5’3" and short legged. My horse is 15.3 and he is perfect. I have ridden EVERYTHING and competed (in eventing and some jumpers) things from large ponies to 17.2ish. The big dude was a blast and I loved him to pieces, but he was way too big…we used to joke that I needed to do a three point turn to make it through the short end of a dressage ring. My preferred size is 15-15.3, but I am also partial to ponies.
Just under 5’5" and my gelding is a 17+hand BWP. I was looking for a small horse and ended up with an oversized one. He isn’t too wide though so I never feel like I can’t get my leg around him. I don’t think we look bad but maybe I am delusional about it.
5’3" and my current guy is 16.3 hh (though my first was 15.2, second maybe 15 on a good day and rode one last summer that was about 15.1). Hmmm…
I’m right at 5’5". I have two horses. My older mare is 15.2 and 1/2h and my younger horse just squeeks by 15.2h with her shoes on. My older mare is a bit fuller bodied than the younger horse, although she may fill out some as she still needs some weight. I like a touch smaller horses as I do lots of different things(trail riding being one). I like that with a smaller horse my old body does not have as far to fall in the chance that I take a header, and if I need to get off for some reason, I can plant my horse next to an available obstacle to get back on.
I’m 5’2". My current horses are 15.2 1/2 and 16.2.
5.4 3/4 with long legs on a 17.2 h paint of all things. Also have a 16.1 wb. The medium sized 16.2 leased wb was my best fit.
I’m 5’3" and my mare is around 16.3.
I’m 5’1" and my gelding is 16.3.
I am 5’3’’ and my mare is a hair (or two) over 16h and she is SO perfect for me. Sat on a big 17H1 yesterday and felt so weird. I love my little sport car 
I am 5’1" and my guys are 15.2, 15.3 3/4, and 15.1 1/2. I have short legs and found that my leg isn’t very effective on the larger horses.
I’m 5’1. My gelding is 16.3, filly is right around 16hh, and my mom’s mare is about 15.2. The 15.2 hander is the most ideal size for me, but takes up more leg than the filly and less than the 16.3 hander. I think the filly will be just right when she’s done - I intentionally wanted narrower types due to my size, and prefered 15.2-ish, but few nice warmbloods seem to be that height that I could find. I absolutely would have considered once of those supposedly harder to sell shorter warmbloods when I was looking if I had found one who was a good match for me!
In college I tended to either ride our 14-something morgan or the 17.2 perch-cross. I actually enjoyed both, but my favorites were in the 15.2-16 range, especially when it came time to jump - they felt big enough to get over the jumps without feeling too big to control before and after the jumps.
5’2", the old man who I bought as a foal knowing he’d be big is 17.1 and my new boy is 15.0:)
LetItBe
I’m 5’0" and my horse is 18.1" /1600lbs. He is a BIG guy, not just tall. I know that sounds ridiculous, but he is so talented and we get along so well that he has become my heart horse despite our mismatch.
5’3", 15.3 and 16.2. I wanted something smaller when I bought the 15.3, but he was just too perfect a match for me to not buy him. The 16.2 wasn’t supposed to get that tall - one of the many perils of raising your own.
5’4 long torso short legs
1st horse 16.3 might have been 17h OTTB slab sided started off slender and then filled out big. Loved him but hard to wrap my legs around to hang on for the round jump he had!
2nd horse-15.3h dainty OTTB mare not slab sided… Perfect fit for my short legs & I look proportional!
I am just short of 5’2":). I ride a 14 hand Connemara/Welsh cross, and a 16.3 Dutch horse.
The pony has a big step, and the Dutchman is slab sided. It makes them both easy to sit on in their own way.
I’m 5’1’’ and ride everything. I feel a little ridiculous on the small ponies, mostly because I’m 22 and kind of still fit them, and feel less ridiculous on the 17h+ warmbloods because that is more what I’m used to riding. My short stirrup “pony” was a 16.1h TB, my jumper was 17.2H, but my OTTB resell was 16.0h. I ride a lot of ponies as well because of my size.
That said, height is such a small part of it. I feel much more ridiculous on a 15.2H draft than I do on a 17.1H slab sided TB. The big horse with a flat jump with much easier for me than the little one with the back cracking round hunter jump!
I’m probably in the minority here, but I have never put much stock in a horse being “too big” for a rider (looks aside!) I just don’t believe that when an animal is 1000+ lbs, that an extra few inches is going to make much of a difference. I think that having less leg to wrap around might make it more of a challenge, but I think that just results in a more educated and effective leg in the long run.
Also, average height for a woman in the United States is 5’4’’ so thats not actually short! It just feels that way amongst the tall rider ladies :lol:
I’m 5’3" and ride 15.2-16.1 hh. Prefer nothing larger than 16.2. I want to feel like I can get my leg around the horse.
I prefer smaller horses anyway, don’t quite get the fascination people have with the 17 hand+ mammoths… no thank you!
I"m 5’4" and change (which I hate, I wish I was smaller), and averagely proportioned. My gelding is 16.3h, possibly 17h by now. When I got him he was a wee 16.1 at four years old and I felt huge on him, but he’s filled out and grown up and he’s actually pretty large.
I personally love the little rider/big horse provided the rider’s leg is decent length. My leg comes up about 8 inches past my horse’s belly but everyone says we look well suited. He’s pretty proportionally built, too, except for a somewhat long neck. He’s not clunky but he’s also not what anyone would call wispy.
But really, who cares who is what size as long as you both feel comfortable and effective.
just shy of 4’9". Ponies are small large and large medium. I also work a PMU mare, I think 15.2ish
