How big is too big?

Unfortunately (??) i am 6ft with a 35 inch inside leg so anything under a 17hh horse makes me look under horsed. Unfortunately, again, i do dressage so i guess my horses are going to break down easily and cost me ten times the amount of a 16hh horse..... *rolls eyes*

Luckily the evention of a 20 x 60 dressage arena allows me to ride my horses in competition with ease (!) and at higher levels you only ride in 20 x 60 anyway. Non of my horses have anything over full size and my 18'1 horse (now sold due to me being made redundant) used to wear a 6'6 rug, whereas my 16'1 mare wears a 7ft rug. My 16'1 homebred 2 1/2yr old wears a 6'3 rug....

Also just to add that my 18'1 found 10m circles easier than my 16'1 - i do love the generlisation of some people on here.....
 
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My 16'2 rides a hell of a lot bigger than a lot of 17hh+ horses that I've ridden.....

I think there is a trend back towards smaller more compact horses. Carl Hester doesn't have giants - his top horses tend to be littler but powerful, like Uthopia and Valegro. :)
 
I love little horses (well, 15-16 hands), and I'm 5'8" so not exactly a short-a*se :p My boy is 15.1, I can get on easily from the ground and he's very agile, but he doesn't have a "pony" stride. I also love riding my friend's 14.2 mare :D
 
Sol said:
Is it just me who finds more dressage/show jumpers look 'over-horsed' (in size) than say, eventers? There are a few women who event on BIG horses, but they never seem to look so out of place as the small people on 17.2hh dressage horses, or equally ginormous showjumpers! I'm not sure why....
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But it is all down to whether you can ride the horse or not - I feel more over-horsed on the 16hh I ride for someone, than I do on my Maggie who is 17.2hh. I definitely didn't set out to buy a horse than big (and I thought she was 17hh until I foolishly measured her) and wasn't even going to view her, but as soon as I got on I loved her and she is very responsive so I don't mind her size at all, though i know I do look silly on her.
 
Spacefaer - no wonder you felt like 90 cm was huge on a little horse. Yours are all MASSIVE and jumping a 5 bar gate on them would be like jumping a cross pole for us lesser mortals...!!!
 
I think 16.2 is pretty much the kind of hiehgt most people need im pretty tall and feel just about right on a well built 16.2 although can look leggy on them, although i like my very big horses the one i ride is a little heavy he is a ID 5yo and currently stands at 18.2 he is a sweety but tacking up even for me is tricky and he has a few little back problems at the moment due to gorwing so much and being so big, he will take a very long time to actually get ridden and going properly just becasue he is taking so long to mature
 
Just through my personal choice, I would never buy something over 15.3hh. I'm only 5ft2 and prefer smaller horses so that I can actually reach their backs to put the saddle on etc.
And I feel more comfortable riding smaller horses, rather than 16hh+ I feel my leg goes no where on them! I have 2 ponies and a 15.2hh.

But that's just my preference. I have a friend not much taller than me and she likes them the bigger the better! She has a 16.3hh!
 
redmerl said:
My TB is 16.3/17 but he is 6'3 rung. He not a deep body either, we say he ws supposed to be 16 hands but his legs kept growing
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Sounds like my mare. We bought her last year at 16.1 but she keeps growing and now she stands at 16.3. In her passport she was supposed to make 16hh.
She too is a 6'3 rug but sometimes wears 6' (my last mare was 6' so these are her spare rugs) and sometimes 6'6.

As for food she has minimal amounts so our feed bill is very little (think 1 1/2 mugs of balancer and a small handfull of chaff each day)
 
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