Re: Rider weight -horse weight

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

One of my older stallions is not
> quite 14:3, but he weighs in at 975 in running shape and has 9" cannon
> circumference.  He is a GREAT heavyweight horse.  I've seen 15:2 horses
with
> far less substance who break down with small riders.  >


This brings up a question that I have. With Dorika on sick list, I've been
going through fairly serious horse-withdrawal and looking at possibilities
here.  I am a heavyweight, and Dory is about 15.+?  I've looked at a few
older horses here, (around 7 yrs) but by this age they usually are still
only greenbroke and are carrying some nasty baggage as well in the form of
hard mouths, years of bad shoeing, you name it.  I did look at a lovely 4 yr
old filly yesterday, who has only just been started under saddle. She's well
built and solid, with nice legs and feet (I'm a foot freak) and while she
didn't really understand everything I was asking her to do, she listened and
tried willingly. I'm thinking that I'd rather take the time to train someone
than to un-train them.

Now for the question:
I'm looking at Egyptian Arabians with various mongrel outcrossings and they
can vary widely in height and so on. I find that I prefer the more Egyptian
to the less....the more "Inglizi" they carry, the less they seem to have the
compact, tight sense of balance that I like. A healthy, well conditioned
Egyptian is like riding a barrel of dynamite (hopefully without the fuse
lit!). But even within those restrictions we are noticing that some have
longer cannons, shorter cannons, etc. The longer seem to go with a smoother
trot, but is the circumference the important thing to look at for soundness?
Any advice here? The halter types, of course, like the slender, dry, almost
matchstick legs, but I want years of soundness.

Looking at feet and legs,
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg


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