How many adults riding smallish ponies?

I'm 5ft10 and my pony is 12-12.2hh and we have so much fun. Yeah I'd probably look better on a 16hh TB but who cares when my pony and I have a great time? She's very cheap to keep (free field helps I guess:P) and lives out in her own fur all the time.
 
Me (5'7) and my 13.3hh boy (this was my second ride on him last year) :

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He's 4 this year so hoping I can squeeze a last few inches out of him, if not we'll just see how we go. I feel fine on him but pictures make me feel uneasy. He was an impulse buy, said the minimum height I'd ever have again was 15hh but I love him to bits!
 
Another Icelandic addict here! I'm 5ft 11, 10.5 stone and have 3 Iceys. They carry me with no problem at all. Wouldn't go back to any other breed now.
 
Been shopping in the snow - so only just got back. Thank everyone for all your wonderful posts. It is SO heartening to hear that I'm not alone in being totally addicted to ponies. You are all such committed pony people it is really lovely but PLEASE can we have more pics of you on your ponies.

By the way it is amazing how honest you have been about your weight, as well as height - so inspiring to those who don't have perfect figures. I'm not putting my weight on here though!!!!
 
5ft 3, just over 10st, very much the wrong side of 40 and have never had a horse, current riding ponies are 13.3hh & 14.2hh New Forests plus 12.2hh Welsh but i've only ever walked on him as i'm too heavy for him.

It's never occurred to me to buy a horse at all, i don't feel the need to jump 4ft courses and my ponies do everything i want them to, SJ, XC, Endurance, Stressage, Showing and Gymkhana, Hacking, a bit of everything they all do well.
 
Hey

I have got a 13.2hh Arab x Welsh, who I had on loan when I was 14...she was taken back when I was 20 and I bought her when I was 22, now owned her for 2 years. I am 5ft2" and weigh around 8 - 8 1/2 stone.
Think I look a little big on her and someone horsey I work with told me I was well to big/heavy for her but went on net and apparently she should carry up to 12 stone I think.... should be able to carry 20%of their body weight, I found on the net. When he said it, it upset me a bit because I fought my corner but he was firm and said no I was too big. Vet, riding instructors etc etc have never said I am too big. And she has jumped 3ft3" with me so I can't be weighing her down that much!!!

She was off work this autumn with a torn tendon and I rode my uncle's 16.2hh in the meantime. Missed little pony so much, love being able to jump on from he floor, reach her back with ease, personality, and she just so cute!!!! Sometimes feel wary people are looking at me thinking I'm too big. She is a very very lazy pony though, so no bombing about like a lot of them do!!! We got a welsh sec A at the yard and she is even cuter!!
 
I am 5ft7 & 10 stone I have a 14.2 heinz57 & a 13.3 haffy. Plan to compete 14.2 sj, xc & fun ride & my haffy I just have fun on jumping, fun rides etc.

On my 14.2
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& on my haffy
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metalmare said:
HaffiesRock - I love your pony and I'm rather jealous of your 10 pound a week grazing; I'm paying 25 pounds a week for grazing with no facilities.
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Ive just moved here. Its a friend of a friends place. Has a sand school, brilliant fields, excellent off road hacking and a local show nearby. YO feeds and waters in the morning and checks on them so I only have to make one trip a day. She also feeds in the evening twice a week while I go to zumba! I feel very lucky :D
 
Yep. I agree. Its ponies for me from now on. I'm 5ft 7, 10 stones and ride a 14.2 highland. We do dressage and hope to move up to novice this year. Do a bit of jumping - pony loves it but not my thing tbh, but hack, leisure rides, a bit of m&m showing in the summer and generally have lots of fun. Oh, and he lives on fresh air and has never been shod so def wins on economy too!
 
I'm 5ft4" and ride everything from Shetlands to 17.2hh tb's.

I have 3 ridden shetlands standing at 10.2hh. One at 10hh.
I have a 12.2hh dartmoor.
A 13.2hh Fell.
I have a 14hh Welsh D that is due to be broken in shortly when the snow disappears.
Going up the scale again I have a 15.2hh TB exracer who looks and behaves more like a connie :D
A 16hh exracer.
A 17hh Exracer.
And a 17.2hh exracer.

I look big on the shetlands but if I could find decent riders for them then they wouldn't have to put up with me :D My darty is built like the proverbial brick outhouse. My fell is probably my most optimum size though we shall see how the D turns out.

10.2hh Shetland
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12.2hh Darty
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13.2hh Fell
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17.2hh TB :D

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MileAMinute said:
Me (5'7) and my 13.3hh boy (this was my second ride on him last year) :

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He's 4 this year so hoping I can squeeze a last few inches out of him, if not we'll just see how we go. I feel fine on him but pictures make me feel uneasy. He was an impulse buy, said the minimum height I'd ever have again was 15hh but I love him to bits!
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Your boy is gorgeous- you look fine on him.
 
I'm 5'8" and my fell is 13.2hh. He's my first horse and I've had him 3 years. He's a cool dude and full (read, sometimes a little too full!!) of attitude!

Not sure about them being any cheaper to keep though - at the end of last year I had the physio, the vet and the dentist in quick succession followed now by 3 months of saddle buying stress! Plus mine is rugged up in fly rugs in the summer and I spend all summer stressing about his weight and moving fencing - low maintenance I think not! The point to pointers I used to ride were lower maintenance!

I love my fell but I don't like it when people go on about ponies being better or getting a chip on their shoulder about it. I'm a bit of a closet tb fan after spending a year playing with point to pointers and have always had a weak spot for ISHs as well. Mainly it's about the horse and the attitude, I fell completely in love with a tb mare but the owner wouldn't sell - she has the identical attitude to life as my fell - stubborn, so maybe I go for a certain type!

This is us:
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Smallest I've ridden is a 13.2hh Welshie and I'm 5ft 1 and weigh 7 stone :) I'm still looking for my own horse and am only looking at native types as I want something relatively cheap and hardy to keep!
 
im 5'6" and weigh about 9.5st at the moment, my girl is 13.2hh (hoping she will grow a bit as just turning 4)
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and this is me on my old 12.2hh pony (weighed about 8st here)
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I have a 13.3 Fjord and loan a 13.2 Highland. I'm 5'7" and about 10 stone, the highland could carry much bigger than me.

My Fjord is a low level all rounder, we've done horseball, Trec, pleasure rides, dressage and xc. This is us at a mini HT last year.

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Although I have ridden a shetland and I used to ride an 11.2 arab x welsh I never really considered that my old welsh sec a colt would be much of a ridden prospect for me, although my trimmer always said he would be. But now, having seen some of the above photos, I think he would have been a cracking little ridden pony for myself. I almost feel over-horsed on my 14hh now :-D
 
Now this is a really really bad thread..... once my leg is behaving I was on a weight target of back down to 10 st 7ish with 9st 10 by the end of the year....... now i am thinking 9st 10 is the target..... then i can ride the 12.2. welshie....

you lot are bad bad people ! :D
 
metalmare said:
Neburu: where did you get your bridle out of interest? I haven't seen one quite like it. He's going very sweetly in it.
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I got mine from Your Horse Live, it's an Orbitless bridle (you basically buy the noseband piece and fit to any bridle) you can find their page on google.

He does go extremely well in it, I was very surprised how well, as that was taken of him wearing it for the first time.
 
I'm 5.7ft, just over 9 stone, but trying to get back to 8.5 so I can back the smaller ponies. I ride anything from 13hh Welsh x's up to 17.2hh tbs. Regularly hunt a 14hh Connie who goes all day, though I do feel more at home on my 16.3- I have long legs! You cannot beat a pony, go anywhere, do anything and less of a worry than a horse! and much more of a sense of humour :D
 
Great photos everyone and plenty of humour which comes from riding ponies. No one can take themselves seriously on a pony - they just won't let you. Whenever we met unpleasant, know it all riders at shows or out hunting (they were usually women) my husband used to say '...what she needs is a fell pony - that would put her in her place.'

I also used to hunt a 15 hand welsh cob that was a lot braver than I was. One day out hunting with the Crawley and Horsham this dreadful woman, riding something that had won at the Dublin show, said 'Why don't you buy yourself a proper horse?' as we were sailing over a 3'9 tiger trap.

About an hour later we came round again to the same jump. She was still there - as the perfect horse had point blank refused to jump it! 'Why don't you buy yourself a proper hunter' I yelled as we cleared it for the second time. My cob had been used for driving and had barely been ridden at all. At 8 years old I taught him to jump and then he taught me how to REALLY jump.

Never once have I yearned for the bigger horse that my husband wanted to buy me when we were first married and I must say over the years although he was very fond of his eventers and his show hunter it is always the ponies we have lost that he truly misses.
 
14.2 hh welsh cob I weigh 12.5 stone and I'm 5ft 4. He is still growing and I am steadily shrinking inwards. We should meet on the middle somewhere lol
 
I'm 5'0 currently 8 stone (pregnant!) and ride a 13.2hh. Love my pony, although jumping is slightly scary cos of the lack of neck!!
 
this thread is certainly uplifiting! I'm 5'4'' currently with a 16.2 TB but contemplating buying number 2. Having read your thread and currently 10st 4, I can start looking for a pony, as I was worried I was too big/heavy. Had my eye on a fjord one day, or a coblet! Won't be too self-conscious when the time comes, used to ride ponies all the time but seem to have put on weight since then!
 
caramel said:
this thread is certainly uplifiting! I'm 5'4'' currently with a 16.2 TB but contemplating buying number 2. Having read your thread and currently 10st 4, I can start looking for a pony, as I was worried I was too big/heavy. Had my eye on a fjord one day, or a coblet! Won't be too self-conscious when the time comes, used to ride ponies all the time but seem to have put on weight since then!
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I ride out with my friend on her TB and it's always the TB that gets tired before my little squirt. My Icelandic can also outwalk anything much to big horse riders annoyance when they expect him not to be able to keep up with something with legs twice as long as his. :D
 
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