Modern Obsession with putting kids on bigger and bigger ponies/horses

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skewbald_again

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I am SO sick of being told children are too big for ponies which they patently are NOT too big for, and back in the day (yes yes I know, showing my age) would have been on another two or three years.
As soon as their legs reach below the saddle flaps and they gain some kind of control, some Pony Club worthy is advising you to move them on up, the sooner the better, until they are well and truly over horsed again!
Thirteen year olds charging around on 16.2hh thoroughbreds, ten year olds flapping about on overbitted 14.2hhs! What is wrong with a kid on a pony - the kind it can get on and off without help, have a bit of fun on, and actually, you know, maybe STOP?!

Rant over.
 
100 % agree with you. A friend of mine recently bought her 13 yr old daughter a newly broken 4 yr old WB. It's broken my friends ankle,and shattered her daughters confidence.....thank god they kept the 14hh NF pony she had before.

AND they spent 6k on it.....just to look good at ponyclub.
 
OK, I'm not a child but I am short! ;)

I hate being over-horsed and don't feel 'comfy' once they are over 16hh. Too far to fall as well. :)
 
Cazza525 said:
100 % agree with you. A friend of mine recently bought her 13 yr old daughter a newly broken 4 yr old WB. It's broken my friends ankle,and shattered her daughters confidence.....thank god they kept the 14hh NF pony she had before.

AND they spent 6k on it.....just to look good at ponyclub.
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A 14hh schoolmaster/mistress type (I assume :) ) to a newly broken warmblood is a B I G step for anyone!
 
I agree, its all a bit mad I think.

I bought a 17hh IDxTB 10 years back and love him dearly and he does get a lot of oos and aahs as he looks like a police horse. OH likes riding him cos of that. But Ive reverted to pony (Haflinger) who Ive backed with RI and who I nearly always ride now.

Ive actually fallen off her more, but still feel more confident with her than the big chap.
 
Well my daughter (12) is learning to ride on my cob whose about 14.3hh (poss 15hh) and she is 5ft 3 ins tall so she cannot really go on anything smaller.But I used to ride a 13.3hh and got told Your too big for that pony. I do not feel comfitable on horses that are 16hh or higher.
 
I fully agree. Give me my 14.2hh highland any day.

One girl I know has lost all confidence and was a cracking little jumper who would ride anything. Her pony - he was expensive so he had to be good - bronced her off so much she sold him and bought a show pony. She nearly sold this one as she decided it was too much. She barely does more than trot and doesn't have any fun due to lack of confidence. Another one has a 15.3hh 5yr old tb ex-racer and has lost all confidence and then horse injured leg so is on box rest for a few months. I've been letting her ride my highland hoping she'll regain confidence and start to have fun again.

I'm sick of people buying a horse and when it isn't winning rosettes, it's sold and another's bought. Have these people thought thatit might actually be their riding that needs work and not a flashier, more expensive horse?

Sharon - if your daughter gets on well with your cob and is in control and confident, then that's different. It's the ones who go from a pony to a huge horse simply because it's the "done thing" these days. I now have 2 14.2hh ponies and will ride them with pride!! I've been told I need a horse and maybe one day I will but for now, my ponies enjoy their work and do I really need a flashy, expensive beast to happy hack on?
 
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Over 20 years ago when I lived in Germany ALL children learned to ride on horses, where I barned my horses (a riding school) there were no ponies at all, and the Germans didn't see anything wrong in it.

I think it is a cultural thing, in Britain there are all those lovely small natives to choose from. In Canada there are ponies, but nowhere near the amount/choice you can find in the UK. A lot of children, and I am talking 3 year olds are starting off on 14 handers. I can't get my hands on enough 12.2 - 13.2s to keep up with my waiting list.

Saying that my poor daughter stayed on 12 handers until she literally needed skates and the ponies started saying "Nope! Not going that fast, or jumping that high!:p"

Me, I am a short arse and my current riding horse ( horse because she is an arab) is just about knocking on 14h. I like small horses, unfortunately my daughter is fast growing out of her 15.3! Long legs - curse her ;)
 
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I like the smaller ones....I like to be able to mount from the ground and it isn't so far to fall!!!

I also like to be able to get rugs on and off etc without needing a ladder!!!
 
I agree totally but then I would because my daughter totally still rides her 1st pony as well as her horse, and doesn't bat an eye taking the pony to shows even if people say rude things because she looks tall on him.

But it's not just kids that do this, I know a couple of people eager to trade their faithful smaller horses for bigger/bolder ones who don't really appear to have considered fully what that actually means for them as a rider.
 
I don't know if the BSJA etc have changed the divisions, but when I were a lass, 12.2 classes were up to age 12, 13.2hhs up to age 14 and 14.2hhs up to 16, and you could not go onto horses until 14.
Very few did (a couple of the really tall lads) and even they still jumped their 14.2hhs to the last gasp - they had the advantage of experience - the real winner was to be born the first week in Jan so you had a year in hand and that was valuable.
I know children grow a bit more/quicker now, but I do think it's sad that most of them can't even get on their ponies from the ground, and a fall is a really frightening experience. None of my children's friends do gymkhana games, they are both literally and metaphorically 'beneath them'!!!
How sad.
 
I started to ride at the age of 8 and left the RS at 12 - I think in that time I rode maybe 2 or 3 horses under the height of 15hh! (I was very chubby for my age, maybe that's why?)
I, as a progressing learner, regularly rode a 16.2hh ex racer mare, a vicious 15.2hh mare and a 5 y/o 16.3hh cob who was brand new to the RS. I also remember a 16hh mare who I once spent 25 minutes of the hour long lesson cantering around the inner track trying to pull her up!!
I remember being very surprised when we went to try out Rebel - he was only 13.2hh! I remember whispering to my mum "I won't fit on him!" However, he gave me more cheek than any of the RS horses ever did!
Kelly is 14.2hh and God help us if she was any bigger!
I am kind of grateful to the RS - I now have jumping lessons (due to Kelly's injury and only able to walk on her atm) on my (very kind) YO's IDs - one is 16.3hh and one is 17hh - I think that riding a varying height of horses over 12 years has helped me to feel more at ease with all heights :)

Agreed with falls btw - although since then I've had more serious falls so it doesn't seem as bad, my first fall was off a 16.2hh heavyweight cob who for some reason just started to turn herself inside out bucking and broncing - the floor was a LONG way down!! (The RI got on her and also hit the deck; must have just decided that was it for that day!) and it really did slice my confidence right down for a while and ever since that day I was wary of riding her.

ETA it really is less daunting jumping on the ID - the jumps seem that much smaller!!!!!!!!!!! :D
 
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don't know whether I'm included in this debate. I'm 16 and ive got a 17hh warmblood arriving on saturday.... overhorsed some may say, but i'll tell you one thing, i've got on better with him than on a 15hh horse. I think it's a case of whether the child is able to ride the horse to a good standard.
 
I've been riding 10 years and given my height I was always on something 15.2 or upwards. Now currently riding ponies (13.3 and 14hhs) and feel SO much happier on smaller things :D
 
I don't know, cos I don't know how tall you are or how experienced - 16 is an adult in horse terms.
My beef is with 13yo strips of nothing on blooming gurt warmbloods, and more to the point really, the point where it all starts - the 8yo who has 'hopelessly outgrown' the 12.2hh which she has in fact barely grown into, having been prematurely bumped off her lovely, reliable 11hh best friend at the age of 6 - now being bunged up onto a 13.2hh that she can't mount, can't steer, can't reach to groom or tack up, and can't bl**dy well STOP!
 
It really annoys me when people think they look big and cool on 17.2 horses!! My friend was riding my other friends 14.2 (my friend is smaller than me) then apparently she got too big for friends horse then was aloud her own so got 16.2 i think!! I am very long legged but doesn't mean i ride 16.2+ my first ever horse was my gorgeous 14.2 and 4 years later i look big on him but i still ride him every day and compete him!! There is nothing wrong with looking too big aslong as your horse/pony is happy carrying you its fine!! x
 
I know ... I'm not short (5'8), and I'm on the 15.1hh I've been on since I was 14, and I felt he was pretty big when we got him! My sister is now 14, only about an inch taller than I was at that age, and dad's talking about buying her something that's 16hh!!!

Why?! She'll have no fun on something that size, won't be able to get on/off on hacks etc ... but of course she's happy because she thinks everyone will be really impressed by it.
 
skewbald_again said:
Being bunged up onto a 13.2hh that she can't mount, can't steer, can't reach to groom or tack up, and can't bl**dy well STOP!
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At first that's how I was - I was never a 'very bad novice' for want of much better wording, I learnt very quickly and enjoyed constantly improving - I wasn't often bolted with and I wasn't afraid to put a stop to horses messing me about straight off. But I could never get on without a block, nor probably tack up (although they were tacked for us).
Like I said, Kelly is 14.2hh and we are both 5''4' (1st and 2nd mums!) and I'm so glad she's no bigger as I think things may have been different, she sometimes throws her weight around enough as it is! I think RS horses are very very different, they are used to going round the school doing lessons and tend to behave much better than owned horses. People buying their 8 y/o little darlings a flighty, 4 y/o 16.3hh showjumping beast because the kid has jumped one cross pole is what makes me laugh - same as what somebody posted up there :o
 
I was 5"7/5"8 at 15 when I started helping at the RS and got my first lessons so never got to go on the ponies :( Son will be forced to stay on the cuties as long as possable :D
 
I'll be contraversal here and say I prefer the bigger ones :) And most of the horses are easier rides than the ponies..... ;)

Playing devils advocate :)

Anything short of 17hh is small tome though! My 16.2 lad is a 'pony' in my eyes.
 
I don't think size has a lot to do with being overhorsed or not. At 11 I was riding my section A and my 5 year old Trakehner x. I rode him through the napping, spinning, bucking, plunging, tanking issues that he arrived with, and in 18 months everyone wanted me to babysit out hacking because he was so well mannered. He inspired me to live up to him, and I worked incredibly hard to become a good enough rider to start doing him justice.

On the other hand, I hacked out on a 14.3 polo pony about a month ago, who after alternately rearing and galloping in circles for a good 60 minutes, then walking on his back legs into a ditch, firmly convinced me I was overhorsed.

So, if the kid isn't scared, or ruining the horse, let them have a go. You might be in for a surprise a few months down the line.
 
OP - totally agree with you. Its one of my biggest pet hates.
I get looked down many a time on Meg, who at a SMALL 15hh is ''shetland sized'' compared to big warmbloods or lanky legged TB's.
I have seen SO MANY children (under 14) riding at smallest Meg size, which frankly looks wrong. A girl of say 10 or 11 came over to me the other day, riding her full up 14.2hh, looking like a pea on a T-Rex, legs like match sticks, feet barely below the saddle flaps and enough room in her saddle to sit 4 of her bottoms. She looked so small, was riding in a pelham with a tight curb and wearing spurs too. She wanted to know which way to jump the practice fence, seemed to have no idea about red on the right. I told her, so she went to jump it but the pony trotted past it and off to the lorries! She clearly had no stength to control it!

I always say, if Charisma at 15.3hh was good enough for Toddy at 6'4'', then 15hh is plenty big enough for me at 5'4''!
 
Steorra said:
I don't think size has a lot to do with being overhorsed or not. At 11 I was riding my section A and my 5 year old Trakehner x. I rode him through the napping, spinning, bucking, plunging, tanking issues that he arrived with, and in 18 months everyone wanted me to babysit out hacking because he was so well mannered. He inspired me to live up to him, and I worked incredibly hard to become a good enough rider to start doing him justice.

On the other hand, I hacked out on a 14.3 polo pony about a month ago, who after alternately rearing and galloping in circles for a good 60 minutes, then walking on his back legs into a ditch, firmly convinced me I was overhorsed.

So, if the kid isn't scared, or ruining the horse, let them have a go. You might be in for a surprise a few months down the line.
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The trouble is, it has become a PC fashion. Thats where its gone wrong, parents haven't let their 'darlings' learn to ride AND have fun. Often buying a ready made WB because so and so has is not the right way to progress as you often leave out so much by 'skipping sizes'.
 
Ruthnmeg said:
The trouble is, it has become a PC fashion. Thats where its gone wrong, parents haven't let their 'darlings' learn to ride AND have fun. Often buying a ready made WB because so and so has is not the right way to progress as you often leave out so much by 'skipping sizes'.
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agreed, and they BLATANTLY ignore the basics of proficiency tests for these 'darlings'.

I would pay good money to see some of them mount and dismount from the ground, on both sides, as they are supposed to do for their C Test. I simply don't believe it. But because they can see-saw them down 'on the bit' and hang on for dear life while they jump 2'6", they are, as you say, in fashion. Whereas a workmanlike ten year old on a 12.1hh she can get on and off from any direction, stop, steer, jump, show, gymkhana, hack and hunt without any help, is just CONSTANTLY told she's too big for her pony (who is welsh and could carry a farmer and a coal sack to be honest and not know they were there) and MUST get a bigger one.
 
I've never owned a horse myself, biggest i've had is 14.3 in new shoes - LOL

My daughter at 12 and 5ft is still riding her 1st pony, a 12.2 loveable rogue, we've had him since she was 4/5 and he's only just 11 now. Yes she has taken over my 13.3 mare as well but she likes nothing better than taking the wee one to a Gymkhana or showing, she looks leggy on him but she tries to ignore the stares and it's a damn sight easier vaulting on a fine 12.2 than a 13.3 barrel - LOL

She won't ride my 14.1 because he is simply too much pony for her at the moment and she doesn't feel safe. I've told her that if or when she wants something bigger then she will have to go out and work to pay for it as i've never bought a horse and don't intend to start now. All her friends at PC are on bigger ponies and mostly horses now, the smallest i think is full up 14.2, all cost an absolute fortune.

I simply never grew out of ponies myself.........
 
I admit that the world of PC is a complete mystery to me :D, so I bow to experience. I totally agree that if a child is having to jab with spurs or ride in stronger and stronger bits then something is very wrong! Just thought I'd put the other side of the argument, as I remember what it was like to have everyone commenting, and waiting for me to prove them right by coming a cropper. Not saying this is what anyone here is doing as you have a very valid point, I just mean that there are two sides.

P.S. Ne'er a spur has been seen while I'm riding, and I always rode my boy in a French link snaffle, without any gadgets. Not that i'm defensive ;)
 
Too be honest when I was younger I always prefered bigger horses, but I bought a 15hh at age 14, had her till I was 21, I had far outgrown her but I she was my baby, I didnt even have to ask for anything anymore it was like she could read my mind.
However I did feel uncomfortable riding her and have always felt better on something 16h+, Im only 5'5" so not exactly a giant. I never felt pressured to move up to a bigger horse by anyone else, mostly because the only people I ever listened to were myself and my instructor lol. I just felt I had outgrown her both physically and ability wise.
I am now extremely happy with my 16.3 WB :p

That said, I have owned the cutest cheekiest most annoying Sec B since she was 2 shes now 7, I will have her till her dying day and my kids will all be stuck with her till their feet touch the floor haha
 
skewbald_again said:
agreed, and they BLATANTLY ignore the basics of proficiency tests for these 'darlings'.

I would pay good money to see some of them mount and dismount from the ground, on both sides, as they are supposed to do for their C Test. I simply don't believe it. But because they can see-saw them down 'on the bit' and hang on for dear life while they jump 2'6", they are, as you say, in fashion. Whereas a workmanlike ten year old on a 12.1hh she can get on and off from any direction, stop, steer, jump, show, gymkhana, hack and hunt without any help, is just CONSTANTLY told she's too big for her pony (who is welsh and could carry a farmer and a coal sack to be honest and not know they were there) and MUST get a bigger one.
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This is precisely why I did not renew my daughters PC subscriptions this year. I got fed up of the DC asking me when I would be moving my younger daughter off her tank like 13.1 NF pony onto something "more suitable". Now why would I want to do that when said pony had restored her confidence and got her having all sorts of happy fun and games (and pony racing) following on from a wasted year and a bit on an incompatible pony and completely shattered confidence. I would also add that in looking elsewhere for the girls' riding education to continue, they can now probably ride better than most of the kids in the local pony club having helped on the round ups/gone hunting and generally stopped leading a sheltered life of just riding lessons and PC rallies. Workmanlike is an excellent description...

Incidentally, down here in the forest, "real" riders (especially men) prefer to ride something ideally 15.2 or under (lots of low branches in the forest you see).

I would like to share your rant if I may...
 
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