Welshie95
Well-Known Member
For those of you who haven't read my last thread, my horse has had 15 months off due to bilateral patellar tendonitis and has been walking in hand on the flat and up hills in straight lines for the past 7 weeks with a week off due to a puncture wound (panics under long reins so just in loose elastic reins/bungee and a tail bandage round his hindquarters).
Well I got on! We pottered around the arena for 10 minutes just to have a feel with the soft underneath in case he decided he was feeling frisky, but he behaved beautifully
I was over the moon to just sit in the saddle and just stand there really! Unfortunately he felt exactly the same as when his legs weren't right, but as I was on my own I couldn't do much to check, so a friend came back with me another day and watched from behind, his left hind turns out and doesn't track straight (as it did last year which is what started the lameness investigation) making his back end permanently swinging to the rights. It was more pronounced on the surface than on grass and even less so on concrete, which is to be expected really.
I have a feeling that this could be exasperated by the extra weight on his back, as he is perfectly straight bar slight toeing out on a surface and concrete in just tack (english leather saddle so not lightweight by any means), so I will get a smaller rider on top this week to see the difference (I have videos of when I was on him to compare).
So this leads me to my question: What percentage of the horses body weight do you think is acceptable for a rider to weigh? I am currently just under 15% which I am working on decreasing, more so now if it turns out that it's me who is causing him to struggle. If it does turn out to be my weight I will obviously not get on, we will carry on with strengthening exercises and see about maybe finding a very sensible lightweight sharer who wants to hack a couple of days a week and continue the strengthening work and see where we are at next May when I graduate and come home...
Well I got on! We pottered around the arena for 10 minutes just to have a feel with the soft underneath in case he decided he was feeling frisky, but he behaved beautifully
I was over the moon to just sit in the saddle and just stand there really! Unfortunately he felt exactly the same as when his legs weren't right, but as I was on my own I couldn't do much to check, so a friend came back with me another day and watched from behind, his left hind turns out and doesn't track straight (as it did last year which is what started the lameness investigation) making his back end permanently swinging to the rights. It was more pronounced on the surface than on grass and even less so on concrete, which is to be expected really.I have a feeling that this could be exasperated by the extra weight on his back, as he is perfectly straight bar slight toeing out on a surface and concrete in just tack (english leather saddle so not lightweight by any means), so I will get a smaller rider on top this week to see the difference (I have videos of when I was on him to compare).
So this leads me to my question: What percentage of the horses body weight do you think is acceptable for a rider to weigh? I am currently just under 15% which I am working on decreasing, more so now if it turns out that it's me who is causing him to struggle. If it does turn out to be my weight I will obviously not get on, we will carry on with strengthening exercises and see about maybe finding a very sensible lightweight sharer who wants to hack a couple of days a week and continue the strengthening work and see where we are at next May when I graduate and come home...
