Can stables weigh my daughter rather than accept my word?

[TheQuaintLemonDuck]

Are stables entitled to weigh my daughter rather than just take my word for it?

12 stone is way, way, too heavy for a 12hh pony. Absolutely absurd. The poor pony.

I'd be more interested in the X-rays, back & joint scans especially years down the line.

I'm sure she's a beautiful gentle rider but that is going to be damaging that pony.

You don't see spinal & joint damage until it's too late.

When I was a teenager working as a stable girl I was tasked with exercising show ponies sometimes. It was horrible because I was too heavy for them and it was cruel. I was 8 stone.

12 stone! I actually can't get over someone thinking that is ok.

Too heavy at 8 stone? How big were these ponies, 9HH?

😂

I'm sure she's an excellent rider... but she's still too heavy for that horse.

11-12hh and used to carrying 6 year olds.

There is absolutely no way any 12 stone person can ride lightly enough for a 12hh pony. Without seeing conformation it's hard to be exact but I would think 7 to 8 stone at the absolute maximum.

Stop it! It doesn't matter if she rides "lightly" or is a sack of potatoes in the saddle, 12 stone is still 12 stone and is far too heavy for a pony of that size. You are abusing that poor animal. That's a fact. I don't need a video to know otherwise.

Plus an 8 stone rider is probably closer to 10 when you add on riding gear and a saddle.

very happy to show you...

how tall were they?

There is nothing you could show that would make 12stone on a 12hh pony ok.

Please do. An anonymous sideways on shot of her mid section in a saddle that fits the pony would be great

I’m not a rider. I don’t understand how a jockey /rider can ride a horse lighter

surely it’s still weight in their back

esp if rider is standing up on stirrups - it’s still weight

As people have said on the thread, it's not really so much a case of (literally) riding lighter, as of course weight is weight, it's more a case of developing balance which means you are making it easier for the horse to carry the weight.

A bit like dancers/gymnasts/acrobats who train and practice so that they can do tricks and stunts involving being carried and thrown around by their partners with apparent ease - it looks as though the performer is doing nothing but it takes a lot of strength and skill on the carried/thrown partners part as well as the thrower/ carrier, the latter couldn't necessarily perform the same trick as well with an untrained and unbalanced person even of the same or lighter weight than their trained partner - but not to the point where you can defy the laws of physics and actually weigh less than you do. I'm not a performer myself but I'm sure relative weights are a thing there too, where no matter how well trained, fit and skilled both are, a 12 stone + dancer couldn't do those kind of thrown/jump tricks if her partner is a small lightweight child-sized person (which is the kind of analogy we're talking here), or rather couldn't do them safely and effectively?

Why would you even question it? If you make any fuss , that’s your card marked, just know that 🤣

It is a thing - think about when you give someone a piggyback ride. How they hold themselves on you can massively change how heavy they feel and how easy you find carrying them.

Also, "standing up on stirrups" isn't actually something that a (good) rider does - when they look like that's what they are doing, usually the knees are taking some of the weight so the weight distribution is more even across the horse's back.

There is obviously still a limit and 12 stone is definitely over that limit!

But a ln 8stone experienced and good rider will be easier for a pony to carry than a 7stone complete beginner.

12 stone at that height is obese. Poor pony. Animal abuse and boasting about it 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thank you @maxelly and @Flushitdownfor the explanation

I think it would be quite unusual for a girl to ride the same pony a year later as kids grow so much in a year. Unless she was a very experienced rider riding a very large pony last year. But that sounds unlikely if she only goes to pony club once a year.

Please do.

I think though the difficulty this thread is illustrating is that there is no agreed / accepted welfare standard on rider weight - without that how can photos prove anything, it's all going to be subjective opinion on what's 'fine' or not. I think for most of us we accept the 15% guide as the best we have but acknowledging it's not based on particularly robust research - there are a lot of compounding factors that it's hard to eliminate/ control for such as saddle fit, rider skill, fitness and soundness of the horse. It all also gets a bit existential doubt-y, how do we define 'harm' or damage to a horse's welfare from being ridden, there's an argument that says no horse is evolutionarily designed to be ridden, so no amount of riding is 'good' for them - similar sorts of arguments apply to things like children's contact sports or competitive /intensive gymnastics or dance - arguably the safest thing is to just not do the sport at all but that isn't helpful in designing safety standards!

I still personally believe that the 15% is a good rule, and future research is only likely to suggest a downwards amendment not upwards. I.e. even if all possible factors are positive (well fitting saddle, skilled/fit/balanced rider, horse fit and in good health, light/short work, suitable surface), the 15% guidance would still be your maximum/limit and if some of those factors are more towards the negative e.g. beginner rider, galloping/ jumping then it should be less weight for the horse to carry.

With that in mind I can't imagine how any photo is going to prove to me it's fine for a 12 stone rider to ride a 12.2 pony, it's just not physically possible for a (healthy) 12.2 to weigh 80 stone/ 500kg and that's before you account for clothing and tack and any excess bodyweight the pony is carrying. And I would never, ever encourage people to post identifiable pics of their children on public forums, and frankly would find it quite creepy for us (and remember you don't know who any of us are/our motivation) to pick over details of her body in that way.

Its about controlling your weight. Think of it like carrying your kids. It's easier to pick up a child who is holding on and actively balancing themselves on your hip than a child who is asleep and a complete dead weight.

done. and one of her jumping for good measure. Tell me a pony would do that jump if they was unhappy.. no way

Where’s the photo? Also, ponies will do a lot of things through considerable pain. It also absolutely will have a long term affect on its joints.