The heighths of the horse has been cussed
and discussed for a long time in the endurance community. Back in 92, I
rode a l4 hd mare on one of Darolyns rides. A guy, a bit of a short guy,
was riding a huge horse and hit a tree branch and cut open his eyelid. He
went back and I continued with the rider he was sponsoring. Darolyn dryly
said that doesn't happen with the little bity Arabs who fit unders the tree
branches! I have ridden endurance rides with l5-2 and l4 hds horses and
some inbetween. The smaller ones can get around more like a sports car,
are easier to mount in the field with no mounting block-those blocks save wear
and tear on the shoulder and withers-, and the fall off is not as painful,
especially as one ages.
However, my l7 yo daughter is 5'9" and now
is riding dressage on l6 hd horses and the l4-2 arab she handed over to me was
not big enough for her. Part is perspective and what you get used to
riding. There are more lameness problems, historically with the larger
horses-a KNOWN problem so don't go flaming over this issue.
It all comes down to what you are
comfortable on and love/like to ride. If there is no heart to the horse,
it won't matter what the size. If the horse is too heavily muscled,
it won't cool off efficiently. However, a few yrs ago, someone was
spraying their Arabian horse with alcohol water to cool off and they did a
50 in 3.5hrs in April LBJ in TX. Did not hear if there were
any problems with the horse after wards. It was a cool
day. All had a good ride.
One must use known do's and avoid known
don't and the rest seems to the luck of the draw and have 'the force with
you'. Good luck to all. mas
In a message dated 2/8/2005 9:31:55 AM Pacific Standard Time, mfarm@xxxxxxx writes:
Personally, shorter horses mean that I don't have to be as flexible
in reaching the stirrup and it's just that much closer to the ground if
one comes off...which is nice since I don't bounce as well as I did when
I was 15!
YEAH! I am SO THERE. Our 15 plus hand mare and our young 4 year old 15
plus hand stallion are SO HARD for me to board now - well with a bad anjkle...
but our 14.2 and 14.3 hand brickhouses, now that works just fine.
