A question. Since Dressage is an aesthetic sport, looking for movement, balance, and overall picture - do you think judges are biased a bit with smaller or huge horses, disproportionate to their riders? Often wondered that.
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5’11" and my horse is 16.0 if he is due for shoes. I think I look just fine on him and have never heard any negative comments.
Heather Blitz looks fantastic on him, too. 
It is very true that you have to use your leg properly and cannot rely on spurs.
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:lol: that’s what I thought when I read the horse and rider hgts. 5’6" is average to short in todays world.
Sizes in horse and rider is dependent on more than height. As others have stated, a big barreled horse can take a lot of leg and a longer horse can make up for a long torso’d rider. My least favorite body type of horse to ride is slab sided and low necked, no matter how tall.
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I’ve always thought many dressage people look too small on their horses - huge horses with small riders. In most other disciplines, the horses are much smaller - Morgans, Arabians, QHs, Andalusians, are seldom more then 15 to 16 hands. 16 hands is BIG for these breeds. So it all depends on what you are use to, I guess.
The general rule of thumb I’ve always heard is the rider shouldn’t be more then 20% to 25% of the weight of the horse. So if a 15 hand QH is 1000 pounds (they tend to be pretty solid), then rider of 170 plus tack still falls within that guidance. Until the Warmbloods came to America, MOST riding horses were smaller. So yeah, I think it does make it OK.
I don’t like seeing a huge person on a tiny horse, but I also see a lot of tiny people on huge horses - and they are struggling to be effective. I’m not sure that is OK either. And height of the horse is not the only issue - size of the body, a strong back, good bone, all are relevant.
You probably think I look ridiculous on my 14.2 hand Pony. But I get a lot of compliments on how well matched we are. So it is all relative.
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I remember seeing pictures of Podhajsky with his feet several inches below the belly of a Lipizaner stallion(s).
I LIKE small horses. I figure if Podhajsky could ride like that it really did not matter when my feet hung bellow the bottom of my Paso Fino mare’s belly, or a 12.2 or 13.2 hand ponies’ bellies.
Yes, it is harder to use a spur. That never really seemed to matter to me since I mostly use my calf for my leg aids, not my heel or spur. Even when my feet were below the horses’ belly they seemed to realize I was wearing spurs, and my spurs were always there when I needed to use them. The fact that I could not use the spurs all the time meant that when I did use them the horses KNEW I was serious.
I am 5’5" (long torso, long femurs, squat lower leg). I’ve had a string of smaller ones of late. Someone mentioned earlier that the barrel is important for taking up the leg, but really also the compact-ness of the horse can be an issue, or not. I’ve ridden quite a few smaller arabs in the 14-14.2 range and felt perfectly comfortable on them.
My mare was the exception. She was 15 hands, actually a smidge over. She had a deep chest and took my leg well. She was super compact, though: really short back, shorter neck, built uphill - looked like a shrunken WB. That horse was super hard for me to ride - I just couldn’t get comfortable sitting on her - and really it was more my upper body than anything. I just didnt have anywhere to put my arms - they couldn’t go where she needed them to be. Of course she was very talented- fancy little thing and did great showing. I ended up selling her to a more petite gal who was able to find her seat better than I ever could. Heartbreaker.
I have a 15.1 arab x - just a smidge taller, but my leg hangs lower on him - his barrel doesn’t take up my leg as well. However, he’s longer backed and longer necked than the mare - i have more horse front and back - makes a big difference. He is SO much easier for me to sit on and ride, though far less talented than the mare, of course…sigh.
My 16.2 stb feels like a giant after the 2 little guys. Talk about a huge difference both in size and way of going!
Height has never really bothered me and I’d never turn down a small horse just based on height alone. But my lesson learned with the mare is the overall conformation - that IMO is the biggest deal maker/breaker.
I think it makes a difference where your “height” is. I am 5’6" but have very long legs so I like a horse that has a barrel big enough for me to have appropriate contact. So along the same lines it may not be the height of the horse so much as how his barrel takes up your leg. When I read the title of this post I was thinking it would be a 6’ tall gal on a 14.2 horse!
I agree with others that proportions matter more than just heights. I’m 5’7" and prefer smaller horses (under 16hh) - it is very handy to be able to mount from the ground when out trail riding and I get vertigo on taller horses. My current mare is 15.3hh (might be 16.0hh now that she’s finished growing). She has a huge heart girth and well sprung ribs, but her neck is on the shorter side (although quite high set). Fortunately, I have a very short upper body and a very long femur but shorter calf. My leg doesn’t even look slightly long on her, but I do have trouble finding saddles that can deal with my long femur when I have my stirrups at jumping length. My upper body is short enough that the fact that she is more square than rectangular (with a short, but thankfully upright neck) is not a problem.
I have a very young rider student who is 5’11" and she just purchased a 16 hh horse. She looks fine. It’s not a big barreled WB either, it’s a TB.
Personally, I prefer a better rider height/horse height ratio, but I don’t think the judges care if the horse is well trained and ridden well.
I’m 5’7" and I’m happiest on a 17+ hand monster. To each his own. 
Why do you think he will only add 2 more inches by the time he’s done growing?
How tall are Dam and sire?
I was told the dam was 16.1; the sire is listed as 16.3. My boy just looks petite. When I got him in Feb, he was maybe 15.1hh, so he grew an inch since then. I think I’m extra anxious because this is my first young horse and there are so many unknowns, the most obvious one being height. Whether he has the talent, brain, etc to become a good riding horse is all still potential. One the one hand it’s all exciting and on the other, it scares the heck out of me because I have so much emotion, not to mention money, tied into this guy. Everybody’s stories have really helped me put at least this concern to rest.
One of my breeders just received her Bronze dressage medal on her 15.2h kind of small bodied horse. She is 5’9".
Exactly why I asked, to understand why OP is convinced her horse will only top out at 16hh.
I’m 6’0 and my mare is 16hh if she stretches a little :lol: She isn’t even particularly large-bodied - a TB, solid for a TB, but a TB nonetheless.
Somehow my only available photographic evidence is this absolutely awful indoor-arena-cellphone picture, but I think it illustrates that I am not a giant on her 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUx02-CAJ3WwMGddD4f2_hJJQDeEOYgSrXpvaM0/?taken-by=rszwn&hl=en
5’6 isn’t tall.
16 hands isn’t small.
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I’m 5’4" and ride a 13.2hand pony. I’ve never had a comment on a test other than well matched pair, or that my pony has great potential. I’m around a lot of dressage riders and trainers and no one has ever expressed that we don’t look well matched. I’ve only ever had people tell me they wish they had bought something smaller or their next horse will be smaller.
I will say that I have short legs and a taller torso so I think that can make it look more proportional.
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I’m 5’11" and primarily ride Arabians. I’ve never had a judge comment on my height. I think perhaps over fences, it would be easier on a larger horse to keep my center of gravity balanced, but as far as dressage, I like riding my sporty horses.
