Heavy weight riders, am i too big????

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four faults

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Hi all, Ive managed to lose a lot of weight over the years but am stuck around 13.7 stone, im 5ft 8inches tall.

I own a youngster around 16.1hh warmblood and want to know if 13.7 stone is too heavy for him??????

I do not want to damage his young back (im a reasonably confident rider BHS 3 level) so wont bounce about, but so much is being written about larger riders that ive developed a complex.

Anyone know what the correct weight should be?
 
That doesn't sound too heavy to me, but surely it depends on the horse and how you ride? Don't you have an instructor or other experienced person to advise you?
 
All I can say is that I am shorter and lighter than you - although probably proportionally similarly overweight (if that makes sense) and when I had a 16.2hh ISH that needed backing I got someone else to do it for me, for a variety of reasons but one of the main ones being that I felt I was too heavy for that early stage.

I'm currently riding a chunky 15.2hh and am very concious about my weight on the horse.
 
FionaM12 said:
That doesn't sound too heavy to me, but surely it depends on the horse and how you ride? Don't you have an instructor or other experienced person to advise you?
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I am an instructor (AI) but this never came up in the exams!!! Also my FBHS and BHS I instructor cannot agree on this topic at all.
 
I dont think it is too heavy a lot of people are far too overcautious about how much weight horses can carry.

If the horse has good conformation a well fitting saddle and you are an experienced sympathetic rider i dont see why you shouldnt
 
Fine as a four year old but not for more than 10 minutes at a time if only rising four.
Well fitting saddle is a given.........
 
I have a 16.1 hh WB and my vet said his max weight is around 14st. I think so much depends on age of horse, fitness, length of back, riding ability etc that there is no hard & fast rule.
 
four faults said:
Hi all, Ive managed to lose a lot of weight over the years but am stuck around 13.7 stone, im 5ft 8inches tall.

I own a youngster around 16.1hh warmblood and want to know if 13.7 stone is too heavy for him??????

I do not want to damage his young back (im a reasonably confident rider BHS 3 level) so wont bounce about, but so much is being written about larger riders that ive developed a complex.

Anyone know what the correct weight should be?
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How young is he? how much has he done if anything?
 
Is he broken? 14st is a quite a heavy rider for a just broken baby to carry but well within his abilities once in work and a little fitter.

14st at 5'8 isn't exactly a spherical shape so you're size shouldn't affect your balance or ability. (unlike being morbidly obese at 14st at 5'2 for example!)

If he's already in ridden work then just build up slowly to long periods in the saddle, make sure the saddle is as big as possible (large weight bearing panel surface) and he'll be absolutely fine.
 
you're not a heavy weight at all!!
Congrats on losing so much weight by the way. YOu sound like you're completely in proportion and within the healthy level of BMI.
Not everyone can be Twiggy, I swear riding is becoming more about looking like (or being the size of) the models in magazines, rather than ability to ride! I think it must be the skinnies who are causing all this negative hype about weight! :)

A Dutch trainer said to me recently - a light rider can ride very heavily, and a heavier rider can ride very lightly. Which is absolutely true.
The comment about you getting a REALLY BIG saddle made me laugh though ;)

Any weight of rider can make themselves lighter in the saddle though - by standing more on the stirrups and staying off their back.
Please don't worry though, I wish you and your youngster every success and lots of happiness.
 
No your fine. My weight is stuck at 13.5 stone but I'm 5ft 9. My lad is a tb ex racer and he copes fine with me but I do worry about my weight allthe time.
Go and enjoy him
 
I think you are fine too. I'm sure you would notice if your horse couldn't cope.
I agree, it's more how you ride. I felt very self conscience after I had my 2 children, so long reined my boy everywhere! I'm back riding and loving it, good luck x
 
will probably get shot down for this, i am pushing 14stone, i umpire polo so ride whatever horse is provided, (within reason). Some of the ponies they come out with are just that! i normally pick the shorter of the two(two umpires) as i have the shortest legs!
 
I think you will be fine but I suppose they do tend to use very light riders for backing youngsters so depends how young you mean. I am probably 'heavyweight' too at 14st+ but I am tall and to be honest I think I look fine and ride as lightly as I can, I ride 15'1 and I don't really care if anyone thinks I am squashing her because I am not, we only hack and she could do heavier!

I agree that there seems to be a lot of talk about weight in horsey terms now and I really do not believe that everyone of my size should be riding giant draft horses as some people seem to think. As I have said before it is hard for people (especially smaller people) to picture what 14st ish actually looks like and feels like to a horse! Well done on losing weight though I wouldn't mind losing a bit!
 
Andiamo said:
you're not a heavy weight at all!!
Congrats on losing so much weight by the way. YOu sound like you're completely in proportion and within the healthy level of BMI.
Not everyone can be Twiggy, I swear riding is becoming more about looking like (or being the size of) the models in magazines, rather than ability to ride! I think it must be the skinnies who are causing all this negative hype about weight! :)

A Dutch trainer said to me recently - a light rider can ride very heavily, and a heavier rider can ride very lightly. Which is absolutely true.
The comment about you getting a REALLY BIG saddle made me laugh though ;)

Any weight of rider can make themselves lighter in the saddle though - by standing more on the stirrups and staying off their back.
Please don't worry though, I wish you and your youngster every success and lots of happiness.
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I think there is nothing wrong with the OP's weight and your comments about the way someone rides is completely true....however I disagree about weight in the stirrups, this can cause its own set of problems.

I do not think that the weight thing is 'hype' either, its common knowledge that humans and horses put more pressure on our joints when we are carrying excess weight...the same applies to the weight of a rider on a horse.

I am currently 11st 11 and 5'9, I plan to get down to 11 before sitting on my youngster for my own piece of mind and because I think that the lighter the better....he will not have any muscle. Once he is fit and more developed he will probably be able to carry 14/15st +

p.s I would also like to say congrats about the weight you have lost, most of us overlooked that except for Andiamo!
 
That weight balanced is a hell of a lot less than unbalanced.

I once saw a horse who had been ridden by a 10st girl of wibbly wobbly unbalancedness and poor horse couldn't cope and had hair rubbed off by the saddle movement.

A 13st balanced person then took the horse on and the difference was amazing.

So, don't be conscious of you weight, be conscious of your balance, then you can ride anything!!!
 
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I would say you are absolutely fine :)

Agree with Canteron really too, I have seen horses struggle with light riders who are fine with a heavier, but better balanced rider :)
 
I think its all about the rider, years ago I bred a 14.2 show pony, as I was an adult she was broken and backed and ridden by a couple of young confident girls.
A friend wanted to ride her one day, very slim about 5 ft 2 and about 7.5 stone, she got on and the pony went bump on the floor. I gave this a great deal or worrying about thinking something must be terribly wrong with her, did all the usual checks and nothing could be found wrong, I was slightly concerned about the teenagers getting on her as obviously I didn't want any one or my pony to get hurt.
In the end I got on 5ft4 and more like 10 stone!! Absolutely no reaction, so I walked her donw the road absoulutely fine. Moral of story she must ride like a sack of potatoes!!
 
I know from experience that it is VERY easy to get paranoid about your weight after reading some of the threads on here! I'm taller than you, and heavier - and , although VERY unfit at present, used to ride pretty well. I was perfectly happy that as an experienced, balanced rider, I would be perfectly ok getting on a decent sized WB type.
I then read some of the aforementioned threads, and found myself getting in such a state about my size that I went to try a horse last week, and couldn't sleep the night before for worrying that the owner was going to take one look at me and tell me I was too fat to go anywhere near her horse.
She said nothing of the sort, and the mare didn't bat an eyelid when I plonked my enormous backside on her and wobbled round the school on her. Even managed to pull my arms out whilst cantering in the field. I decided at that point to stop being so wet, and revert to default "I can ride and I will not squash a decent sized warmblood type, and all the fatty bashers on HHO can stick it up their perfectly pert backsides"...
 
Hahaha! That made me laugh. I think the same about viewings and keep looking at ads for bigger and bigger horses, definitely wearing my most slimming jodhpurs when the time comes!
 
mandwhy said:
Hahaha! That made me laugh. I think the same about viewings and keep looking at ads for bigger and bigger horses, definitely wearing my most slimming jodhpurs when the time comes!
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Luckily I like really big horses anyway! I figure that now I've ridden one without it buckling at the knees, that the ones I'm seeing this week should be a breeze!
 
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