Genuine weight question.

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Mongoose11

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21% of of horses weight (including tack). Would you be happy to see the horse carrying this weight, in walk, for 20-30 mins a few times a week?

Apologies - more detail...10 inches of bone, compact cob.
 
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depends on the horse to be honest a horse with lots of good dense flat bone short cannons and plenty muscle then fine, a boxy light or round boned horse with poor conformation then no so horses for courses as usual
 
No good at maths so saying a 15.2 Welsh D for example is 500kg and tack with saddle approx 8kg lets say (A wintec is around 6kg without stirrups and girth) bridle about 600g without a bit and reins add steel bit + reins must be about 1kg

21% of 509kg = 106.89 = 16.8323 stone. No i would not be happy to let my horse carry that weight if i have my calculations correct.
 
Thanks. Troll post gets a zillion followers while a genuine question on the subject goes ignored :)

Maybe if I trolled myself up a bit I might hear more views :)
 
With 10 inches of bone that puts the horse well into the heavyweight category so it should be able to carry over 14 stone for a day hunting, I would think a short walk with a few stone over the 14 will do no harm provided the horse is reasonably fit and the saddle fits, I have a middleweight cob who probably weighs around 550 kg and don't think he would have any problems walking with 18 stone on him although I would not want to let him do any more than amble around.
 
Weight threads are sensitive issues for those with weight problems, but basically, I would not let someone of 16 stone ride a horse with 10'' of bone.
I do not let my 16 stone OH ride my horse with 11.5 '' of bone.
 
Well, nice to see a thread which discusses weight in a reasonable manner for once. OP I think if you are talking about sticking to walk, 20-30 mins a few times a week that's not going to be a huge problem.

However - just trying to figure out the equivalent for my biggest horse, ID/TB type, 17hh with good confo; at 21% he would be carrying over 130 kg which personally I would not be happy with at all. I am 80kg and bought him so there would be a good margin; I am paranoid about leg and back damage and mine have a home for life so I want him still working well into his 20's.
 
I get paranoid about riding my boy. I'm a true size 10 but run, swim and do toning weights so I have muscles (not a body builder or anything!) so although I'm only 5ft3, I weigh 10 st 11lb.

He's a 14:1hh Welsh D, he has a good leather saddle and bridle so I'm guessing he carries about 12 stone in total. He seems fine (carries me round cross country and 3 hour hacks) but I worried at the start I'd quish him.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I just wanted to throw that in there. I don't mind if people think I'm too heavy.

A lady at the yard who's larger wants to ride him but because he's only 6, I don't want him to have back problems so I've said no, she's asked for a reason and I don't know how to be tactful :(
 
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Cheshire Chestnut said:
I . .

A lady at the yard who's larger wants to ride him but because he's only 6, I don't want him to have back problems so I've said no, she's asked for a reason and I don't know how to be tactful :(
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I don't why you have to justify yourself to a fellow livery why doesn't she just ride her own horse?

OP no I would not let someone 17.5 stone ride my horse. With tack it's just too much especially if a novice so not balanced and there is a lot of shifting about and they don't have the core strength to lift themselves.
 
My real concern with all the weight discussions on here is not total weight of rider but more how that weight is distributed across the horses back. There is a finite limit on the size of saddle a horse can carry. Saddles are designed to distribute the weight evenly provided the rider FITS the saddle. Purely from observation it seems to me that as a riders weight goes up, more weight is pushed towards the back of the saddle. This must create significant pressure points on the horses back.
I would love to see some proper research in to pressure distribution vs rider size/weight.
 
PaddyMonty said:
My real concern with all the weight discussions on here is not total weight of rider but more how that weight is distributed across the horses back. There is a finite limit on the size of saddle a horse can carry. Saddles are designed to distribute the weight evenly provided the rider FITS the saddle. Purely from observation it seems to me that as a riders weight goes up, more weight is pushed towards the back of the saddle. This must create significant pressure points on the horses back.
I would love to see some proper research in to pressure distribution vs rider size/weight.
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Some links you might like.


http://www.equitationscience.com/documents/Conferences/2013/9th_ISES_Proceedings.pdf
Page 35 Research on the Rider-saddle-horse interface


http://convertmpatopsi.com/kpa/convert-kPa-to-psi.html
what it says on the tin and helps with the above

http://www.rodnikkel.com/content/in...and-desk/finally-pressure-research-on-horses/

http://www.equitationscience.co.uk/upload/ScienceSaddle.pdf
 
the riders weight should be no more than 1/6 the weight of the horse , horse reasonably fit that its, not too fat. Or, the TOTALweight the horse can carry is 20% - this includes the rider dressed to ride and the saddle.
 
Horsesforever1 said:
the riders weight should be no more than 1/6 the weight of the horse , horse reasonably fit that its, not too fat. Or, the TOTALweight the horse can carry is 20% - this includes the rider dressed to ride and the saddle.
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Thats far to general. If you read the research links provided by Blurr above (thankyou) you will see that in walk the max weight the horse experiences is the rider weight, in trot it is twice the rider weight and in canter 3 times.
This puts in to perspective the often quoted ' full grown men used to ride whelsh D all day". They would have been at walk. Plus humans were a lot lighter than now.
So taking the 20% rule for my horse.
Horse is 18hh 7/8 TB with weight of 585kg (weigh bridge).
On 20% rule he can carry 18.4 stone which seems a little more than I would like but OK for short period.
In trot that figure goes up to 36.8 stone. Still think 20% is reasonable?
In canter he would experience a weight of 55.2 stone (772.8 pounds). That is 60% of his body weight.
Anyone still want to use the 20% rule for a general riding horse that hacks in walk trot and canter let alone a comp horse?
 
Gosh PaddyMonty, thats given me food for thought. Now I am going into panc mode that I am too heavy for my 16.2TB and 15.2 highland. I'm a size 12, 5'8 and weigh 12 stone (I'm quite muscle-y) but have never thought of myself as heavy or that I might be too heavy for my horses. Eek...
 
PaddyMonty said:
Horse is 18hh 7/8 TB with weight of 585kg (weigh bridge).
On 20% rule he can carry 18.4 stone which seems a little more than I would like but OK for short period.
In trot that figure goes up to 36.8 stone. Still think 20% is reasonable?
In canter he would experience a weight of 55.2 stone (772.8 pounds). That is 60% of his body weight.
Anyone still want to use the 20% rule for a general riding horse that hacks in walk trot and canter let alone a comp horse?
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So using those figures again, if the rider underwent a massive weight loss of half of his or her body weight, at walk he'd be loading the horse to 10%, at trot 20% and at canter 30%. So effectively no rider of 9 stone 2 lbs would be able to do more than trot a big horse! I can see a huge rise in the number of people doing Intro tests and only people of 6 stone or less being allowed to to Prelims!
 
PercyMum said:
Gosh PaddyMonty, thats given me food for thought. Now I am going into panc mode that I am too heavy for my 16.2TB and 15.2 highland. I'm a size 12, 5'8 and weigh 12 stone (I'm quite muscle-y) but have never thought of myself as heavy or that I might be too heavy for my horses. Eek...
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jemima*askin said:
So using those figures again, if the rider underwent a massive weight loss of half of his or her body weight, at walk he'd be loading the horse to 10%, at trot 20% and at canter 30%. So effectively no rider of 9 stone 2 lbs would be able to do more than trot a big horse! I can see a huge rise in the number of people doing Intro tests and only people of 6 stone or less being allowed to to Prelims!
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I think you are missing my point. The 20% rule is often stated on this forum. My point is it should not be a blanket rule. At walk then it is probably fine. The more trot and canter work that is included in the horses work, the less the 20% rule is applicable. It does also highlight how important saddle fit and its ability to spread weight evenly over as large an area as possible is.
At my weight of 11.3 stone the worst case scenario for my boy is 36.5% of his body weight in canter when I get unbalanced. Not something I will concern myself about as I dont canter all day and hopefully not in an unbalanced way all the time either. Still think 36.5% is a much better figure than the 20% rule giving 60%. As with all things, common sense should be used which includes not using blanket rules without understanding the reality behind them.
 
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