I’m watching the WIHS Pony Eq and wondering if there should be an age limit on riding ponies. I see riders who look enormous on their larges, and who also compete in the juniors and the medals, and wonder if this is really fair to the younger kids (and to the ponies). We cap the ages for smalls and mediums, why not cap the age on larges, too? Thoughts?
No. There are plenty of small juniors who look fine on large ponies.
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I don’t think so, But suitability should count (where allowed), whether it is a junior riding a pony in children’s divisions or an adult riding a pony in adult divisions.
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Some 14 year olds do Medals and Larges. Some larger looking kids are still younger then they look. Most of the Juniors do leave pigtails and Ponyland as soon as they start doing the Junior Hunters (3’3-3’6"), the ones that stay do so because they are trainers kids or terrifically talented catch riders still on the petite side riding 6 figure sale Ponies. Size doesn’t necessarily equal age…or ability.
IMO the ages are fair as they are now.
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If anything, I think there need to be more classes, divisions, and championships that are open to and geared toward adults riding large ponies and small horses. I think there’s a growing problem with inflation of expected size for sport horses. It’s only in the last ten years or so I’ve seen an uptick in ISO ads requiring “at least 16 hands” and apparently the hunter ring is such these days that even a big-strided smaller-than-16 horse is unlikely to be competitive because they look like they are working too hard to hit the stride numbers for the course. As far as older kids vs younger kids, I think it’s fine to divide classes based on years showing, but there any number of “little” kids that have been riding since they were in diapers that can clean the clock of “big” kids that have just started. And if you are going to be hung up on size, the “little” kids shouldn’t be riding in the large pony divisions, anyway.
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@Toblersmom as an adult who just recently moved on from a jumper pony and got a horse, my kingdom for pony classes for adults. I love ponies, I speak their language. I can do horses, they’re fun too, but man I feel like I speak pony and would love to have classes geared towards adults on ponies. They would have to have some intense cross entry restrictions for the ponies though, can’t be shown by an adult and a junior at the same show or you would just use shamateurs to school them.
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why is it “unfair?” I’m not trying to be snarky but genuinely curious about opinions re: the fairness of the large pony division. In my opinion, there’s no reason a junior shouldn’t be allowed to ride a large at age 15,16, or 17. There are cross entry restrictions with the children’s ponies where yes, maybe it WOULD be unfair - but that’s based on jump height (which I equate to skill) not age.
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Smalls are restricted to riders 12/u. Mediums to riders 14/u. That’s for the regular divisions, not the green divisions. But there are some restrictions.
I think the rules as they are now are appropriate and fair. There are already age limits in place for small, mediums and larges in the regular divisions and just because a rider seems too big doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t young either. I do think suitability should be considered when being judged.
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I don’t think anyone is saying the large division is unfair. I think the divisions are appropriately broken out by age. But in the case of an EQ final the older kids who are doing 3’6" medals and also doing 3’ pony medals against Sally Small who is 8 and jumping 2’3", well, that might not be a level playing field there.
Isn’t that exactly what the OP is saying in the last sentence?
I’d have to agree with trubandloki here - the OP specifically asks about capping age on larges. It isn’t about Eq, or at least that isn’t how I read the post - it’s about an age limit on “riding ponies.” The rules also prohibit a rider from doing both the USEF pony and USEF 3’6 at the same show - now, WIHS doesn’t have similar rules (I don’t think) but the question was just about riding ponies in general and ages in question.
I don’t think it’s “fair” that I have to compete in my little 3’ adult medal against the college girls who ride on NCAA teams and come home for the summer but hey, the horse world is never fair, in my eyes :lol:
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I may be being dense… lack of caffeine, horse show coma… Does the OP mean age limit as in adults? I am confused. The age on ponies, generally, is juniors excluding the few that may be in a class permitted spec? What am I missing.
Juniors, medals, and younger children… no mention of adults since they don’t ride in those 
I’m going to throw my hat in the ring here as another supporter of adults riding ponies (and smaller horses). I realize that some tiny women ride large horses beautifully (hello, Ros Canter) and prefer larger mounts. But for many of us older, short ammies, it’s just a happier experience to regularly ride a mount that’s a better fit for your leg, size-wise. I also admit that I just like ponies for reasons I can’t quite explain.
That being said, this doesn’t mean that ponies are necessarily “easier” to ride than horses, so I certainly have no problem with older teens riding an appropriately-sized pony mount. What I’ve usually seen is the opposite–a twelve year-old kid who still loves her pony being nudged into horses, despite the fact she’s still five feet tall.
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Actually 13 for smalls now
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Another vote for leaving the ages as they are and that you can’t tell the age of a kid by their size. My daughter is still young enough to ride a regular small for another two years, but you’d never guess by looking at her as she is very tall and has a mature face. She still fits on larges, but now looks ridiculous on smalls and mediums, even though she’s years away from aging out of mediums. In contrast, there are girls out there that she competes against that are older than her, yet half her size and still have baby faces. So, those bigger kids on the larges may not be as old as you think and those teeny little ones on the smalls may not be as young as you think. Ponies are fun. Even teenagers love them. If you fit and you’re a junior and you want to ride them, have at it.
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But that has a great deal more to do with training (for equine and rider), skill and experience, rather than rider age or mount height. That bit is already addressed (to some extent, anyway) with the various rules about not being able to compete in division “x” once you have jumped height “y,” as far as I can tell, but I’m not much in the show scene and don’t know all the details.
Watching some of those videos coming out of the Dublin horse show of their pony jumping finals, it wouldn’t be “fair” for one of those fierce little kidlets on their wee sleekit beasties to be competing against my fat-old-returning-rider self and my green-and-lazy-with-it-small-horse in the local two foot “jumper” class at a schooling show.
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I’d vote to allow for adults on ponies as well, or maybe just pony jumpers. I am super short and would be interested in doing pony jumpers if the right pony came along. The pony jumper division usually does not fill and allowing adults might help that a bit. It might allow an adult who owns a pony to show where otherwise they would not. Adults can show ponies in the adult jumpers but the strides are a bit dicey in the combinations for ponies.
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I think this is where the question is solved - it isn’t age, it’s skill. And that is hard to regulate by “capping the age in the larges.” Augusta Iwasaki is what, 14? 15? Tiny kid, even for her age. She can beat the pants off of some kids who are 17 in the larges (now, I’m not talking about the fact that she rides in the 3’6 juniors or medals. Just the fact that on age - and age alone - you cannot determine fairness.)
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