Is a 14.1hh right for me?

[ahm]

I have been offered a 14.1hh cob for loan. As I am a 5 foot 7" tall adult, I am unsure whether he would be a bit small for me. Does anyone have any ideas ?

[JumperGirl]

I am 5'6, and am quite comfy on a 14'2 horse.

I think as long as you feel comfortable, its alright, but if you try the horse, and hes to small, than dont continue leasing.

[Wally]

Size is no guarantee of quality!:D

I'm 5'8" and none of my horses is over 14.1hh cobby types, Frances is even taller...a bit anyway. We all ride Icelandics, Fjords, Haflingers and Fat Cobs of similar sizes. 12.3 to 14.1 at the most. Enjoy your small hairy cob, they are great fun!

[ros]

I'm 5' 10'' and I used to have a lovely coloured cob mare who was only 14.3hh, but she rode "big" and I never felt out of place on her. I lived up in the Lakes at the time, and Fell crosses were the norm; being smaller they were much handier, and when moved down to Devon and graduated to bigger horses I found it a bit strange when I had to get off to walk under trees and stuff! Cobs can be little smashers, and they're usually quite bright as well!

[liz--y]

as the horse is cobby you should look fine, only you know if you feel to big for the horse

[floppy]

im 5'7 and ride a ehm 14h something haflinger...maybe 14.1 or 14.2 i can never remember! :D
i prefer smaller hroses to bigger hrose..besides one thing i can do that the owner cant (she is only 5'4) is mounth the haflinger from the ground bareback :D

[sweetbriar]

I'm 5'6" and have a 14hh pony and I'm an adult. I agree with Wally, as long as you're happy and the pony is suitable for you, I don't see the problem.

I've had my pony on loan for 2 years now and I wouldn't hesitate to get another one. Ponies are so much fun.

Good luck!

P.S. I want to affiliate my pony with the BSJA. Will I have major problems competing because I'm an adult and she's a pony?

[Wally]

Sweetbriar,

You may well have problems as you are an adlult and you ride a samll horse. My competition horse is actually about 13 hands....12 .3 if I'm honest. I'm an adult and I have problems entering him in local shown that have classes by height, not rider age. ( that's not my problem!)

I think you might have trouble with the BSJA.

[liz--y]

you cant affilate her as you are over 16, unless you affilate her in seniors but she will proberably have alot of problems getting round senior corses

[katie_did]

Wally, you are far too tall to be riding such a small little pony. I am sure that the horse can carry you fine, but why make it do so much more work? I could run with a fifty pound pack on my back, but I sure as **** would not want to. I am 5'5" and weigh 100 pounds and I still think that I am too big for my 15.2 hand horse at times.

[floppy]

icelandics can carry an enormous weight.

Also its the only horse breed in icelandic due to banning of importation of other horses 1000yrs ago and im sure people in iceland vary in height from small to large and these ponies can carry alot.

My cousisn ponies can carry up to 65kg which means if i really wanted to i coudl ride them as im only 53kg but im 5'7 and my feet dangle to close to the ground so i woudl rather not!

haflingers come smallish but they are cob type and also used in all aspects of th horseworld from riding to pulling trees out of the woods etc. the one i ride is 14. something hh and when i ride her bareback my feet dont dangle that far down past her belly.


I also ride icelandics and one that i ride alot is only 13.1hh

height in a person doesnt mean a thing its how much the person weighs!

[claireh]

Katie

I think your post is a little dictatorial, don't you?! Wally is one of the most respected and treasured members of this board, not to mention one of the most experienced & I have no doubt at all that Wally would never do anything to any horse that would cause it distress or discomfort in any way.

Ponies have carried much taller and no doubt heavier adults than Wally for centuries!

As to you being too big for a 15.2 at 5'5" & 100lbs, does your horse have matchsticks for legs?

Sorry if this post seems blunt and causes any consternation, it is not my habit to get involved in controversial threads, but this one has risen me to it!

[floppy]

throughout the centries ponies were ridden in wars etc. oens aroudn the 12hh mark or maybe smaller? cant tell you prescisely.. Larger horses are ehm..how do you put it..not natural.(?)

[Wally]

My little horse has a very long, VERY LONG history of adults riding.

The Icelandic was never bred as a chlild's riding pony, it was bred for adults to ride.

In Iceland there is no choice, the Icelandic is the only breed, if you are a man of 6 foot 6inches and 250lbs or a child of 3 you ride an Icelandic!
I do not do 50 mile endurance rides on Ljóssie. I do no more than 2 hour rides at most, I do mostly flat work and competition gait work with him.

I would never have chosen, by choice, such a small horse for my personal competition horse normally, but he came to me as a bit of an accident. He is so nervous and sensetive that his old owner was having mega problems with him. I rode him once and the pair of us clicked, I assure you he has no problem carrying me.

There is a very great deal of difference with modern breeds and ancient ones. Icelandics have a far higher bone density than other modern breeds.

I have ridden Shetland ponies of no more than 38 inches.. cruel?... no. A Shetland bred Shetland is up to the job.

Please don't dismiss a horse of short stature as being a kiddies pony, there is no way I'd let anyone ride Ljóssie that was not a VERY, VERY accomplished, quiet, sympathetic, balanced, kind rider, it's taken me 3 years to make him trust me, if he was in any pain or discomfort I'd still be having trouble. The Icelandic I have offers Tölt, trot, pace canter gallop and walk freely, he can keep pace with a horse of 15 hands with me riding him. He can perform all the basic dressage moves in walk, trot, tölt and canter without rushing or panic. I get shoulder in, leg yeild, counter canter and the odd decent flying change. He's happy, I'm more than happy.
Yes in the eyes of the mainstream horse world I am traditionally too big for him but who is the judge of that, is it the onlooker or the horse?

[Moonlightrider]

I'm 5'1" - I'm short - but I've ridden not-even-13 hand ponies who could carry me w/t/c and comfortablely over small jumps. And so long as I'm not causing the pony any stress - I'm almost 50lbs under her weight limit - I don't see anything wrong with that.

I know an 11 hand... what is that, 44 inches? pony who could pull a light-weight cart with 2 people in it easily. And he's a hackney cross - bred to pull carts, but not a lot of weight.

[katie_did]

claireh, I know that I am not too big for my horse, but I am also worried about looking too big on her. I have a 15.2 Thoroughbred and a 16.1 Quarter Horse, and I know that I am obviously not too heavy for them. I have even been known to show my brother's 14.1 Quarter Horse in the gaming classes on occassion. I have even schooled a bit smaller ponies for the younger girls at the stables. Now, maybe Wally's pony can carry her (Wally's a girl, who knew?) without a problem, but what I am saying is that, why would you ask it to? I'm sure my horse could carry a 200 pound rider, but why would I ask her to. I am not saying that you should sell your horse once you have out grown it and moved on to another one, but sometimes you need to give the horse a break. We still have the 13.3 hand pony that I rode when I first started, but she is now retired. Mainly due to a knee injury, but even before that, because I knew I was getting too large for her. You should not expect a horse to work to its capacity. Imagine if you had to, what fun would that be?

[Silvia]

Ponies are great. And they can carry more weight than big horses and still enjoy themselves - most ponies were bred as working horses and they LIKE to work.
Sadly most people in Austria don't realise this - ponies are regarded as kiddie's rides. Once you are considered a competent rider you move on to horses.
An adult riding a pony gets a lot of odd looks. For that reason it's nearly impossible to find a well trained pony in Austria. (except forHaflingers, but they are classed as horses) I tried and ended up with Nikita, a 16hh warmblood after weeks of searching. Nikita was perfect in every other way - but really too big for me (I'm 5 foot 3). The trouble of getting a saddle up there.... And I had to use a table to mount him because every mounting block was too small.
Ponies are so much handier and I a 14hh feels just right for my size - I really don't understand why the Austrians are so obsessed with riding only horses.

[Ipsa]

I'm 5'6" and ride a 15hh mare and there is no way I am too big for her or look too big for her. Anyway I wouldn't care if I did look too big for her, she is happy in her work and we have a lot of fun. I get more concerned about short people on tall horses. Some of the problems people have with horses these days are caused by overfeeding and lack of work.Most farmers I know with working horses have the happy small horses and these guys are fairly large male riders.
I saw a video the other day called Globetrot about an English guy who works for ILPH and the video was about some of his rides around the world. He looked quite tall and the horses he travelled across South America on were Argentinian about 14.2 and typical of their breeding. They coped fine.
I worked for some people last year with 3 Icelandics, amazing horses and so playful, they used to play together each day for hours.
I suppose different people have different perceptions of what horses are capable of.

[floppy]

ok its been said the thing that worries katie is the fact that she may look in other peoples eye stupid on a pony. But who cares what people think?

[Frances]

Look at the thread "Tribble the Dribble". It is of me on my Icelandic horse, Haakon.

He is 13.3hh, and I was 14 stone. (this was taken a few years back now).

Question:-

Does he look like he cannot carry me?
Does he look unhappy?
Do I look under-horsed?
Do I look unhappy?

I am considered about average in the Icelandic horse world (you should have seen the Icelandic trainer that was on this course: She was enormous and jumped happily onto our horses and they carried her beautifully).

I think, also, you should consider how you ride. Some people, especially novices, can ride very heavily as they do not know how to carry themselves in the saddle. This is an issue, certainly.

So, do I care what others think about me and my horse? Not really.

Here in Shetland a fully grown man would plough his fields in the morning with his Shetland pony and then expect to jump on its back and be carried at least 10 miles in the afternoon. Now, cast your mind back as to the size of a Shetland pony..... not really on the big side are they?

PS. I am sorry to keep forcing piccies of me and Haakon on this website, but I think it does really prove the point. I would add that after the picture was taken, Hakon and I spent the whole underhorsed day galloping like mad things all round the training centre! He loved it!

[Wally]

The reason adults ride Icelandics is very simple, THERE IS NO OTHER BREED IN ICELAND! Adults have no choice, there is no 16 hand anything only 13-14 hand Icelandic horses. Men of 6 feet 4 ride 14 hand horses. I'm not going to walk up to a man that size and tell him he looks silly, it is a different culture, a different style of riding and a world away from big horse snobbery.

I have not owned Ljóssie for long, he is not a childs riding pony, he has far too much mettle to lets kids loose with. The reason we have such small horses is due to the place we live, a quarter horse wouldn't last 5 minutes up here (someone did try, it lasted 2 years before they gave up and sent it back south) A 15.2 horse would disapear without trace in a bog in the hill.

We have horses which can survive in our climate, horses which we can ride safely in the hill, horses who willingly carry adults and kids without problems.
It would be more of a burden to a horse to live in a climate to which it is unsuited. Now tell me of a horse breed of 15hh or thereabouts that can survive in our climate happily and could carry me over the open hill safely and cost as little to keep as our guys do!

We don't ask Arabs to live here, that would not be kind, we don't ask Andalucians and Thoroughbreds to live here they don't like it, like everything in life you cannot have your cake and eat it!

[sweetbriar]

Thanks Wally & Liz-zy,

I thought I might have a few probs. I'm OK at local show level because they do not discriminate in terms of size in the jumping classes.

I think its very wrong to have this whole 'height-ist" thing. There are a great many ponies who can jump big. Think of Stroller & Dundrum. They could jump puissance walls of 6-7ft. The powers that be seem to think that ponies are for children. I don't and its nice that there are loads of other people who feel this way.

Its such a shame really as my mare is more than capable of jumping at the lower levels of BSJA competition. Does this segregation only happen in showjumping. Does it also exist in three day eventing? I seem to think not but I'm sure someone out there will know.

[Wally]

Back in the early days of endurance riding segrigation was common. The BHS would not allow any horse smaller than 14 hands compete.

We had Haflingers of 13.2 who were more than capable of doing 50 miles one day and 25 the next. We played our faces and got the rules changed.

Endurance Horse and Pony Society were a bit more relaxed about height.

[Mossy]

Sorry to rise to the bit but I am a great beliver in horses for courses. I would not dream of suggesting to Wally that she is too big for her Icelandics. If I did as well as being wrong I would be a hypocrit! My hubbie rides a 14.2 Highland who carries him very easily and without telling tales out of school hubby is bigger and heavier than Wally. Having said that Connie cannot carry the same weight as Moss can despite being bigger. These little ponies are hardy fun and can keep up with the best of them- Moss was overtaking a 18.2 yesterday- daughter was on board at the time!

[JackiAH]

Alright, can someone once again translate stone to pounds for me? :)

Ok. My horse is a 14hh *probably only 13.3, but who's counting?* Registered QH, although he does have mustang blood. I am around 5' tall, and I weigh a good 120-125 lbs. I look *small* on Pal. Yepperz. He has absolutely no problem carrying me, and I find that he rather likes me riding him to anyone smaller, he usually bucks them off.

Considering the darling fact that we cannot read our horses' minds, unless you can indeed Katie_Did (please enlighten us, as you seem to know that ponies do not *like* to carry people of more... weight than yourself), it does make it hard for us to know what size rider is good for what size horse. Now, I am not saying to put someone who weighs 500 pounds on a Connemara pony for an endurance race. Use common sense, you'll be fine.

As for Wally and Ljossie, I think they are a match made in heaven. I'm *sure* that Ljossie is quite happy carrying Wally, and... seeing as I'm backed by most of the NR board, I believe this is a likely statement.

Jacki

[Katie_85]

Jacki: You and Pal look so good together! He ooks like a very sweet horse, bucks or not!:D

Frances: I thought that picture of you and Haakon was good!:)

Katie_Did Never mind. I had somehting planned but it's already been said and Wally knows what she's doing so it certainly doesn't need to be said again.