Hi, I am 60kg and 5'3. I was wondering what is the smallest pony i could ride safely ? i was thinking just under 14 - what does everyone think?
I'm 18 stone and ride a shetland pony
That feels unreasonable to me, apart from anything else I cannot see how you could sit on one and not be putting weight behind the last rib.
@Frances144 what would be a reasonable range of bodyweight for a healthy Shetland that wasn't fat? While I do think a lot of nonsense is talked about percentages I should imagine 114kg would be a very high proportion of a Shetland's weight even if the rider could somehow sit in a position that wasn't harmful.
that does seem a bit extreme 18 stone I am just under 10 stone and would only ever sit on a full to height one or let it walk around for a bit nothing moreI think the idea of a man riding them even a short distance harks back to the days when most people were a lot smaller and lighter though, don't you? I live in a racing village and I suspect I could find a few men small enough and light enough to ride a good old fashioned one, but they're not representative of the population as a whole and you'd need at least two and a weighted saddle cloth to make 18 stone! Also the Shetlands you and Wally used to breed are, unfortunately, not typical of a lot of the Shetlands found nowadays
By the way the new member has been banned since all posts seem to be the same and rather unsettling.