How big is the biggest horse you've ever ridden?

Did a charity ride on a lovely 17hh hunter many moons ago. He was so nice and polite to ride it was a real fun outing!

Also rode a friends ex-showjumping vaulting horse who was just under 17hh. He arrived with the nickname Fred West as was so naughty but ended up such a fabulous person and twice went to WEG with a team of vaulters. After he retired from that level he visited RDA groups. Lovely boy.

At 5ft1 I think the daft mare definitely suits me best at 13.2hh!
 
18.3 Clydesdale x Hanovarian....he was bluddy lovely. While I wouldn't want to have to finance such a big horse, I do love them. Sadly, due to health issues, I struggle with anything over 16.2 and ideally less chunky these days :(
 
Id love to try something bigger. My lad is 17hh but very narrow and i feel like a giant on him a lot of the time. I have a very long leg and body but am only 5'8 but i suppose the flab makes me look bigger. I know taller people who can look tiny on a 15hh! Id love to look like im in proportion to a horse lol just once.
 
Fools Motto said:
Just ridden a big mare for some lovely friends.
I say big, probably mean enormous! The stick goes to 18.2 hh and she is bigger. I'm 5'4'' btw!! She is my biggest I've ever ridden, so got me thinking - who was yours and how big?
I had a nice time - long way up, luckily the mounting block was of a good size. And it was a long way down. lol
Awaiting photos from said friends.
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17.1hh back in the 70's none bigger since as I don't enjoy riding horses that big 16.1hh is my maximum as I like to look at my horses face, face on without getting a crook neck.
 
I rode a really big (for me) Dutch warm blood in Holland, he must have been 17 hh plus. I have ridden the Clydesdales on Dartmoor a couple of times, one of them seemed quite neat and small but the second one really seemed too big a horse for me to ride comfortably though he was good as gold.
 
I've hacked out a 4 year old 18.2 WB.... I must have only been 15 or 16 but still remember how fabulous it was!
Super chilled, expensive and very well put together youngster!

Have also done a farm ride on a 18hh Shire.
Genuinely terrifying when at full speed and the ground is so far away! Would do it again in a heartbeat though!
 
I'm 5ft 6 and not a great rider. Had a lesson on a 17.2 Shire cross who b**ggered off with me a couple of times. My first mare was 16.3, I had to train her to stand by the mounting block to let me off because it killed my ankles dismounting . My current mare is also 16.3 but she just feels a lot bigger and has a much bigger stride and having had a couple of unplanned dismounts from her, a long old way down! In between I bought my gelding who was 15.3, tbh that is a much more comfortable size for me.
 
The biggest one I've ridden was an extremely strong 18 hh draught giant. I'm 5"2. I was riding him at dressage lessons at a riding shool while the beast was unwell. He's not usually used for dressage so it took a lot of work to disusuade him from going about strung out with his head in the air. He was surprisingly very nice when he was working correctly. Not the best walk but a lovely trot and canter. Also quite sensitive. My riding has really improved thanks to him. Riding the beast is like driving a sports car, he is so easy in comparison.
 
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17hh pure Irish draught. An absolute gentleman and one of the kindest horses I’ve ever met. He was massive though (wide as well as tall!) so I’m happy on my 15hh Connie these days! 48A67BE7-C817-4399-952D-074E714C4A55.jpeg
 
My avatar is the biggest horse I've ever ridden, the 18h measuring stick dangled off the floor so we've always just said he's about 18.1hh. My very novice husband has ridden 2 different horses 18.3hh at Cumbrian Heavy Horses (10 years apart) and my children now age 7 have both mostly learnt to ride on our 18.1hh
118343122_3409832032410677_3496170233166778390_o.jpg This was my son's first dressage test.
I now have a shire horse who is about 17.2hh (haven't got a stick to check) and people laugh that I call him "Little One".
SLP-43-(ZF-0729-72426-1-001).jpg
 
abbijay said:
My avatar is the biggest horse I've ever ridden, the 18h measuring stick dangled off the floor so we've always just said he's about 18.1hh. My very novice husband has ridden 2 different horses 18.3hh at Cumbrian Heavy Horses (10 years apart) and my children now age 7 have both mostly learnt to ride on our 18.1hh
View attachment 55614 This was my son's first dressage test.
I now have a shire horse who is about 17.2hh (haven't got a stick to check) and people laugh that I call him "Little One".
View attachment 55613
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That dressage test!! Oh I would have loved to have seen that :D
 
When I was younger I used to ride a 17.3 TB. He was all legs and it was impossible to keep weight on him but he was an absolute sweetheart and a gentleman. My horse is 16.1 and I don't feel safe on anything much smaller. I prefer to have a lot of horse underneath me and in front of me :p
 
Unfortunately I didn't get to ride him, but a yard where I helped exercise hunters one was 18 hands + man's hunter. I just gazed up and asked how we were supposed to get the saddle on!
 
I had a lovely mare who was 18.2, and after her its my avatar horse who is 18hh without shoes, but neither felt particularly big as they are both well proportioned horses with good balance.
 
I'm not sure! Arch is 16.3, Mont 17 and I suspect Charlie is about that too. I certainly haven't ridden anything bigger as an adult. At the riding school I used to 'work' at for free rides when I was a kid, there were two shires, Henry and Floss whom we used to ride two at a time. They seemed huge but I was only 11 so they might not have actually been that big. They were gorgeous though, proper gentle giants.
 
popcorn1 said:
17hh.

I read once that in terms of soundness, a horse should be no bigger than 15.2. Any truth in this?
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It's very rare that you see an 18hh+ horse that's over 20.. Whereas that isn't even really that old for a smaller horse. Take from that what you will.
They just aren't designed to be this big in terms of joints, soft tissue and standing up to work; that being said - I love them!
 
AShetlandBitMeOnce said:
It's very rare that you see an 18hh+ horse that's over 20.. Whereas that isn't even really that old for a smaller horse. Take from that what you will.
They just aren't designed to be this big in terms of joints, soft tissue and standing up to work; that being said - I love them!
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Very rare indeed. But I know one, Patch who must be 17.2+, who I'm sure the lady told me was 25 as she cantered past me last month :)
 
17.3hh sports horse type at a riding school. He was a sweetheart, and certainly made the jumps I was persuaded to do look extremely small. As someone who is pretty afraid of jumping, I have to admit I do see why jumpers like big horses!!
I’d never have one that big though. Just trying to steer around a circle is hard work when they are huge, and it’s much more difficult to keep them together for collected work. Plus the tacking up and rugging up is nightmare! My current two are 11.2hh and 14.2hh, and the next will be 15.2hh!
 
Fools Motto said:
Just ridden a big mare for some lovely friends.
I say big, probably mean enormous! The stick goes to 18.2 hh and she is bigger. I'm 5'4'' btw!! She is my biggest I've ever ridden, so got me thinking - who was yours and how big?
I had a nice time - long way up, luckily the mounting block was of a good size. And it was a long way down. lol
Awaiting photos from said friends.
Click to expand...
I ride a brilliant 17.3 sporhorse/cob mix at the riding school I'm at and it's great. I've always preferred big horses to small ones. My ideal size is 16.2 or 16.3, but I'm actually really liking riding a 17+ hand horse now!
 
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