Really irritated with this girls mother.

[Balloonhearts]

More of a vent than anything.

I work at a riding school who do weekend pony clubs in the summer, and a longer one over the holidays.

We match the riders to their ponies based on height, weight and experience/temperament.

One of my group is very overweight. Three stone heavier than her mother said she is on her form. She cannot ride the pony assigned to her or any of the ponies. She needs a horse. Which would have been fine if we knew when she booked.

Now I'm desperately trying to find a suitable mount before the 3 o clock hack so I don't have to tell this sweet girl that she is unable to go on the hack due to her weight.

WHY do people do this? Just be honest ffs! If we had the right numbers, she would have been given one of the horses but now there is no one suitable left.

This reminds me of when I was like little, about 8 or 9, and we went to summer camp.
It was Christian-related but anyone could attend.
There was a girl whose parents sent her who should have sent her to some sort of specialist camp, if those even existed back then.
She couldn’t keep up, she couldn’t communicate and after a few days the older girls began to bully her.
I remember her because I got bullied too.
She dragged her feet on a 3-mile dusty hike and the girls yelled at her to pick up her feet.
She ate by herself. She did crafts by herself. She did everything by herself.
She had no friends for a for 7 days.
I could’ve been her friend - but she was different, and weird, and now I’m so ashamed of myself.
I bet this little overweight girl has the same issues. She’s “different” too.

Blimey - so clean! Should see my piebald!

Fly sheets work wonders lol

He is beautiful and you never know he may have loved company of retirement for a couple of hours seeing as he was with you x

Wow OP - your riding school is very generous with weight limits! I'm fat and would never get on a horse regardless of size (quite apart of the fact that I'll fall off as soon as it starts moving 🤪 ). I have never heard of a riding school allowing riders over 14 stone to ride their horses.

We sadly know a short but very stocky teenager (although nowhere near 13 stone!) who bought a TINY pony - honestly looks like a foal size-wise. He can't be more than 10 hh. It totally breaks my heart that some scrupulous seller sold this little pony to her 😥 I want to buy him off her every time I see her instagram posts, but I don't think she'd sell him. She's not a great rider either and very bouncy on his tiny back 😭 it's abuse in my books

Could you train a shire horse to hack?

Maybe you need to report this before the pony is injured

@DurinsBane it’s a bit of a myth that just because they are big that shires are great weight carriers , they are known more for their strength with pulling etc

My cousin owns a stable, has 2 huge horses that carry the 14 stone plus riders. But like I saw these horses are big strong boys…

Asked owner what happened and she apparently said that she didn't want her daughter to be given a big mount in case she fell off. She thought smaller was safer so adjusted the weight accordingly.

Oh dear. She'd have hated the horse I learnt to ride on as an adult (part shire)... he was huge but very safe and steady... a gorgeous, soppy old horse. I have to admit to being happy to progress onto riding smaller horses (he was really far too big for me 🤣), but I'll never forget him, he was lovely!

Whichever way you spin it, she's either incredibly stupid, or cruel and selfish. It's almost definitely the latter but since you want to believe she is that thick...

Report her to whom? 🙁 I honestly would but who would do anything about it? It's at a private livery yard - not a riding school.

That should say unscrupulous seller by the way in my above post*

Her mother filled in the form?

You sound lovely and incredibly responsible, respectful and are taking the feelings of this young girl into account too .
Mum should have been honest !
We went as a one off pony trek in Skye ( inexperienced riders but apparently as a child I had a natural affinity but parents stopped taking me )
The woman said we were all good to go just looking at us ( husband didn’t as he’s too tall so obviously also too heavy for the ponies ) at that time girls were ages 9 , 12 and I weighed only 51kilos

Maybe her horse/pony could be ‘ill’?! Cancel and refund?!

Cancel the cheque

I did read the thread.

I remember my Mum worrying that I was 13 and 10 stone. I don't understand how you can watch your child be double the weight they should be. She'd have squashed a pony.

If you’ve read the thread why are you suggesting this now?

You haven't seen James lol. I'm over 16 stone and still less than 17% of his weight. And he is a healthy weight. He's just fucking massive. Even getting on from the mounting block, you have to hike your leg up like you're getting on a pony.

For the purpose of breaking the bad news to this poor kid and her mother, put it from the ponies' point of view, like so: "Copper, Jenny and Fritz can each carry up to xx kg but I'm afraid they can't manage the total weigh-in figure for you of XX kg." You can do a bit of face-saving by explaining that the saddle, hat etc all get included which must be why their information was so far out hem-hem; and possibly throw in insurance terms Then propose an alternative date when there is a horse available for her to ride, smile sweetly at mother and explain how very crucial it is to be accurate when filling in the form.

It's an animal welfare as well as a safe riding issue, you really haven't been left any choice with this.

You sound like a lovely person, honestly! I laughed at your descriptions of the horses lol but good on you. If only there were more people like you the world would surely be a better place.
God bless