[luvs2ride79]

Originally Posted by honeydoozy

a lot of trainers just don't want to work with those that don't fit their physical expectations or desired profile. (but I'm still looking for a trainer who understands me... i know he/she is out there!! )

I feel your pain! I have gone through that as well... Are you want to ride Dressage or Hunters? Or Western? I might be able to help you find a good trainer. I used to live in San Diego and worked with some great trainers there that were not biased to rider size (at least not openly, lol). Email me, luvs2ride1979@yahoo.com

~Barbara

[luvs2ride79]

Originally Posted by Super Step

If I had created a thread and posted pictures of women I considered overweight, riding horses and asked for everyone to be more considerate of large riders, I would be getting 8 pages of bash Tim.
Do I think people should be more considerate?
Yes, I sure do.

LOL, you sure would have!! HAHA Larger women don't ususally like their photos taken, so I couldn't find very many pictures on the web of larger women riding light horses. I would have posted them if I could have! Give me a few days to search and I probably could come up with a ton. But the fact is, there are a LOT more BIG guys out there riding little horses than women . I know that, so I limited my image search on Google to "Roping Horses" and found lots of nice examples in about 10 minutes...

I have been to team penning and roping events and saw those BIG guys never get off their little horses the whole time... Boy the ponies were sure tired, but so were they all! My point being that if a larger man can do it, why not a larger women? Sure, we are "softer", but riding horses (in general) is NOT about muscle. It's about balance, finess, and flexibility. In those categories, most women have most men beat hands down .

Anyway, I digress. I appreciate everyone's comments here good and bad. It has helped us see both sides of the opinion scale. Hopefully we will all understand "the other guy" a little better and have some tolerance and compassion all around.

~Barbara

[luvs2ride79]

Originally Posted by harli36

We must also remember that lead shot doesn't bounce around. So it's easier to carry 10% of lead shot then 10% of person that's bouncing around.

You are quite wrong here... It is MUCH easier to carry "live weight" then "dead weight". Live weight moves with you and HELPS you go forward and move correctly. Dead weight drags on you, it works against you. Try it yourself! Pick up a 50lb sack of feed and put it on your hip and walk around. Then pick up a 5-7yr old child that ways about the same and put them on your hip. BIG DIFFERENCE!!

You are right though, a bouncy rider of ANY size is a pretty difficult burden on a horse. 10% of 1000lbs is only 100lbs, 15% is only 150lbs, so you have helped prove my point there

~Barbara

[Lindsayanne]

Originally Posted by luvs2ride79

You are quite wrong here... It is MUCH easier to carry "live weight" then "dead weight". Live weight moves with you and HELPS you go forward and move correctly. Dead weight drags on you, it works against you. Try it yourself! Pick up a 50lb sack of feed and put it on your hip and walk around. Then pick up a 5-7yr old child that ways about the same and put them on your hip. BIG DIFFERENCE!!

You are right though, a bouncy rider of ANY size is a pretty difficult burden on a horse. 10% of 1000lbs is only 100lbs, 15% is only 150lbs, so you have helped prove my point there

~Barbara

And lead shot can't ask a horse to lengthen it's stride and move correctly.

These are pictures of Regal, a few months apart. Rider #2 (me) is 75-100 lbs heavier than rider #1, but in which pictures is he taking shorter strides? In which is he correctly using his body? And which rider does he look like he's carrying easier?

[HappyJoy]

[quote=harli36]
In quickly glancing through some of the posts it seems as though some people are mad w/ the idea that riding schools and trail outfits don't allow people over a certain weight to ride. But they are only looking out for the health and safety of their animals who have to carry riders everyday for long periods of time. Much unlike a horse owned by one person who is usually at most ridden once a day 4 or 5 times a week. [quote]

This is a diffacult issue. I worked at a public stable for a while, and I can't imagine if we had to turn away the father or mother of a family that was looking forward to a fun ride because they were over the weight limit. They solved this problem by keeping several drafts. The drafts were highly trained, and were used for lessons as well, even low jump courses, so that riders of all weights could ride.

Yes there is a wide gap between being thin and being in shape. Just because your thin does not mean your "in shape" and within reason someone can be in shape and not necessarily be thin.

I hate when people think that you must be thin if you are in shape. I'm not overweight, I'm well within my weight bracket, but at 5'7 and 140-145 lbs, I'm much larger than most of mine stick thin peers. This becomes painfully obvious when clothes shopping, as I bypass the hundreds of 0-4 items and go all the way to the 9 and 10's. I run 20 miles a week plus the normal physical labor of riding, chucking hay bales, putting up fences etc. I'm walking a half marathon on the first of april, and in the fall I'm running a full marathon. When playing sports or an active game, I don't have trouble, but many thin girls have a terrible time with it, yet people automatically assume they are in better shape than me. There was a recent study that actually said that overweight fit adults are healthier on average than underweight to normal adults. This didn't mean 100+ overweight, but a little extra padding does wonders for bone strength and such as long as you excercise plenty(5x a week).

As for the soundness of horses, sometimes people do have to be offended for the sake of the health of the animal, but overweight people can ride without any trouble if they take the precautions to learn balance and to get a suitable animal for themselves. That goes the same for all riders.

While there is certainly bias when it comes to overweight riders, they are not the only ones biased against. The world is riddled with inequality and prejudice, and sometimes we just have to roll with the punches.

[HappyJoy]

sorry about the bold letters, I can't seem to shake them

[MelissaH]

Here's an intersting artlicle.

http://www.gaitedhorses.net/Articles/HRiderGuide.shtml

[cowgurly02]

Happy Joy, I do agree. I know many people who are in very good shape but are not bone thin. I work out 4-6 days/week and am very into fitness, but I still weigh 135 lbs. Definatly not one of the 110 lbs celebrity types. I know people a lot bigger than me who are in shape too.

For horse health and safety, I honestly don't feel that an over weight person who rides correctly is going to affect it. I do feel that an average weight, or skinny person, who rides incorrectly (as well as a larger too of course) can hurt a horse.

Competition wise though, for performance events anyways, being in shape will help you and your horse out. You will have more success competition wise if you are in good shape. Doesn't matter if you are thin or large, I know lots of thin girls in really bad shape, and bigger ones who are fit. My old barrel racing trainer was probably 200 lbs, but she was strong and flexible. Her weight did not affect her horses' performances at all. She was still kicking a lot of skinny girls' butts at semi-pro rodeos!!!

[BklynCwgrl]

Great Article Melissa!!!

[No1Dazy]

Originally Posted by ThisIsMe

Like it or not, showing can and does make you fit into a certain mould. Depending on the judge. Whether its your gear, colour of your horse, your weight or how much bling you've got on you will have something against you.

I'm going to have to disagree. I have been showing dressage for over 14 years now. In all that time, I have only run into ONE judge who was prejudiced against heavier riders. It was painfully noticable and I don't believe that this particular judge will be invited back to our region. In dressage, you're more likely to run in to judges with breed prejudices, (A judge who prefers warmbloods over TBs, for example) but even those are not very common.

Dressage is judged on the HORSE's way of going, accuracy, impulsion, etc. There is only one score for the rider: seat and position. So the judge is looking at how well the rider's seat influences the horse. Weight is not looked at. In this way, a thin rider competes against a heavier rider with no bias, since their horses are being judged against each other; it's not pitting rider to rider.

I'm sad to say that it is not the same story in the hunter ring.