Another inspiring success story:

[kedwards]

Just got my regional equine journal and there was a story on a woman, Claire Parr, who won the USEF Amateur Jumper Horse of the Year Award for her zone. According to the article, she rode and competed heavily as a teen, but only recently got back into riding after a 24-year break. She said that she had battled weight problems even as a teen, but gained considerable weight after quitting riding. Since 2001, she has lost 180 pounds.

[KarinUS]

:eek: How much (or how little) is left of her after losing 180?!?!

[cowgirlup]

How inspiring. Thank you for posting that info. I too, worry about my weight on my horse. So I am working on losing some. My horse is very good incentive for me. So that little tid bit was nice to read.

[Alle]

Wow! :eek: I do love hearing/reading such stories. It makes it feel like anything is possible.

[Justie B52]

What a great story! There's hope for me yet then ;)

For those of us who have trouble converting weights; try this site, it's great!

http://www.onlineconversion.com

Cheers for now!

Justie x

[Waikato Valuta]

Thats great, since i'm somone currently trying to lose weight this is a great story to hear. SEE IT CAN BE DONE!!!

[kedwards]

How much (or how little) is left of her after losing 180?!?!

Don't worry, Karin. From the pic posted with the article, she didn't look like she withered away to nothing. She appeared to have a solid and athletic build.

Quite apart from the weight loss, I found it inspiring that someone who had been off riding for so long could come back so strongly. It's an especially encouraging story to other adult riders who are starting back again.

[denise42]

I feel the same about it being inspiring for adult riders.
Sometimes , It feels like if you hadn't been riding since birth there is no hope of getting anywhere in competion.

Just as an aside : :)

I also read an artical in Horse Illustrated this month , its thier fitness special.
They made good points about how we as riders work so hard to get one half of the show team into shape..the horse... what about the other half .. the rider.

Made me feel bad for being overweight ( again ) I had gotten rid of the weight now its back.. they had some good tips for exercises for riders.
The judges that they spoke with said if they had to choose between two equally good riders and one was at the correct weight and one was overweight they would pick the thinner one..Saying that the over all rider and horse picture would be more pleasing.