Can you tell me what size of horse can hold what kind of weight?

[Kate 05501]

My question to you all is what differn't size of horse can hold what kind of weight. I was wondering how that all works? I know that the person weight, how tall you are makes a differn't. I want to understand and figer out how big my filly should be when she grews up. More like hoping that her size will hold my weight. I'm tall and weight about 200 pounds. I hope that it will help you.



Kate 05501 and the gang

[mayS]

Its depends ALOT. You can't just look at a horse's size in hands and know he can hold XX pounds. Conformation, condition, age, overall health, and other factors all decide if X pounds are too many. If this horse is still a yearling, it may be many years before he/she has developed physically to where a large rider working him hard won't stress his developing body.

Some of it will depend on what you plan to do with a horse. A horse can more weight on a walking-speed trail ride than he could jumping fences at full speed.

Part of this equation can also be saddle fit. A poorly fitting saddle will cause pain and fatigue on the horse far sooner with a 200 lb rider than with a 90 lb one. A saddle with a larger tree spreading the weight across a larger surface area will be less uncomfortable than a teeny-tiny saddle with the same amount of weight.

And some of it depends on the rider. Balance and your own fitness level make a big difference. A person can be 200 and be all agile muscle, or they can be a tiny-framed person with 90 lbs of fat on them and no fitness at all. Do you ride often now and feel you're in shape? Are you well balanced in the saddle would you say? Do you mount and post gently onto a horses back?

[denise42]

The rule of thumb to start with is:
A horse can carry 20 % of what the horse weighs.
So if the horse is 1000 lbs they can carry 200 lbs.
This is rider weight and all tack.
Then there are other factors to take in to consideration.
What are you asking the horse to do ?
What is the horses age and condition ?
What is your fitness level ?
I would not ask a 1000 lb horse to carry 200 lbs over an 50 mile endurance race.
But I would ask a 1000 lb horse to carry 200 lbs for an hour long lesson or a afternoon hack.
It is all very subjective..hope this helps a little :p