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.

I don't buy the incorrect weight being some innocent mistake. Embarrassment at her daughter's weight at the very least.

She didn’t say she knew her weight but you can have a rough idea. 🙄

Oh grow up.

@MasterBeth No need to be nasty to others just because you have issues around weight.

In the majority of places, the organiser would have told the child she was too overweight for the pony they’d allocated and she’d have to return at another time when they have a suitable horse available.

Unlike you, the OP is an obviously a kind hearted person because she put a lot of extra effort into ensuring that this girl could still participate in all the activities without compromising the health of the animals.

I’m obese and it does stop you doing certain activities so what’s to be gained by pretending otherwise?

i loved reading this, i miss riding and it made me yearn to go hacking around the welsh mountains again.. but alas, i am too fat and too disabled these days to even contemplate it.. bit like MT xD

I hope you and the girls all enjoy today, and give MT a scritch for me.

I'm fat but OP has done nothing wrong. Not fair to overload a pony and the mum caused OP a big headache needing to source a horse while she was trying to supervise minors at the same time. Need to be honest where pony welfare is concerned

Lovely story for the day, I was laughing so loud at your recounting the days hack on MT, so had to read through your posts for my daughter.
Reminded me of ver happy days at Sinderhope. Xxxxx many years ago
Meant to say, we really appreciated your efforts to make sure the girl had a great time, and didn’t feel embarrassed by anything.
what a lovely person you are

I, and I'm sure most others, read "slightly wobbly" as the girl being an unsure rider on a horse that's a little too big and spirited for her.

you do realise that the reference to her 'wobbling' on James was that he is a HUGE motherfucker at 18.2hh and was too wide for her, right?

If she's practically doing the splits on him, then her seat won't be secure because her legs aren't long enough to get around his middle and sit in the stirrups properly... that will make you 'wobble' in the saddle.

Very resourceful OP. You sound very kind .It's also good to hear that your horses are not having to carry extra weight ,which must be a strain for them.

How do you know she is 3 stone heavier - I can’t judge anyone’s mass by my eye

Well, that’s a you problem. You certainly can, and pretty accurately as well. Lots of medicines that are dosed on a weight basis that need to be given in emergencies, you easily eyeball people right from newborn to elderly, and can get it in the right ballpark very quickly. I have never seen anyone stand there and say sorry, no idea. Even sub-par juniors generally have a pretty good idea. To top it off they can even quite accurately estimate height of someone laying down. So, definitely a deficiency on your end there.

Another fan here! OP you are amazing and I would definitely buy your books if you have time to pen something! How about something like ‘The Secret Life of the Riding School’? Well done for the massive efforts you went through to protect and accommodate the girl. Reading this made me laugh and feel nostalgic for riding in equal measure :)

Also I am officially in love with Major Tom 😍

You could write a book just about him and his life (please?) 😁

For clarification. James is mammoth. His parents were a shire and an irish sport horse. He takes after both for size. I am 5.7. If I give James a hug, I can rest my head in the curve of his shoulder without bending down. That along with the fact that he was more preoccupied trying to bite the rider in front does not make for a particularly smooth ride.

No one is body shaming anyone. If you read back, you'll see that the reason I couldn't ride knobhead or Benji myself was because I'm too heavy for them. I'm over 16 stone myself and this complicated matters. This was the sole reason for bringing someone out of retirement.

MT was the largest other horse on the property at 16.3hh and I knew he could carry me comfortably even as a beginner so it was a fair bet that he still could.

Currently watching them doing tandem trotting poles, it's hilarious but I think we might need a new lunge whip after this. 😄

No, she didn't put in a lot of extra effort. She remembered a horse.

She will know the reason. Poor girl and shame on her mother.

Op you have a great writing style. I'm no horsey person but I was invested in the story and those horses have such personalities

You’re a diamond 💎 what a lot of effort to make a girl happy.

This. I rode a horse this big once and had ridden for years, I was 5'4 and they had to get me a box to stand on to even mount the damn thing. I could not get his trot gait at all, I eventually fell/got off (landed on my feet) when we cantered, it was just too big. The only other horse for me as we were out on Woodbury Common was the "bolter" which the girl who worked at the stables was riding. Yep, it was a bolter! I arrived back at the stable yard way before everyone else. To this day I do not know how stayed on that horse

He wasn't forgotten. He's RETIRED. Hence why none of his bloody tack fits anymore.

Oh do tell us what they’re up to now? Reading all this this morning has awoken the pony mad girl in me! 😆

What’s after trotting poles and did James recover from his humiliation yesterday?

Perhaps clearly say that you need an exact weight in kilos when people sign up? The reason i say that is because we don't have scales at home (eating disorders aplenty in our house so it's a way we manage) ... and I guess when i have to fill in forms for my kids, but I genuinely have NO CLUE. We got an urgent summons to the GP once because I had said DD15 was 7 stone (she is really really tall and thin). She is 9 stone so skinny, but not needing to be hospitalised for force feeding. On the intake form, I would be clearer about why you need to know and how it helps and that guessing is not good enough. Well done for sorting this out for this girl but to prevent similar in future ...

My daughter has horses and is an Equine Veterinary nurse. She read your post, laughed out loud and says you sound WONDERFUL!!!

Agreed. That was my reading of it.

I'm obese myself - 5ft 9 and 14st 8. At my fattest I was 16st 4. I have insecurities over my weight, but they don't affect my reading comprehension.

I'd love to start riding again. I'm just one 13st and struggle to find a stables that take annyone over 12st. ☹️