Midlands Riding Lessons

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Montana Man

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Hi, I'm looking for a bit of advice and help here please. I'm seriously interested in riding lessons within the West Midlands region. I'm an adult male of 58 years old, 6' 3" tall, well built and weigh 18st. Most of the Riding websites I have looked at / enquired from have weight restrictions which would exclude me. Is there anywhere in the West Midands area that would be able to help me out here please?
 
Hello, sadly you'll struggle to find a centre that has horses suitable for higher weight limits. Depending on where exactly you are, would you consider traveling a bit further? Ingestre which is Stafford way may well have horses suitable as it's one of the last remaining training centres for all levels and they tend to be better horsed :)
 
Hi Teapot many thanks for your response...............much appreciated..................yes I would be prepared to travel a bit to get this done.............do oyu know the name of the Riding School there and I can reach out to them? Thanks again.
 
teapot said:
Hello, sadly you'll struggle to find a centre that has horses suitable for higher weight limits. Depending on where exactly you are, would you consider traveling a bit further? Ingestre which is Stafford way may well have horses suitable as it's one of the last remaining training centres for all levels and they tend to be better horsed :)
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Hi Teapot many thanks for your response...............much appreciated..................yes I would be prepared to travel a bit to get this done.............do you know the name of the Riding School there and I can reach out to them? Thanks again.
 
teapot said:
Looks like their website is down at the moment but facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/p/Ingestre-Stables-100063692103523/

If they can't help, I'd be surprised if they didn't know of somewhere that can, but I'm afraid you won't be spoilt for choice.
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Yes I fear that is the case but at least you have given me some hope and a glimmer of light at the end of a dark tunnel :) thanks very much for this assistance 👍
 
Probably too far to go regularly but there another HHO member in a similar situation who goes for riding breaks in Cumbria. The website is down today so I didn't find their weight limit. It's called Cumbrian Heavy horses.

Home - Cumbria Heavy Horses

An Award Winning business run - since conception back in 1997 - by Annie Rose, whose passion for these magnificent giants remains unabated!
www.cumbrianheavyhorses.com www.cumbrianheavyhorses.com



(I looked up mechanical horse lessons too but they mostly seem to have a 16 stone limit.)

Hope you find somewhere.
 
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This is the other person I was thinking of. He's not in your area but there's quite a lot of advice on the thread.

I need encouragement

Hi guys. I have always been interested in horses but never got a chance to ride until last autumn. I spent a week learning as much as I could on a centre based holiday and loved every second of it. I'm a 27 year old man and really interested in continuing this sport but I feel like there are a...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk
 
Goldie's mum said:
This is the other person I was thinking of. He's not in your area but there's quite a lot of advice on the thread.

I need encouragement

Hi guys. I have always been interested in horses but never got a chance to ride until last autumn. I spent a week learning as much as I could on a centre based holiday and loved every second of it. I'm a 27 year old man and really interested in continuing this sport but I feel like there are a...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk
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Hi Goldie's Mum thank you so much for reaching out to me on this, I really appreciate your advice and help here. I have read that other thread and it has been helpful to some extent. Unfortunately Cumbria is quite a distance away so it's not an option I could pursue on a regular basis but perhaps once or twice when time / work permits. Was unaware of the mechanical horse option until you mentioned it and I will follow up on that one and see what happens. Will keep on persevering for now and try to explore and exhaust as many options and suggestions as I can with the hope (fingers and toes crossed) that one comes good for me in the not too distant future............ where there's a will there's a way 😉, at least that's what they say. Thanks again 👍👏
 
Please don’t take this the wrong way but is losing weight an option? 18 stone is a lot to ask a horse to carry especially when you’re starting out and less balanced. Most of the men in my family are all very tall (well over 6’3”) and weigh much less than 18 stone so it’s not a given that tall equals heavy. I realise there may well be reasons why losing weight would be difficult but it sounds like you really want to ride and being lighter would open up many more options.
 
No where that I know of with a weight of even 16 stone. Racewood riding simulators (the market leader) have a manufacturer set rider weight limit of 16 stone. The weight limits are dressed for riding inc boots and helmet, btw, so if your unclothed weight is 18 stone then that’s 19 stone. You can omit the helmet for the simulators unless you care to wear one, most people don’t.

Cumbrian Heavy Horses has a sliding weight limit according to rider height but it’s a beggar to find out the information on line about it. They reckon that a 6ft rider weighing 15 stone will be more balanced and less likely to fall off than a 5ft rider weighing 15 stone. Their top limit is maybe 16 stone, though, if that, and the owner stated that she will weigh riders who rock up who have been less than forthright about their weight when booking.

ETA The place where I ride has had to introduce discrete rider weight checks after some of their lovely horses got sore backs needing time off from unbalanced overly heavy riders. Their limit is 15 stone dressed for riding, and that’s just the one horse rated to 15 stone, an 18hh Shire cross, with a number of 16.2hh plus horses rated at 14.0/14.5 stone.
 
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Muddy unicorn said:
Please don’t take this the wrong way but is losing weight an option? 18 stone is a lot to ask a horse to carry especially when you’re starting out and less balanced. Most of the men in my family are all very tall (well over 6’3”) and weigh much less than 18 stone so it’s not a given that tall equals heavy. I realise there may well be reasons why losing weight would be difficult but it sounds like you really want to ride and being lighter would open up many more options.
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Hi Muddy Unicorn, thank you for your message and no offence taken...............I am trying to lose some weight which will hopefully help..............I'm not necessarily a complete beginner either...................over the past say 5 years or so I did have lessons and I would like to think I ma balanced in the saddle and have good control of the horse but only at walking pace................we were to commence on the trot but they sadly folded. Anyway I will still keep searching. Thank you.
 
Tiddlypom said:
No where that I know of with a weight of even 16 stone. Racewood riding simulators (the market leader) have a manufacturer set rider weight limit of 16 stone. The weight limits are dressed for riding inc boots and helmet, btw, so if your unclothed weight is 18 stone then that’s 19 stone. You can omit the helmet for the simulators unless you care to wear one, most people don’t.

Cumbrian Heavy Horses has a sliding weight limit according to rider height but it’s a beggar to find out the information on line about it. They reckon that a 6ft rider weighing 15 stone will be more balanced and less likely to fall off than a 5ft rider weighing 15 stone. Their top limit is maybe 16 stone, though, if that, and the owner stated that she will weigh riders who rock up who have been less than forthright about their weight when booking.

ETA The place where I ride has had to introduce discrete rider weight checks after some of their lovely horses got sore backs needing time off from unbalanced overly heavy riders. Their limit is 15 stone dressed for riding, and that’s just the one horse rated to 15 stone, an 18hh Shire cross, with a number of 16.2hh plus horses rated at 14.0/14.5 stone.
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Hi Tiddlypom thank you for your message. I'm glad you pointed this out to me as I wasn't aware of this. I hear what you say about owners and weighing etc which I get and understand. However, surely there must be an opening in the market somewhere for someone to cater for the heavier rider?? Even if this meant paying a slight premium as well perhaps? Not all of us are Jockeys :)
 
Suppose I run a riding school.
If a rider wants to go reasonably fast and/or learn to jump, not just go for a walk around, they need to be 15% or less of the horse's fit healthy weight including all tack, clothes, hat etc that it's also carrying.
The smallest horse to carry 18 stone plus a light saddle etc would be 900Kg & there aren't many that big. They cost a lot to buy; I can't put anyone heavy on it until it's mature so I have to keep/train it & wait until it's 7 or so before there's any income coming back. My eyes are watering just thinking how much it would cost to feed and worm that horse until it's 7. Plus the bigger the horse the bigger the rugs, vet bills, farriery bill. Then I still only have one! I still have to turn away larger couples who want to ride together, cancel if my big horse loses a shoe etc at the last moment, get a bad time from people who have been creative with their weight when they booked.

Slight premium is not going to tempt me down that route if I can teach children on small ponies & have so much demand that there's a waiting list to start lessons.
 
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You might find this thread useful.

Good horse breed for heavy novice rider?

Hi All, My first post as I am anxious to get back in the saddle after not riding for a while and was extremely keen to introduce my partner to horseriding..... but he trains (currently weighing in at 17stone plus) and I am having difficulty finding a place willing to offer him lessons (even...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk
 
Goldie's mum said:
Suppose I run a riding school.
If a rider wants to go reasonably fast and/or learn to jump, not just go for a walk around, they need to be 15% or less of the horse's fit healthy weight including all tack, clothes, hat etc that it's also carrying.
The smallest horse to carry 18 stone plus a light saddle etc would be 900Kg & there aren't many that big. They cost a lot to buy; I can't put anyone heavy on it until it's mature so I have to keep/train it & wait until it's 7 or so before there's any income coming back. My eyes are watering just thinking how much it would cost to feed and worm that horse until it's 7. Plus the bigger the horse the bigger the rugs, vet bills, farriery bill. Then I still only have one! I still have to turn away larger couples who want to ride together, cancel if my big horse loses a shoe etc at the last moment, get a bad time from people who have been creative with their weight when they booked.

Slight premium is not going to tempt me down that route if I can teach children on small ponies & have so much demand that there's a waiting list to start lessons.
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Hi Goldie's Mum...................mmmmm you are obviously a lot more knowledgeable about all of this than me........................perhaps the Business Case doesn't stack up then for my suggestion but that's fine...................I was only looking at it from the perspective of the end user i.e. me on a riding lesson...........let's consign that idea to the B1N file then so.
 
Goldie's mum said:
You might find this thread useful.

Good horse breed for heavy novice rider?

Hi All, My first post as I am anxious to get back in the saddle after not riding for a while and was extremely keen to introduce my partner to horseriding..... but he trains (currently weighing in at 17stone plus) and I am having difficulty finding a place willing to offer him lessons (even...
forums.horseandhound.co.uk forums.horseandhound.co.uk
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Thanks Goldie's Mum, a useful thread to read.............seems like I'm not on my own then :) that thread does seem to focus on the purchase of a particular breed etc to carry the partner's weight.....................that's certainly not an option for me...................it's just the next level of lessons that I'm after but it does seem like a chicken and egg situation. Thanks.
 
Montana Man said:
Hi Tiddlypom thank you for your message. I'm glad you pointed this out to me as I wasn't aware of this. I hear what you say about owners and weighing etc which I get and understand. However, surely there must be an opening in the market somewhere for someone to cater for the heavier rider?? Even if this meant paying a slight premium as well perhaps? Not all of us are Jockeys :)
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Bigger the horse - more food in, more poo out, bigger rugs which tend to cost more as harder to find, plus more likely to have customised tack too. You’ve got to have staff happy to handle big horses, and the workload of said horse - expensive to keep if they’re only doing two lessons a week. Then you need at least two more because of the lost a shoe, off work situations. It’s all part of the decision making.

That said I know where I was training didn’t have an upper limit and had a number of bigger guys riding because of the training contracts they had.


The other option is why not google hunt hirelings local to you and see if any offer lesson set ups - I can think of a couple down south who do this!
 
Montana Man said:
Hi Tiddlypom thank you for your message. I'm glad you pointed this out to me as I wasn't aware of this. I hear what you say about owners and weighing etc which I get and understand. However, surely there must be an opening in the market somewhere for someone to cater for the heavier rider?? Even if this meant paying a slight premium as well perhaps? Not all of us are Jockeys :)
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It's less a business issue than a welfare issue. 18 stone - no matter if it muscle, fat, bone - is a lot to place on the back of a living animal.

I knew the place Tiddlypom is referring to 30 years ago and in the intervening decades they have brought on board much larger horses to accommodate heavier riders. But there is a limit for the welfare of their horses.
 
SEL said:
It's less a business issue than a welfare issue. 18 stone - no matter if it muscle, fat, bone - is a lot to place on the back of a living animal.

I knew the place Tiddlypom is referring to 30 years ago and in the intervening decades they have brought on board much larger horses to accommodate heavier riders. But there is a limit for the welfare of their horses.
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Thanks Sel for your message...........yep, also get the welfare side of things as well and I wouldn't want to hurt a horse or indeed any animal.............maybe I'll just let this go then.
 
As mentioned up thread, as a rough guideline the limit for weight carrying (total of rider plus kit plus tack) was around 20% of a healthy (ie not overweight) horse’s weight. Current guidance is that percentage is now being revised downwards now eg towards 15%.

I feel for you in your position.
I wonder if you would be interested in carriage driving lessons as an alternative, OP?
 
Reacher said:
As mentioned up thread, as a rough guideline the limit for weight carrying (total of rider plus kit plus tack) was around 20% of a healthy (ie not overweight) horse’s weight. Current guidance is that percentage is now being revised downwards now eg towards 15%.

I feel for you in your position.
I wonder if you would be interested in carriage driving lessons as an alternative, OP?
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Hi Reacher, thank you for your message, appreciate that. Looks like that initial glimmer of light at the end of a long dark tunnel is fading quickly 😧. Thanks also for your invitation to take up carriage driving lessons and although it is a kind gesture which I appreciate, it is not something I am interested in. Thanks.
 
I'm a saddle fitter and just want to emphasise that the industry is trying to be truly horse centred, and over the years that actually means changes.

Horses are REALLY poorly "designed" for us to ride them, way more than we have perhaps realised or acknowledged. As a saddle fitter my job can only ever be mitigation, there is no way to help a horse go better with a rider "directing" him/her than moving at liberty. Many of the signs of a horse's body being compromised are subtle and we've spent decades missing them. The old masters (mostly dead sadly!) were almost certainly better, we've lost our way, and now are trying, with varying degrees of success, to try and do better based on a more scientific approach.

HOW the rider is loaded onto the horse's back makes a huge difference but that depends on how well you've been trained, and sadly, but understandably, many riding schools teach "aiding" - ie to turn right do this - without as much emphasis on balance, harmony, flow and understanding the nature of the horse and how to ride/train it. So, not only will you not get to quite that level where we can load you better, but you'll be riding horses without a saddle that suits you, that puts more strain on the horse.

So, ultimately, your weight is probably too much for any horse, really. The 900kg horses are WIIIIDE and you'd probably not want to ride them anyway. When our legs are pushed that wide it's likely we'd sit poorly and have a negative impact on them when they carry us. Some riders of your weight will ride, for sure. Some may load the horse really well, manage their posture and movement really well, prepare them really well to carry the rider, and limit their riding to shorter sessions. They'll get away with it. Others won't do all of that, will "just ride", and will gradually break their horse. But a photo of a big, tall man on a horse won't tell you which of these they are, and they're much more likely to be in the latter category.

Hope that starts to explain a bit more of the horse centred, "social licence" side of things which is becoming more and more important.
 
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Tiddlypom said:
No where that I know of with a weight of even 16 stone. Racewood riding simulators (the market leader) have a manufacturer set rider weight limit of 16 stone. The weight limits are dressed for riding inc boots and helmet, btw, so if your unclothed weight is 18 stone then that’s 19 stone. You can omit the helmet for the simulators unless you care to wear one, most people don’t.
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Interestingly, Knights of Middle England list their their weight limit as 16 stone. Centre of Horseback Combat is 15stone - wonder whether those are with kit or without 🤔


(and just to clarify absolutely do get the welfare issue even though my posts don't directly mention it - it was never easy to turn people away, especially kids, who were over our 13 stone limit)
 
bankfarmequestrian.co.uk

Activities & Lessons - Bank Farm Equestrian

All the horses are quality steeds that are either currently competing in a variety of disciplines or have done in the past. Here at Bank Farm Equestrian we pride ourselves on horses that are a far cry from the nose to tail dobbin therefore giving you a true sense of…
bankfarmequestrian.co.uk bankfarmequestrian.co.uk

This licensed premises has an 18st limit and a number of horses of Clyde, Percheron and Shire types. They also have Vanner x heavy horse types.
 
Montana Man said:
Hi Reacher, thank you for your message, appreciate that. Looks like that initial glimmer of light at the end of a long dark tunnel is fading quickly 😧. Thanks also for your invitation to take up carriage driving lessons and although it is a kind gesture which I appreciate, it is not something I am interested in. Thanks.
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There is still light at the end of the tunnel. If you were able to lose a couple of stones you’d have some options and according to the BMI calculator if you could reach an ideal weight for your height and weight you would be within weight carrying limits for most riding schools.

There are various threads on here by people looking to lose weight for support and we would cheer you on.

Very easy for me to say as I’m a short- arse though. I wish you the best of luck.

PS Mark Todd is 6’3 too!
 
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Goldie's mum said:
Montana man, I mean this most respectfully and in the spirit of genuinely trying to help.
The light is at the other end of the tunnel. Turn round and walk the other way. Join Noom, join a gym, come back next year.
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This.

My OH is the same height as you, is just under the mid point of the healthy weight range for his height and weighs 12 stone. Losing some weight will open up many more options for you.

As someone who can balloon up weight wise very easily I find the motivation to keep my weight down so that I can ride with a clear conscience is a very powerful incentive. I have in the past shifted 5 stones in order to get back in the saddle.

Good luck 🙂.
 
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