ridecamp@endurance.net: Size of Horse

Size of Horse

Bonnie Snodgrass (snodgrab@ncr.disa.mil)
Wed, 04 Jun 97 13:44:49 EST

Hate to ask such a newbie sounding question but like they say the only
dumb question is .......

I've slowly been looking for another horse now that I time to ride a
second one. By pure chance a local guy rode over to the farm to use
the trails on a little 4 yr old arab gelding. I had to go talk to him
about his horse of course so I could look it over. This little guy is
little, around 14 hands, not very wide, just been under saddle a few
times. Looks like he needs some groceries. The owner must weight in
near 190lb. The horse moves with a long, loose, fluid stride and
didn't appear to struggle with this man's weight at all.

My question is, is a horse this size capable of being competitive
carrying someone of my size, (135lb, 5'3") and not just being a finish
at the back kind of horse. Are there good 100 mile horses out there
that are this short? I'm not necessarily interested in "this" horse
but should I bother to look at the really little guys at all? My local
riding buddies all ride arabs in the 15.1-16 hand range that can
really cover ground and I'd eventually like to keep up with them.

Hope I get some input from you all.

Bonnie Snodgrass

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