The 20% rule

huskydamage said:
https://youtu.be/3pNAP29A0-U

Here's a link of me riding my pony it's old, but there are recent photos of me online but they are on a photographers website and have other people in. Not sure if forums rules etc it's ok to post the link to those?
How accurate is the weigh tape? I remember using it once and thinking the weight it gave seemed a bit odd.
Definetly going to try to work this out though.
Was genuinely interested in this thread as it's something ive not of heard of, but does it have to get so ranty?! Lol
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Now that you have posted that footage, I do think she looks too small for you. But whether you are too heavy for her is impossible to tell without seeing her conformation and knowing her weight and condition. Does she still whiz about like that with her head in the air? It looks like she is running away a bit. I would want to try and understand why that was. Some horses are fizzy to ride but there is usually a reason.
 
Mongoose11 said:
Perhaps it was the idea that someone who weighs 9.5 stone looks too heavy for their 14.3 ��?
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But this is the point you've been making all along, though it might help if you did it less like point scoring and more like an open and intelligent debate. To be frank, it reads like you are trying to poke Wagtail through the bars of her cage to get a reaction. Your point is correct, you can't tell from a photo. But if a pony in a photo looks like it's struggling with the weight, in someone's opinion, then it looks to that person as if it's struggling with the weight, whether that weight is 5% or 50 %.


Equi gave me a great, adult, intelligent response to my suggestion that in one photo it looked as if her horse wasn't up to full weight carrying. Most of the thread has been the same. I simply don't see where you or Snowy Celandine are coming from.
 
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Wagtail said:
Just making a laughing stock out of themselves as usual. No thought about intelligent debate. You won't find any logic there.
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But everything I've said adds up, I just happened to have pointed out the flaws and back tracking in your own ideas on this thread. Sorry.

I don't think I've said anything unreasonable. My main concern is that you keep changing your mind about the 'rules' and were quick to dismiss a rider as too heavy from a photo yet the stats say otherwise - which was my point at the beginning of the thread. I don't think I have been unclear on this.
 
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Wagtail said:
Just making a laughing stock out of themselves as usual. No thought about intelligent debate. You won't find any logic there.
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Would you like to specify who that is aimed at and what you are basing in on please? Because that comes across as very rude and is hardly a a contribution to an intelligent debate
 
This is 2%, much more realistic ;)

image_zpsd2halqqm.jpeg

image_zpsyrjb8slf.jpeg
 
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I'd say this was more suitable as Wagtail once told me that 10stone was his absolute max, but it looks like his fetlock is really bent in the pics, so he must be under too much strain :(

13391028_10153778505133667_571017176_n.jpg
 
FrankieCob said:
Would you like to specify who that is aimed at and what you are basing in on please? Because that comes across as very rude and is hardly a a contribution to an intelligent debate
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I'm confused why you need it specified who it is aimed at? The comment you quote was made as a direct response to my own comment to Mongoose which also named Snowy Celandine. I don't understand where either poster is coming from. I thought the thread was useful and informative.

Presumably, Wagtail based her comment on posts by those two posters, but I'm sure she's a big enough girl to confirm that if she can raise the energy :)
 
ycbm said:
I'm confused why you need it specified who it is aimed at? The comment you quote was made as a direct response to my own comment to Mongoose which also named Snowy Celandine. I don't understand where either poster is coming from. I thought the thread was useful and informative.

Presumably, Wagtail based her comment on posts by those two posters, but I'm sure she's a big enough girl to confirm that if she can raise the energy :)
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Let's hope her energy has run out then because I know mine has. Goodnight and enjoy your argument ladies :D
 
FrankieCob said:
Would you like to specify who that is aimed at and what you are basing in on please? Because that comes across as very rude and is hardly a a contribution to an intelligent debate
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Yes, of course. It is aimed mainly at Mongoose. I don't know why she is so obsessed by everything I post.
 
I want in on this too as I sometimes do worry if i look too big for my horse? Normally I am sure that I am ok because he is 16.1hh and by no means slim with it. But sometimes I see pictures and think "are they just unflattering or am I too big?". Sometimes I think I even look too tall for him but I can't be I am only 5'8.

Forgot weights: horse is around 550kg. I haven't weighed myself in ages but I doubt I have gotten past the 13st marker yet sadly.

IMG_20161030_161550185_HDR_zpspfvbaiu2.jpg


Please excuse the fact I am on the wrong diagonal I hadn't noticed during the warm up that i had once again gotten the wrong one. I kept changing the rein to get him flexing more and sometimes forgot to change because i was too focused on getting him working properly after yesterday being a waste of time.
 
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rachk89 said:
I want in on this too as I sometimes do worry if i look too big for my horse? Normally I am sure that I am ok because he is 16.1hh and by no means slim with it. But sometimes I see pictures and think "are they just unflattering or am I too big?". Sometimes I think I even look too tall for him but I can't be I am only 5'8.

IMG_20161030_161550185_HDR_zpspfvbaiu2.jpg


Please excuse the fact I am on the wrong diagonal I hadn't noticed during the warm up that i had once again gotten the wrong one. I kept changing the rein to get him flexing more and sometimes forgot to change because i was too focused on getting him working properly after yesterday being a waste of time.
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This is an example of where pictures can be deceiving. Your t shirt looks like it is ballooning out making you look larger on top than perhaps you are. I have been surprised by the weights of some of the riders on this thread. One said she is eleven stone but she looks nine stone to me. Another is only just over nine stone but the angle of the photograph makes her look around ten. I don't know your weight or the size of your horse, but I think you look okay on him size-wise.
 
rachk89 said:
I want in on this too as I sometimes do worry if i look too big for my horse? Normally I am sure that I am ok because he is 16.1hh and by no means slim with it. But sometimes I see pictures and think "are they just unflattering or am I too big?". Sometimes I think I even look too tall for him but I can't be I am only 5'8.

Forgot weights: horse is around 550kg. I haven't weighed myself in ages but I doubt I have gotten past the 13st marker yet sadly.

IMG_20161030_161550185_HDR_zpspfvbaiu2.jpg


Please excuse the fact I am on the wrong diagonal I hadn't noticed during the warm up that i had once again gotten the wrong one. I kept changing the rein to get him flexing more and sometimes forgot to change because i was too focused on getting him working properly after yesterday being a waste of time.
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With tack you're riding at around 17% on him.

Do you 'look' big? You'd have to ask others as I have no interest in what anyone looks like on their horse.

He looks like a nice type 😊
 
Wagtail said:
This is an example of where pictures can be deceiving. Your t shirt looks like it is ballooning out making you look larger on top than perhaps you are. I have been surprised by the weights of some of the riders on this thread. One said she is eleven stone but she looks nine stone to me. Another is only just over nine stone but the angle of the photograph makes her look around ten. I don't know your weight or the size of your horse, but I think you look okay on him size-wise.
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You CANNOT accurately judge from a picture. It doesnt matter what her T-shirt is doing. She gave her weight and the horses weight. At 17% shes over what you feel comfortable with by a fair bit. Whereas I think 17% is completely fine
 
Wagtail said:
This is an example of where pictures can be deceiving. Your t shirt looks like it is ballooning out making you look larger on top than perhaps you are. I have been surprised by the weights of some of the riders on this thread. One said she is eleven stone but she looks nine stone to me. Another is only just over nine stone but the angle of the photograph makes her look around ten. I don't know your weight or the size of your horse, but I think you look okay on him size-wise.
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Yeah i should have gotten a better tshirt but it was the only one I had today that was clean everything else was in the wash lol.

You just missed my edit on weights too i forgot to add them my bad.
 
Mongoose11 said:
With tack you're riding at around 17% on him.

Do you 'look' big? You'd have to ask others as I have no interest in what anyone looks like on their horse.

He looks like a nice type 😊
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Yeah weight wise I am ok really I think. I definitely need to lose weight though not just for him but for my health too. At times like there ithink I look to big for him but I hardly 'need' a 17+ horse. I ain't that tall.

Thanks he is a nice horse really. He did try more after that to get rounder but we were still warming up. He is so uncomfortable though bouncy as hell. When he gets excited its like sitting on a bouncy ball ontop of a trampoline.
 
FrankieCob said:
You CANNOT accurately judge from a picture. It doesnt matter what her T-shirt is doing. She gave her weight and the horses weight. At 17% shes over what you feel comfortable with by a fair bit. Whereas I think 17% is completely fine
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That is exactly what I said; pictures can be deceiving. I look too big on my horse IMO but I am only 14% of her weight with tack. I think that is close to her limit because she is young and not fully muscled up. The horse in Rachk89's picture is far more established, is 16.1 and of a strong conformation. I have said twice in this thread that some horses can comfortably carry 20% of their weight. I don't know if you missed that or if you are being deliberately obtuse.
 
ycbm said:
Sasquatch I think you need to knock off at least 20% for the tiny ears :D
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I was warned those tiny ears would cause problems :P

Wagtail said:
You say you are 5'4? No way do you look even close to 11 stone. Not to me in any case. You also look great on your horse.
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I haven't weighed myself recently as scales scare me, but I was at about 10st7 a few months ago and I'm fairly sure I'm still around that if not a little heavier, so I would be about 11 stone at most I think without checking and having a pre-Halloween fright hehe. Softshell jackets are also extremely flattering :D
Thank you :)


I have sort of skim read a lot of the comments in this thread, but generally I think the 20% rule works as a basic guideline. However, that's exactly how it should be treated. It doesn't take into consideration if the horse is fit or obese, or their build, age and any underlying medical conditions that would impact on the work it can do or weight it can carry, nor does it look at the riders build or fitness.
 
Mongoose11 said:
Perhaps it was the idea that someone who weighs 9.5 stone looks too heavy for their 14.3 😂?
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You seem to have picked up on my horse a few times and missed that I as the rider of the horse entirely agree that I am on the heavy side for her?

She is a very fine boned, small horse and the extra bit is that she is 23 and a little bit creaky these days. Therefore in my opinion and others seem to agree she shouldn't be expected to be carrying near the 20% mark which with me riding she is.

So for us judgment from a picture seems representative.
 
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