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[RC] Weight of Horse and Rider - k s swigartHeidi Helly said: Besides that, to make it truly fair, the weight of the horse in proportion to the rider would have to be used to be fair. A heavyweight on an 1100 lb. mount is better off than me on my 14.1 hand pony sized guy who weighs 750 ! This shows a very basic misunderstanding with respect to what effect weight has on performance. A heavy weight (say 210 lbs) on a 1100 pound horse has a horse that is required to carry a total load of 1310 pounds down the trail. A featherweight (say 160 lbs) on a 750 pound horse has a horse that is required to carry a total load of a mere 910 (four HUNDRED pounds LESS load) down the trail. So just which horse is truely at a disadvantage with respect to the amount of weight it has to carry? To provide y'all with an empirical example: This past October, Bruce Weary and I both competed at the Prescott Man v. Horse race. He on a ~1000 pound foxtrotter carrying (if it is the same amount that he has claimed that his horse carries) 235 pounds of rider and tack. I, on the other hand, was on my ~600 pound arab cross??? pony (she has no papers, but she looks pretty araby but there is probably something else in there as well) and weighed in at the finish with 200 pounds of rider and tack. Additionally, at all the vet checks, me and my pony arrived before he did....and recovered to criteria in less time than it took his horse, and I didn't have to unsaddle and to cool my horse off so she could meet criteria (she pretty much met criteria within a couple of minutes of arriving). What do you think is the best explanation for why my horse met criteria faster with less cooling required despite the fact that she arrived at all the vet checks sooner so was going faster down the trail? Because I weighed in at 25 lbs less than Bruce, because my horse weighed in at 400 pounds less than Bruce's, or because they were of different breeds and/or different metabolic types, or something else entirely???? Like she has more surface area per pound (in addition to being light, she is also very slight of build so the distance from her core to the surface is much less than most horses) than his horse and therefore is a more efficient cooler??? I gotta admit, if _I_ had to guess, the thing that made the most difference was the 400 pounds of her own weight that she didn't have to carry around, and maybe some of that surface area thing. The differences in rider/tack weight were inconsequential in comparision to the differences in horse body weight. kat Orange County, Calif. While she had less muscle to mobilize to do work, she also had a LOT less work to do. There is no formula that can bet =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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