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Fwd: RC: RE: Height in FEI Horses

We prefer to see a rider on a hors suitable to the rider's size, and not just 
weight. It certainly equies additional fortitude on the part of the horse to 
balance mroeweight sitting high atop his center of gravity or balance. 
Frankly,  it is easier to carry more weight which is balanced and hopefully 
with the ability to stay so, than less weight with a lack of balance. In any 
case, while height is not the biggest issue, and we DON'T select tall horse 
by design, neither should one need training wheels to keep their feet off the 
ground. Certainly, as has been seen in the show jumping world, the bigger the 
horse, the more potential for somethign to go wrong - legs, shoulders, back, 
hip, etc. Those huge warmbloods simply have more heavy duty body parts to go 
awry. Personally, I always preferred the smaller hunter/jumpers as well sinc 
ethey just seemed to both be more careful and also stayed sound better. The 
old saying fits them - the more you overwork the plumbing, the easier it is 
to stop up the drain! s

---- Begin included message ----
Title: RE: Height in FEI Horses

Tammy,

Susan Evans Garlinghouse has done some scientific research relating weight of horse & rider to completion at Tevis.  She found that there was NO correlation between the rider/horse weight ratio.  There WAS a correlation of the <horse> weighing more & completion.  She found that the most important "weight factor" was the horse's body condition score.  I don't remember the exact number, but somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5 on the body condition score.  Evidently the horse needs the "groceries" to work that hard.  If my memory serves me right, she had some rider/horse ratios of >30% that did well and she discounted the rider/horse weight ratio as unimportant.  She hypothesized that the HW riders' horses had acclimated to the weight & competed well. 

(My own thought - are the FW/LW/MW horses training to less than their potential since they aren't carrying the heavier rider?  Should us HW riders start a training business for the FW & LW riders?!?!?!)

It seems to "fly in the face of traditional wisdom", but isn't that what research is supposed to do?  Test what are commonly held beliefs to see if they are true?  Perhaps somebody with her web page can look to see if she has the paper posted there.

Linda Flemmer
Bruceton Mills, WV

-----Original Message-----
From: Trailrite@aol.com [mailto:Trailrite@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 12:07 PM
To: helgeson@lansford.ndak.net
Cc: Lyoness@castlenet.com; Ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Height in FEI Horses


In a message dated 11/11/99 8:43:45 AM Pacific Standard Time,
helgeson@lansford.ndak.net writes:

<< Why would you NOT want to see a 6' 200+ rider on a 14.2 horse?
 Could someone
 please tell me why that would be bad? Why do people think that
 taller horses
 can carry more weight? I would really like to see some answers
 on this!
 
 Lynette >>

    As you didn't notice, I said in the start of my response, My Husband
rides a 15 hand horse.  I never said taller is better.
    To answer your question, its been known that the best overall performance
level for a horse to carry weight is between 20 - 25% of their own weight.  i
think my husbands horse carries 28%.  This was discussed before about last
week.  Its not my calculations, but when I sell a horse to someone, I try to
match a horse and rider.  I do this because I try to help people get started
with as little against them as possible.  That includes the weight carrying
levels.  Since I deal with beginners or people wanting to due better in
endurance, for what ever reason.  This is what I try to go by.  Don't think I
don't know that there are some smaller horses out there doing mile after mile
at the top of the lists.  I do, and I believe in them!  I've been in
endurance long enough to know that, and have followed & rode small horses. 
My Babson mare I rode starting in 1977 (which I still have) is 14.2.
Tammy


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