How much can a single horse pull?

[Silver1]

Today I was just bopping around with Mear, ground drove her in a closed bridle outside her paddock for the first time today, and I decided to give her some work to do at home so she wouldn't think she could just rush home to her hay. Well, it so happened that I had bunches of 50 pound bags of feed that needed taken to the shed, and the shed is at the top of a hill that, shall we say, is steep. I decided 'why not' and decided to ask her to haul it up.

She pulled a load I couldn't budge up the hill like it was nothing at all. O.o I am a strong person. I realize I'm not as strong as a horse but...she's making me look bad! Just how much can a determined 1200 pound horse pull?

[shandy84]

I think it depends, Bramble has pulled 32stone on her cart but that is on wheels. Also keep in mind she'll probably have to build up muscles in order to pull if it's something she's not used to

[Wally]

They estimate, one and a hlaf times their own weight.

But with Shetlands it might be proportionately more.

[Esther.D]

Apparently with Shetlands it *can* be up to 4 times their weight but that is their ability to move something, not pull it for any distance - I think that comes from the pulling contests in the US where they just need to move a weight a certain (short) distance. Wally's statistic is the usual one for actually working with horses/ponies.

My Shetland pair (when hard fit) could pull 18st of driver & groom together (I was lighter in those days and my groom - dad - is still only 9st) plus 4 wheeler marathon vehicle for 25 miles mostly at trot (with a 1/2hr break in middle) happily and come back only warm.