How many adults riding smallish ponies?

I'm 5'1 and weigh 8.5 stone and I have a 11.2hh pony.

Here you can see how tall I am next him.
zxdfvasdc_zpsc6f5162f.png


Riding him
untitled2_zps9b8d0dcb.png

Lovely pony!
 
I am just under 5ft7 and my horse is 14.1. I'm not sure she would like to be called a pony as she is a Paint Horse (coloured quarter horse). I think she is really just a horse with short legs, she is fairly serious although I have lots of fun on her and she loves jumping. I also ride my daughters 13.1 a bit. She is a cheeky fun pony :). I would never go back to having a big horse now, I love them this size.

14.1. She is only 4 and has a lot of muscling up to do.
aa32f91282e4e3e2683944ce7d2f3d14.jpg


13.1. I am trying to get a competent rider to compete/PC her but cannot get anyone suitable which is a real shame as she is such a great pony for a good rider.
4DCAE5DB-D8AF-477C-A540-AEAB1BF06A1E-551-000000F10AD65BFF.jpg
 
Caramel - go for it! You are not too heavy. My husband sometimes used to take over my Waverhead fell gelding out hunting when I had had enough of having my arms pulled out and he weighed over 12 stone. He didn't do it very often though as he was once humiliated by overtaking the whole field and the master at full gallop up an incredibly steep hill, disappearing into the mist, much to everyone's amusement.

When I got my cob a friend sometimes took him out and again, in spite of her being at least 11 stone he would go all day. That pony was bottomless and went on well into his twenties by which time I was over 13 stone. He would still go for hours and was only retired because of my back - not his.
 
I am 5'1 & about 8 1/2 stone, I used to compete a 13hh Welsh sec c successfully up to medium dressage, we also evented, hunted & sj, then had a 13.3 & we dressaged to elementary & evented. Now have a 14.2 ISH & currently BS at BN, we are aiming to move up to Disco this summer meaning we can go to Hickstead in September for the 1m open classes, eventually we are aiming for NC, so to all of you good luck, enjoy your ponies & do what you want to do.
 
I am 5ft5 weigh around 8.5 stone and regularly ride 12.2/13.2s but mostly native types. The 12.2s i do very little on as i don't feel comfortable but the slightly bigger chunky ones i do everything with, i currently ride a 13hh welshie and i don't even look big on her :0
 
I'm 5ft3 and although my horse isn't a pony I ride my bosses carriage driving ponies.

She has 3 section c's at 13.2 and also 2 section a's at 11hands although they are now retired.

We school, do polework and hack. Trevor loves cantering around the woods and pops little fences.

She likes me to ride them as it helps with the driving. They also compete bhdta.
 
I love this thread. I'm thinking I may be about to foster daughters 14.3 and have thought I may look too big but all this proves at 5'3 ill be absolutely fine :)
 
The paradox is that children 'outgrow' ponies and are encouraged to migrate to horses, sometimes with disastrous results, and yet middle aged or elderly people are often looking for a pony to ride as they are usually safer and (most important for stiff joints) lower to the ground.
 
My highland carries all sorts of people from my 2 year old great niece at about 2 stone to my 6 ft 4in 16 stone friend easily She is roughly 13.2. She is the best pony in the world and has a temperament to die for easy and safe for beginners and a fun ride winning showjumping and dressage for a good rider likes nothing better than to race the tb on the yard and she usually wins
Alaska020.jpg

with her tiny 8 year old jockey
With a baby
may_13_07_016.jpg
 
I'm 5ft9 and i ride a 14.2hh gypsy cob and i weigh around 13 stone. She copes fine with me. I also ride my 15.1hh and my 16.2hh but i prefer the 14.2hh. I look fine on her as she is a heavyweight cob and takes my leg up well :).
 
Technically a horse, but this is my riding mare (bay with blaze) 14h (on tiptoes) purebred arabian of the stick insect variety, legs like twigs and a huge attitude and zest for life. She is the best trail horse I have ever had, she's 22/23 now. We suit each other very well, I am 5'2" on tiptoes and 120lbs on a good day, I prefer a horse I can actually see over the back of :D

October2012074_zps4c3f067b.jpg


Breedy people : http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/baikala+bey
 
Last edited:
Windand rain - I love the pics of your highland. I am toying with the idea of buying a highland but don't know a huge amount about them. Your little mare is such a great advert for the breed. The fact that she is only 13.2 and carries 16 stone is amazing. Does she carry this weight just a slow paces or can she work in a faster mode with your friend on board?
 
Windand rain - I love the pics of your highland. I am toying with the idea of buying a highland but don't know a huge amount about them. Your little mare is such a great advert for the breed. The fact that she is only 13.2 and carries 16 stone is amazing. Does she carry this weight just a slow paces or can she work in a faster mode with your friend on board?

My pony has carried this and is able to work fast etc.... Very balanced rider and not that often!

Highlands are great! I am 5 ft 7 and similar build to a hipo and yet my 14.2 carries me well and I do not look huge on a 13.3 hipo of my mums when I have to jump on it as its a lazy little ...
 
Mu best friend who is 42 has a 14.2 connie cross. He is so safe and all she want to do is hack. Her daughters share him and jump him. He lives out is a good doer and can be left for 3 weeks or more. They have so much fun and he is cheap. never sick or sorry!
 
This is my 14.2 connie

Finishing his last ht last season (promise it's full up 90, he just makes every thing look small)
BF111F8A-C8F4-4FF6-8606-C6892F31E72F-42345-00000C259519E39B.jpg


Image4.jpg


0E276A5A-4402-4987-8F73-0E8C653810E8-42345-00000C284154CC4F.jpg


CB5C0C42-7BAF-4E3D-A583-BB0D0151A2D8-42345-00000C284628FFC1.jpg


Who needs a horse when a pony can do all that?! :D

I also ride an 11.1 welshy an 11.2 welshy and a 12hh Dartmoor regularly, all carry me fine.
 
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'll look those up... thank you :-)
 
Given that ponies are so much more fun, are hardy and cheaper to keep and generally have a brain I do wonder how many adults are now turning to ponies as their main mount.

Find the generalisations rather amusing, so now all ponies are 'more' fun, hardier, cheaper to keep and more intelligent than all horses?! What happened to them being individuals?

Some cracking ponies on here :D I ride everything from 11.2 (though prefer 12.2. as an absolute minimum) but mostly the ponies I ride as they are proving too much for their little people. Have worked with JA ponies and as a breaking rider on a dartmoor stud too.

I'm not bothered what size a horse is if I get on with it and it does the job I want to do :) Have never had any issues, but then as shown by this thread, snobbery works both ways!
 
I'm 5ft 2in and 11 1/2 stone. My ponies are a 14hh Connemara x Cob and she's a chunky girl and a 15hh Connemara x TB, Connie build with tb attutiude/hyperness both have no trouble carrying me :D
 
This is Sally, 14.1hh Haflinger. I am 32 and 5'4".
228335_10150163746462991_525712990_6614073_5589999_n-1.jpg
222520_10150163747342991_525712990_6614081_6193794_n.jpg
247084_10150180081287991_525712990_6744481_5978693_n.jpg
Photoc2.jpg

And this is Amber, my first pony who I had from the age of 12 until she was PTS when I was 27
070207132247.jpg
070207131737-1.jpg
070210200144.jpg
5.jpg

Between Amber and Sally I had a 15hh and a 16.1, although I never felt so happy as with a pony which is why I now have Sally. She is so much like Amber in so many ways but when I first lost Amber, I really didn't want another that was so similar, however, its exactly what I needed all along.
And just so he isn't left out, here is Teddy, a 10.2 British Spotted Pony (I obviously dont ride him lol)
20120212_081712.jpg
DSCF0012.jpg
 
Last edited:
I have and ride a 13.2hh British riding pony, im way too long for her at 5'7"and look a bit silly but at 9 stone she carries me comfortably, so i just dont care. Just get a few weird looks from the anti pony squishers round here lol :D:D

228818_10150269062777636_693632635_7914216_832905_n-1_zps21465cae.jpg

2012-07-08181836_zpsae80f37a.jpg

2012-07-08181823_zps68367773.jpg

205129_10150149695032636_693632635_6809792_2408213_n-1_zpsa0c483de.jpg
 
Aggghhhh the screen has been stretched!!

I ride mostly ponies now, some may remember the cracking little welshie I had in last year to rehome, I think she's 11.1hh:
picture.php

This one I bought at the sales as a very wild 13.1hh feral nf mare, she's now in a show jump home being ridden by someone more suited to her size:
picture.php

Annnd this is Asbo, forest bred nf pony standing at a big 14.2hh
picture.php

Oh and his full sister Star, who is 13.3hh at the moment. She'll be 5 this June so still got a little growing to do.
picture.php
 
I'm 33, 5'5 and 9.5st with a 14.2 but until a few yrs ago id happily go out for the day on my 13.2 C x arab. I still would if he was closer and a bit younger (hes in his 20s now and getting a little bit stiff).

Last yr i did loads with a friends 12.2 sec c who was built like a tank and a proper whizzy mga pony. He was wide enough that i didnt look completely ridiculous and soooo much fun!!
 
Mine isn't exactly tiny heightwise, he's 14hh. But he is a tiny build (spanish x welsh b), I can almost touch my fingers together around his cannon bones! I'm 5'4''ish and im glad he is no bigger as he would probably have scared me with some of his antics in the past. He needs all 8.5 stone of me to squash him into submission...and even then it doesn't work very well!
2012-08-1909-46-54-IMG_6092.jpg

2012-09-1616-36-03-IMG_0733_zps25779972.jpg

(and dafthoss, that jump looks huge...im pretty sure my pony could do it one day, but im pretty sure I couldn't!)
 
Find the generalisations rather amusing, so now all ponies are 'more' fun, hardier, cheaper to keep and more intelligent than all horses?! What happened to them being individuals?

Not necessarily, but surefootedness , self-reliance and hardiness are some of the first things I want . I know that living in a herd on a mountain somewhere produces that so I'll always buy something that has had that sort of upbringing.
 
Top