, it's 15 st. Most blokes I know are that or more, not far, just tall, well built types. Yes, the horses work hard and have to earn their living, but I see no reason why any horse should do more a few hours a day with proper untacked breaks in between unless they're being exploited.
 
Dear all.

I'm not complaining about the idea of a limit. But, from what I've been told, the BHS are making schools set a 13st limit in order to become Approved. I want to know if that's true or not.
 
When I phoned round riding schools to book my lesson, the bhs approved ones had a weight limit of 14 stone. I found a small centre that when I phoned said 17 stone for hacks and 15.5 for lessons. Theirs one Bhs centre that said no more that 12 stone.

I think it a good idea for the horses/ponies to have a lower weight limit than what they could possibly carry. :-)
 
I do understand the need to have wieght limits when I ran a riding school we had two wieght carriers and they where very in demand however we did not take hugely fat people .
I think a blanket thirteen stone limit would make no sense how are adult men to learn otherwise schools could if they wished make a niche teaching physically bigger people.
 
BHS_official said:
To clarify, the BHS does not impose weight limits for its Approved Centres to adhere to and there are no plans to do so.

Weight limits are completely at the discretion of individual Centres and will of course depend on factors such as horses available, types of lessons offered and so on.
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Thank you for that information. Sounds like people I've spoken to have had a misunderstanding, or put 2 and 2 together and made 5.
 
The schools have obviously put in a limit as they feel the horses they have there would benefit from not having to carry over that weight.

I'm doing my uni course at Moreton Morrell college, and I'm not aware of any weight limits, and they are a BHS examination centre. With that in mind, there are horses who can and do carry larger weights. So it all depends on what type of workload the horses can cope with.
 
Honey08 said:
Good job. Not all people at 13 stones are fat. My hubby is tall and lanky (think William Fox-Pitt) and weighs around that...
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My husband is also tall and fairly thin and weighs around that. He has ridden in several riding schools, and doesn't even need to ride a real weight carrying type. It is his height that restricts the horses he can ride far more than his weight. The riding school we both rode at regularly don't advertise a weight limit, and certainly have clients who must weight 16stone, but they also have lots of good weight carriers, nice strong fit, well schooled cobs, maxi cobs and ID types that work over their backs correctly, wear well fitting saddles and have their backs checked regularly. This enables them to teach a good variety of clients.

What is interesting though is the way that riding school proprietors deal with weight limits. At one place in particular OH has been allowed to ride several of their riding school horses, despite being more than a stone over the weight limit and has been treated rather more leniently than a shorter girl who probably weighs less than him. I am convinced it is at least in part because he doesn't look fat rather than any technical or common sense analysis of weight or the ability of the horse. He rarely gets asked about his weight, and has volunteered it before riding and is often disbelieved, people expect 12st plus to look fat.
 
Honey08 said:
Good job. Not all people at 13 stones are fat. My hubby is tall and lanky (think William Fox-Pitt) and weighs around that...
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I don't think anyone said 13 stone = fat, surely the weight limit applies whether you're 13 stone of muscle or 13 stone of fat?

Anyway, glad to hear it was all a misunderstanding, makes sense that riding centres dictate their own weight limit dependant on their horses.
 
The only sensible way is for schools to set their own limits, if they don't want to have any weight carriers around, then obviously they would have to have a lower limit.


Kat said:
What is interesting though is the way that riding school proprietors deal with weight limits. At one place in particular OH has been allowed to ride several of their riding school horses, despite being more than a stone over the weight limit and has been treated rather more leniently than a shorter girl who probably weighs less than him. I am convinced it is at least in part because he doesn't look fat rather than any technical or common sense analysis of weight or the ability of the horse. He rarely gets asked about his weight, and has volunteered it before riding and is often disbelieved, people expect 12st plus to look fat.
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Perception is an interesting one, but also as others have pointed out, if your OH is a good balanced rider, then maybe he is easier for a horse to carry than the shorter, rounder girl? Judging weight by eye is notoriously difficult though.
 
Big Ben said:
Perception is an interesting one... Judging weight by eye is notoriously difficult though.
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Perception is an interesting one. I'm 5'11'' and 13stone (sometimes more, sometimes less), of a slim build. When I tell people how much I weigh, they don't believe me. So I walk into a riding school for a lesson, and I may weigh 13 and a half stone (which I currently do), and the weight limit is 13. Yet the instructor doesn't think I look it, so doesn't ask. Off I go having my lesson.

Who polices the weight limit rule? How is the BHS going to enforce it?
 
Big Ben said:
The only sensible way is for schools to set their own limits, if they don't want to have any weight carriers around, then obviously they would have to have a lower limit.

Of course, riding schools have to ensure that their horses fit their clientele or vice versa.


Perception is an interesting one, but also as others have pointed out, if your OH is a good balanced rider, then maybe he is easier for a horse to carry than the shorter, rounder girl? Judging weight by eye is notoriously difficult though.
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He is a good balanced rider, and probably a better rider than the girl in question but she isn't so novicey that she is likely to feel substantially heavier than she is, she's able to ride walk trot and canter in balance. Also although I can understand that tall muscular and thin might be easier to carry than short and flabby but she is a tall girl who is a sturdy build and a little plump - not hugely fat. I can't imagine the difference would be particularly noticeable to a hunter type horse. Hence I think some of it is prejudice/perception rather than anything particular scientific.
 
That is often the beauty of riding in all sorts of ways, science can state all sorts of things, but when you are dealing with the communication between two living beings there is so much more than science in play.

I don't know how many stables actually have a scale handy? I know that a lot of the holiday trail ride places around here do, just to get over the judging by eye thing.
 
I am glad that BHS official were able to clear that up.

I also think that a 13 stone limit is perfectly okay, especially when talking about beginner riders. It's not necessarily to do with whether the rider is fat or not - it's 13 stone of unbalanced weight.
 
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SarahThomas said:
Who polices the weight limit rule? How is the BHS going to enforce it?
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They're not going to enforce it, as they haven't got plans to impose a weight limit. BHS official posted above, and I have quoted their post below.. :)

BHS_official said:
To clarify, the BHS does not impose weight limits for its Approved Centres to adhere to and there are no plans to do so.

Weight limits are completely at the discretion of individual Centres and will of course depend on factors such as horses available, types of lessons offered and so on.
Click to expand...
 
to be honest probably if someone looks over 14/15 stone they may say i am sorry, you are too heavy. I very much doubt they will be dragging scales out!
 
I understand that the horses are working all day so I am not against a weight limit per se, but I think 13st is quite low really and like above, just glad I learned when I was younger!

It does seem silly that an experienced well built man couldn't have lessons on a schoolmaster, but I like to think they would exercise some discretion and not actually weigh people on arrival!
 
Weight limits should be set by each individual riding school according to what horses they have.

It is like the donkey sanctuary imposing their 8 stone weight limit, why the hell are Mammoth Jackstock and other large breeds being brought over to the UK in large numbers?

BHS can be so stupid. Like most charities.
 
lpeacock said:
to be honest probably if someone looks over 14/15 stone they may say i am sorry, you are too heavy. I very much doubt they will be dragging scales out!
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The riding school I used to go to weighed all new clients.

moana said:
BHS can be so stupid. Like most charities.
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Defamatory statement much!? Considering they're not imposing a weight limit. It says so in their above post, and in the one I quoted!
 
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