I tried and LOVED a super tiny mare that was probably 15hh on a good day. Reference the video but if theyve got the stride and the scope there’s no reason to discount the tiny horse.
Let’s not forget Teddy from the Eventing world jumping around Rolex in 2007 - under 14.2 and a pony!! http://www.horsestarhalloffame.org/inductees/15/theodore_oconnor.aspx
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Hi SuperShorty, we communicated some time ago about your CWD saddle. I used to post as Farmgirl but I goofed up my user name somehow as I hadn’t posted in a long time, so I started over. As a tech person, I’d make a good brick layer. Our horses both have In Reality, among others, in their breeding.
I have a 7yo, 15.2 (on a tall day 
jumper who is easily and very successfully doing the 1.35. He’ll definitely do the 1.40 and we’ll see where we go after that. His step is massive - he can readily leave one out, sometimes I have to convince him that leaving two out is probably not a great idea.
I bought him in Europe as a 6yo, and given that he had jumped only clear rounds at the 5yo championship and through his entire 6yo year, his size most definitely made him the only way I could afford him. I’m about 5’8" so I would have assumed I’d feel huge on him, but I don’t at all. I’ve realized that I can’t stand a short neck, but as long as a horse doesn’t have that, small size doesn’t bother me. I did have to buy new blankets - I didn’t own any 75", but hey, he got to have a whole new, not hand-me-down wardrobe.
And I thought it was hysterical that this winter, in the schooling ring at a show, my groom overheard the people one schooling jump over having a debate about whether he was an actual pony 🤣.
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There are a lot of really top Showjumpers who are under 16 hands. McLain has a mare now, a little bay thing, that is winning the 5* GPs and is reported to be 15.2.
The issue is that you can’t ever sell one for near jumping ability value, so if you want a keeper, go for it. if you want a project to train and make a profit on, you are burning dollars unless it actually turns out to go to McLain et al. I for one would totally shop for a 15.3 star, and I’m 5’10 in my stocking feet. but resale, it’s not there.
I don’t think that its accurate to say you cant sell them for market value, at least not if you’re talking competitive fei horses. Actual competitive riders don’t care how tall the horses are, they care if they’re fast and can jump.
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The best, most athletic, bravest and cattiest horse I ever had was my little 15-2 ( with shoes on LOL) Mare! She had a huge stride and took me to the 1.15m and a few 1:20m easily…the only reason we didn’t go bigger was because “I” was t ready! It’s not the size of horse but everything else… remember horses like Hickstead were not big but large in heart and talent!
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In my opinion as far as the actually jumping goes, size doesn’t always matter. I have a 15hh mare who can easily jump over 1.20m with plenty of scope. Then theres my 16.2hh gelding who also loves to jump but struggles with anything over 3 feet. It really just depends on the horse.
I agree with this. I got plenty of offers for my mare that were appropriate for what she was doing (and she had the extra ding against her of being a TB). If it’s winning, I don’t think people care.
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As long as it is athletic it can jump just as high as a taller horse. And you do better in the jump off because you can make the tight turns.
For some reason Ammys want these massive horses, 17 and 18 h horses. However if you go stand next to the warm up ring for the GP jumpers you will realize that most horses are 16h or so, and a few are smaller. There definitely are 17.2 h horses doing the GP, but most are about 15.3-16.2
Interestingly (at least to me) a lot of recent top derby horses have been on the smaller side too.
I would almost think that we are swinging back towards liking smaller horses, if not for standing next to the 2’6” hunter ring at WEF and seeing giant horses lumber by.
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As a short ammy (5’2), the giant horses obsession for ammies (and juniors!) blows my mind. I have met a few giant 17+ horses I can ride, but I never feel comfortable on them and I end up waterskiing half the time. The fitness it takes to ride a giant horse over a big track, yikes. I can’t produce that as a single horse owner ammy. I have seen many ammies and juniors get trucked around the jumper ring on giant horses. They aren’t competitive because they don’t have control and often plow through rails or totally miss inside turns. It doesn’t even look like fun, but the horse jumps the height and makes the step easily so I guess that’s what they were after? I’m sure the pros enjoy riding them in training rides and classes.
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Gazillion (40) years ago, I had a 15.1 mare who struggled at 3’6" (3’, 3’3" her best) but boarded where the owners had a 14.0 (hot, Hot, HOT!) Half-Arabian mare who could jump 4’ without blinking. On the other hand, there was less concern about ‘making the strides’, and my short-strided mare was SO adjustable that I could easily add a stride and make it look smooth. Of course, I didn’t place over the popular Thoroughbreds at the time—they definitely were fancier and bigger than my Morgan. And I preferred eventing, anyway.
So much of it is how they are built, too. My guy is just barely over 16hh but is built like a tank–people always think he’s much bigger than he is because he takes up so much leg. He has a ginormous stride that works best at the bigger heights. Lower heights we just sort of romp around. A four stride set for horses doing 3’ can be an easy three for us.
The other day my friend was schooling her much taller horse (he’s about 17hh and a bit), through a triple combination that was a two to a seven, set fairly open. She had to push to get her horse down the line whereas I had to make mine sit on his butt and compact his stride to get through it evenly.
I also had a very large young horse who was just passing 17.2hh on his fifth birthday–he was a big guy all around, except that he was fairly short coupled. Making him sit and use himself from behind wasn’t all that hard, compared to other horses that are longer-backed. As he developed it got easier and easier to get him light in front and working over his back, so that I didn’t feel like I was on a baby dinosaur, even though he looked like one!
I like a horse that can use itself well, by training and/or conformation, and is able to adjust itself without me feeling like I’m in a wrestling match. I’m very short in my torso but I have longish legs, so I can get my leg around a variety of horse shapes and sizes. Therefore, the height of the horse matters less to me than how well it uses itself, and that is often training more than anything.
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I think the big horses make the jumps look smaller. Maybe good for some amateurs?
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I’m a former daredevil jumper who lost all nerve after having my children. Can I tell you that picture makes me want to high 5 you from the ground where I just might be curled up in the fetal position swigging straight whiskey from my flask ?? :lol:
I agree with the last few posters, too. Why did giant horses became so popular for AAs in any discipline? I’m a high-level athlete in another sport and in better shape than probably 95% of my age group. I can often ride horses that better riders my age can’t by sheer virtue of functional strength and balance and I’ve ended up riding some real beast masters that scared their owners. Huge horses require so much rider strength to put together. And tend to be intimating to handle on the ground if you’re not used to it. Yet in dressage especially you see all these timid AA that started riding in their 50’s mounted on 18+hh horses that they’re terrified to even lead from the trailer to the ring. I suppose the theory in jumping is the bigger the horse the more easily it can step over the fence if it has to?
Look at human athletes. Very tall and large humans are predisposed towards cardiovascular issues and are generally not as fast and maneuverable as smaller counterparts. In football, it’s the defensive players that don’t have to move around much that are the huge guys. The gym I go to is owned by a PT who is an expert in biomechanics for athletes. NFL players come from all over during the off season. These guys are offensive players. They’re not huge. Most are under 6’ tall and are well-muscled but not bulky. They’re incredibly strong and incredibly fast. If they were horses, they would be the smaller to average sized ones. The defensive linemen are the 17+hh WB type.
Ever see that video from the 2018 Dublin Horse Show? An 18 yo pony piloted by a 9yo went clear twice to win the 128cm jump off. (It’s a terrifying round to watch for Americans due to the speed, but, hey. It’s Ireland!) IIRC the pony is 12.1. If it can get around a course of 4’ 3’ jumps with big spreads, stands to reason that a 15.2hh horse can, too.
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I think riders think bigger horse=less frightening jump heights.
however, in my experience I would rather ride a smaller horse and have a bad distance than a big horse and have a bad distance. It’s almost like they can’t get out of the way of themselves quick enough when sh** hits the fan.
Yeah sometimes I’m eye level with the top pole, but my little horse can launch himself from a bad distance and save my butt while my big horse will just end up plowing through the jump poles.
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The jumps definitely look less intimidating when you’re sitting higher. It’s like driving an SUV compared to my little coupe. I think too many people assume that the bigger horse is easier to jump higher, but it doesn’t always work out that way. The best jumper I ever rode was about 15.3 with shoes on. Basically point him at a jump and stay out of his mouth and he’d figure out how to get over it. Collected canter? Full out gallop? Just pick a pace and aim for the center and you’d better hand on cause he felt like he was on springs when he took off.
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Ah, yes. Pole plowing. :lol: At my daughter’s old barn they got a 14.3ish draft hony that had been an Amish plow horse. He’d been out of the Amish a long time and had done low level Pony Clubbing, etc, but had been standing around in a field for a few years. He was probably 1300 lbs, built like a Sherman tank, and dreadfully out of shape. But gosh,was he a trier and just wanted to make everyone happy. Their already abbreviated jumping session ended after he gamely trucked towards the X rail and tried to lift off but his front end just didn’t cooperate. You could see the look in his eyes as he desperately weighed his remaining options - stop? duck out? - before he chose what he felt would be the most people -pleasing option - trucking on THRU the jump. The rails were PVC so it looked like a life-sized game of Jenga exploded. It was even funnier because the look on his face was so cute. Like, look-it! I found a way even though I couldn’t lift my feet off the ground!
It occurred to me that part of the giant horse thing may also be the perception in some horse circles that WB are calmer and easier to manage for AA. You see posts on here all the time: Junior’s parents are looking at an OTTB that came off the track 5 years ago! What are they thinking?? The humanity! Won’t anyone think of the children!?! Truthfully, most of the high-quality WBs I’ve met are way more, uh,extra than a TB the same age.
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In my experience there seems to be three types of warmblood; the totally normal brained ones, the super, super dumb ones, and the flighty ones.
In TBs, there seem to be the normal brained ones, the hot but smart ones, and the crazy ones.
luckily the crazy ones are rare compared to the others. But those crazy ones give all the others a bad rep.
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I’ve always attributed some of the penchant for larger horses in the timid AA ranks relating to balance and strength of the rider. A larger horses with a longer neck, in my mind, is going to be easier for someone who is in less control of their balance and upper body than something smaller with that short pony neck that disappears out from under you when/if they have to take a stutter step or something to recover from a bad distance.
As mentioned up thread, I am quite tall and I like a smaller horse personally, but jumping big fences I do have to be aware of how my height can easily influence their balance and I can attest to how quickly the smaller ones can disappear out from underneath you when they are naughty or something goes wrong. Although the average rider (men as well as other women haha) is shorter than me, I have always still felt or assumed that the longer necked horses provide a bit more of a “seatbelt” for a less fit or balanced greener rider and that’s where some of the trend towards them came from.
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