How Do You Know When Your Too Big For Your Horse?

i cant see the vids work computers having a fit! but i ride a 15.1 welsh D and im 5ft8 and 7stone and im not even close to being huge on him
i think you should be fine with her you will know when your to big for her
 
It doesn't sound like you're too big, but did you seriously jump what is pretty much the same fence 20 times in a row on the same rein?? Blimey.
 
yay im seeing flat work and im liking!!! your not too big. just remember to keep your weight even when you school as you look like your 'leaning in' to the corners a tad. and try and vary your jumping a bit as doing the same fence over and over again defiantly wont get your mare thinking. but glad your taking on advice. good luck.
 
fadedv said:
It doesn't sound like you're too big, but did you seriously jump what is pretty much the same fence 20 times in a row on the same rein?? Blimey.
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Just what I was thinking. try putting some grids up, doglegs, short strides, long strides etc. It will really get your horse thinking.

How old are you? Are you likely to grow any more?
I weigh about 9 1/2 - 10 stone and ride a 13.2hh pure welsh C and she carries me fine.

ETA: I've just watched your flatwork video. You are a nice quiet rider but you really need to do lots of different things and not just transitions. All you did basically was transitions and the odd 20m circle. IF you do BSJA then try adding smaller circles, figure 8's, serpentines, short transitions ie 5 steps walk, 5 steps canter, 5 steps trot. This will make your horse more supple, balanced and get his/her legs under him/her - this could wonk wonders for jump offs as you could make tighter turns and still have a horse that is balanced enough to make the fence.
 
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just watched the vid again, what bit is she in now? i cant make it out, and is she in a running martingale or a standing?
 
No, you are not too big for your horse but you obviously think you are since you've posted about this before.

If you want a bigger horse just go and buy one, but you might not find one as genuine, tollerant and hardy as the one you have now.
 
Oh no! I need to go shopping before the school holidays starts otherwise town will be full annoying kids, sorry, must dash!
*rushes off*
BSJAshowjumper123- You forgot to use a ground line for the fence. I think your jumping would improve if you could slow everything down. You look a bit unbalanced around the corner.
 
I don’t think you are too big for her, but I don’t think you should be on her back.

I have replied with consistently positive messages to your posts. I have given you tips, help, advice – as have many others.

The flatwork video is despicable and your poor mare not only looks tense, hollow, and up to her eyebrows in gadgets, but desperately unhappy. You need to focus on getting her softer, rounder, working through from behind. I would imagine something with welsh blood is fairly easy to get topline on with correct work where as your mare has a really scrawny neck, probably as a result of being ridden like that. I would also focus on walk to trot and getting the trot forward and elastic before you attempt a vile walk to canter transition, with your horse hollow, not forward, and tense.

Your jumping video is not schooling it is running flat out at a single jump and hoping your mare clears it. When the barrel etc gets placed underneath your mare becomes looky in her final strides which would indicate she is not as bold as you may think. Also, if you aim to go and compete at 1.20’s, as you keep saying, you should be schooling over courses of at least 1.25 at home.

I am not going to bother writing out all of the solid advice I have given you previously, about pole work, transitions, snaffle bridles, and actually taking the time and care to make sure your mare is happy and confident in her work and you can actually ride her.

I will conclude my minor rant by saying the following. People often class neglect as when a horse does not get looked after properly. Very rarely do people consider the implications of not riding a horse properly, however bad riding takes far longer to repair than an unkempt horse.

Secondly, I would move yards, because whoever is advising you at your yard is either blind/stupid or uncaring. I have 3 15 year olds on my yard, who whilst have a bad case of “wethinkweknowbetterthanyouitious” can at least be told and listen. They would also never, ever be allowed to ride their ponies like that.
 
marmalade76 said:
No, you are not too big for your horse but you obviously think you are since you've posted about this before.

If you want a bigger horse just go and buy one, but you might not find one as genuine, tollerant and hardy as the one you have now.
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Exactly!
Am I too big for my horse??? he is 16.3hh on a short day and I am 5'3 on a tall day!:D:eek:
 
Christ almighty how you lot go at this girl! She is not abusing the horse for goodness sake, she is a teenager learning!

Most of us didn't come out of the womb as perfectly formed riders who instinctively know how to correctly school a horse. Most of us could do some things better and be better riders - the fact the OP comes on here asking for advice surely is positive? She is taking some of it on board, and some more will sink in with time. Yes it would be wonderful if every single horse in Britain was ridden in perfect balance, in a snaffle, but until then, people will continue loving their horses and do the best they can based on their knowledge.

Telling the OP that she is destroying her horse and shouldn't be riding it is not helpful, and it is also rude and likely to have the opposite effect. Most riders I see at unaffiliated level or not competing are no better or no worse than this - get over yourselves.

In fact, I am going to make this a separate thread, I think some of this behaviour is disgusting.
 
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Little Flea.

Historically, people have given advice, tips, help, support, me being one of them. She has had 15 pages of advice. I even wrote out a schooling plan for her once, and said we have all been there.

Clearly, tips, advice, help and support dont work as this girl keeps coming back for more. Would you let it go on if she were at your yard? Or would you eventually react like I have just done, with what is, in honesly, a fair assesment of the two videos she posted?
 
R2R said:
I don’t think you are too big for her, but I don’t think you should be on her back.

The flatwork video is despicable and your poor mare not only looks tense, hollow, and up to her eyebrows in gadgets, but desperately unhappy.

...They would also never, ever be allowed to ride their ponies like that.
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Oh come ON! :mad: I only watched the flatwork video, as i'm no showjumper myself. What I saw was a reasonable rider riding her horse. Yes it would be better if the horse was working through from behind, but at her age I don't think I fully understood the principals of that either (probably still don't now, TBF ;)).

Yes the horse has more gadgets on than I would like, but the overall picture is not one so bad to suggest that the OP shouldn't be on her back - what a ridiculously horrible thing to say. :mad:
 
OP,
no, you are not to big for this horse.
Jumping video is actually better than some of your previous ones, but as I said before - it's the turns and approaches you need to sort out, she still gets shoved around corners and hurled at the jump.
As to jumping the same jump again and again, there is some merit in it in certain circumstances, I think it can be useful for you; just the jump needs to be smaller and the approach calmer.
Flatwork video - well, at least there is some flatwork happening... but, you are cheating in downward transitions! you let the mare just rattle to a stop as she runs out of steam:) You need to ride every transition - be it upwards or downwards - forwards, use your leg more and keep a steady hand. Also ride your corners better, again, use your leg more and your hand less - precision is everything, trust me.
It's actually much easier to ride with a single rein in a snaffle than faffing about with all them gadgets, honest:) Just wrap your legs around the horse, keep steady, even contact and she will become rounder in no time at all.
She does look tense and disengaged with her back end, at the same time hollowing and escaping above the bit with her front end.

But, over all, much better picture.
 
Erm... I don't agree with everything OP does, and don't understand why she asks for advice but doesn't seem to take it.

However, if people are complaining she doesnt know how to get her horse working in an outline, from behind etc... I'd hate to know what you thought of my riding! I don't really know how to do that either. I am still very much learning, having only recently being able to canter without having a little heart attack, and do ask for advice and CC on here with regards to my riding. Thankfully no-one has completely shot me down... yet! If I wasn't very confident, and maybe had low self-esteem, some of the comments OP has received could very well put me off riding for good.


*sits back and awaits the onslaught:o*
 
T_G you cannot compare yourself to BSja person as you are learning, you ride at a riding school and you don't have your own horse. If you had your own horse, jumped at affiliated shows and rode as you do (please don't take that personally, I mean that you look as if you are learning) people might make rude comments.

However, you will get better as you listen.
 
thelwell_girl said:
Erm... I don't agree with everything OP does, and don't understand why she asks for advice but doesn't seem to take it.

However, if people are complaining she doesnt know how to get her horse working in an outline, from behind etc... I'd hate to know what you thought of my riding! I don't really know how to do that either. I am still very much learning, having only recently being able to canter without having a little heart attack, and do ask for advice and CC on here with regards to my riding. Thankfully no-one has completely shot me down... yet! If I wasn't very confident, and maybe had low self-esteem, some of the comments OP has received could very well put me off riding for good.


*sits back and awaits the onslaught:o*
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TG, the problem here is not lack of confidence or low self-esteem - quite the opposite!
 
thelwell_girl said:
However, if people are complaining she doesnt know how to get her horse working in an outline, from behind etc... I'd hate to know what you thought of my riding! I don't really know how to do that either. I am still very much learning, having only recently being able to canter without having a little heart attack, and do ask for advice and CC on here with regards to my riding. Thankfully no-one has completely shot me down... yet! If I wasn't very confident, and maybe had low self-esteem, some of the comments OP has received could very well put me off riding for good.
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I think the problem people have with the OP is that she is generally trying to do things that the horse isnt capeable of at the moment because she is going too fast/not balanced enough ect. And this is her own horse that she trying to school..not a riding school pony!

OP - You look a LOT better than in your other videos but there is still a way to go. You really need to be schooling her over a course of jumps and over grids ( not just jumping the same fence at speed over and over and over again..this will make her bored and less likely to respond to your aids) You need to be doing exercises to try and slow her down and become more balanced in the corners.
Also when you are schooling, i think you need to practice transitions more...not just walk to canter...just doing canter transitions is not going to help your horse understand what you want from her...neither is going laps of the school in a hollow canter. Try doing a transition at each marker, this will really get thinking and get her bringing her hind legs underneath her more. Make sure she doesnt just fall into the downwards transitions either.
I know it is alot to take in a work on but you will get there!

Someone posted on here that Carl Hester reccomends doing 100 transitions in a session!
 
Can I ask, having studied the flatwork video, is she on the correct diagonal? - having read the recent thread on how to know if you are on the correct diagonal it is interesting to watch these videos.
 
Farrierlover said:
T_G you cannot compare yourself to BSja person as you are learning, you ride at a riding school and you don't have your own horse. If you had your own horse, jumped at affiliated shows and rode as you do (please don't take that personally, I mean that you look as if you are learning) people might make rude comments.

However, you will get better as you listen.
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But what kind of person would make rude comments? What would that achieve?
 
Farrierlover said:
T_G you cannot compare yourself to BSJA person as you are learning, you ride at a riding school and you don't have your own horse. If you had your own horse, jumped at affiliated shows and rode as you do (please don't take that personally, I mean that you look as if you are learning) people might make rude comments.

However, you will get better as you listen.
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Oh geez, I KNOW I am nowhere near BSJA or affiliated level! (And actually I do find that a bit hurtful, I'm not such an awful rider...)

One day, eh?

marmalade76 said:
TG, the problem here is not lack of confidence or low self-esteem - quite the opposite!
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*scuttles back to the kitchen to bake some more biscuits*
 
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BobbyMondeo said:
I think the problem people have with the OP is that she is generally trying to do things that the horse isnt capeable of at the moment because she is going too fast/not balanced enough ect. And this is her own horse that she trying to school..not a riding school pony!

OP - You look a LOT better than in your other videos but there is still a way to go. You really need to be schooling her over a course of jumps and over grids ( not just jumping the same fence at speed over and over and over again..this will make her bored and less likely to respond to your aids) You need to be doing exercises to try and slow her down and become more balanced in the corners.
Also when you are schooling, i think you need to practice transitions more...not just walk to canter...just doing canter transitions is not going to help your horse understand what you want from her...neither is going laps of the school in a hollow canter. Try doing a transition at each marker, this will really get thinking and get her bringing her hind legs underneath her more. Make sure she doesnt just fall into the downwards transitions either.
I know it is alot to take in a work on but you will get there!

Someone posted on here that Carl Hester reccomends doing 100 transitions in a session!
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I appreciate that you are trying to help, but the OP asked if she looked to big for her horse... people are unpromptedly offering their opinions and then they feel they can be extremely rude because the recipient of said advice "ignored it"...
 
I dont think you are too big / too heavy... but i will criticise your fence approaches... rushed pace, motorbike turns, quite flat over the fences.

at that height the horse would have no problem being brought to that at a steadier, more rhythmatic pace. being made to sit back up on its hocks. this would also make it easier to have more balanced, and round turns.
 
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