how much could he carry?

[caroline23]

i have a 15.2 cob gelding (one in siggy) ive heard can take a stone per hand but am not sure if this is an old wives tale, my bf is wanting to learn to ride which he will be doing on my chunkier one, but wants to progress to riding my cob as he is 'more fun' lol what is the max weight he could be to safely ride him? the 15.2 has had a man ride him before but he was quite slim and bf is more rubgy type build! it would only be 10mins in walk to start with then progress, does amount of muscle on horses back make a difference? as i need to bring cob back into proper work as he has just been pootling about last few months

 

[Littlelegs]

The maximum for a fit healthy horse is 20% of its bodyweight. That includes tack & riders clothing. Obviously will be able to carry less if horse over/ under weight, young/old, unfit, lacking muscle etc.

 

[Honey08]

He should be able to carry him, play it by ear and see how he goes on. What could affect him more is the "wanting to have fun" and not staying on the steadier horse - a lot of confident men want to canter and jump well before they're ready or balanced, which is obviously not good news for the horse. My ex was like that, and soon turned his nice grade C jumper into a stopper... So insist that he learns properly and respects the horse...

 

[caroline23]

He should be able to carry him, play it by ear and see how he goes on. What could affect him more is the "wanting to have fun" and not staying on the steadier horse - a lot of confident men want to canter and jump well before they're ready or balanced, which is obviously not good news for the horse. My ex was like that, and soon turned his nice grade C jumper into a stopper... So insist that he learns properly and respects the horse...

yep he wont be going anywhere near the 'funner' one untill he knows absolutely everything, we are looking very very far into the future here! lol was just a thought incase it is a possibilty, will have to get a weight tape!

 

[Wagtail]

The stone per hand rule is a load of rubbish, otherwise 10 hand ponies would be able to carry ten stone! Even the slightly built ones. Weight carrying ability depends on so many things. Age and conformation of the horse are very important, as well as the amount of bone a horse has. If your cob is built really well with very few conformational faults, nice short cannons, short strong back, good width of loins, then I would expect his healthy weight to be around 550 kg. He should be able to carry up to around 16 - 17 stone including tack. However, I personally would not want to put much more than 15 stone on him including tack. Less if the rider is a biginner.