Re: Horse:Rider Weight

Lynn Kinsky (lkinsky@silcom.com)
Sat, 25 Jan 1997 10:13:35 -0800

>General rule of thumb has been that a horse not carry more than 20% of his
>own weight. I knew rides years ago (CTR's) that would not let a rider start
>if rider weight exceeded 25%. So your 200 lb person (I assume with tack?)
>can be carried by a 1000 lb horse. A friend of mine rode my 5 yeard old
>arab-appy mare (about 950 lbs.) VERY successfully on several 50's..she
>carried 250 (rider and tack).

All of the discussion about rider vs. horse weight seems to beg the
question about horse fitness/leanness. I could turn my 800 lb Peruvian
into a 1000 lb one by just letting him pork out -- and then theoretically
it would be OK for him to carry my 200 - 215 lbs of rider and tack, since
we'd meet the %age criterion. But if we did that I don't think we would
have gotten our 1700 NATRC miles, let alone have him still sound! There
has to be some way of taking into account the "hidden rider" the horse
carries in EXCESS body weight.

-- Lynn