Heavy riders, who should speak out and when*spin off*

[FionaM12]

Why are you eating synthetic food? The diet im talking about is 600 calories twice a week then normal eating other days!

Maybe OP thought you were talking about the diet she's going on?

 

[Big Ben]

OOPs yes getting the diets mixed up, as you were people.

 

[brighteyes]

If a horse carrying 20% of its bodyweight trips and stumbles, the chances of recovery without further injury are what? This to horse or rider.

For the rest of it, I'm with Trinity Fox

 

[Big Ben]

And if a horse carrying 10% trips over a fixed cross country fence?

 

[Christsam]

Big Ben, no offence or anything but why did you start this thread then? You keep saying how it is bad if a horse carrying 10% is doing hard work etc and just trying to justify you being over the maximum that your horse can carry. You ask when people should speak out but every time they do you try and dispel what they are saying? This argument has been going on for ages now. At the end of the day you are 3-4% over the maximum of what your horse should be able to carry without damage occurring to him. Please dont try and justify it by saying those of us who are only 10% or so of the max weight are just as bad for doing more with our horses.

 

[Big Ben]

Sam, no offence taken, my original question was about real life people, face to face situations, not people on the internet, we can all make judgments about others based on one small glimpse of their lives we do it all the time.

I had actually thought that it had rolled on to a wider debate about all sorts of questions, as these things do.

I do not ask questions to defend the heavier rider, but merely to ask questions about other risks to horses health and well being. Whatever we do with our horses brings risk to human or horse or both, and for everyone you have to decide where that risk starts and stops.

 

[PapaFrita]

And if a horse carrying 10% trips over a fixed cross country fence?

We could (and probably will) go over this for days... weeks... months. Fact is, SOME horses are sounder, FITTER, have better conformation and better balance than others. THESE horses are better equipped to carry heavier loads than other horses. The bodymass/weight/height of the horse is just ONE of several considerations and THEN we have to add how much work the horse is doing. Add to the equation the fact that SOME people ride like a sack of bricks and others don't, then THEIR weight is also ONE of several considerations. The variables are very very very many and there is no ONE definitive answer to how much weight any given horse should or could carry.

 

[Big Ben]

We could (and probably will) go over this for days... weeks... months. Fact is, SOME horses are sounder, FITTER, have better conformation and better balance than others. THESE horses are better equipped to carry heavier loads than other horses. The bodymass/weight/height of the horse is just ONE of several considerations and THEN we have to add how much work the horse is doing. Add to the equation the fact that SOME people ride like a sack of bricks and others don't, then THEIR weight is also ONE of several considerations. The variables are very very very many and there is no ONE definitive answer to how much weight any given horse should or could carry.

Great post, and kind of what I've been trying to say for a while, totally leaving aside my personal situation, there are so many variables of size, weight, fitness, of both horse and rider, and disciplines that we use our horses for, so often the answer is "It all depends"

 

[lpeacock]

There was a girl at pony club who was about 18/20 stone competing at a 2 day event I was doing. Her horse was in his 20's and she was going to jump the open course. They did not let her compete.
I am definitely not skinny but asking a veteran horse (ex race horse) to compete over 2 days and jump open level jumps at her weight was too much and was a fair call but they were very discrete about it to avoid her unnecessary embarrassment.