How heavy are exercise riders?
I was going to go for jockey a year ago, but an accident and surgery left me with too much weight to even dream of getting back down to the weight required. But there’s nothing better than going for a nice gallop down the stretch 
So how heavy are your exercise riders?
The weights vary – we have 99 pound exercise riders here & 180 pound exercise riders – tending to stay under 130 for breezing.— if you use the search option above there’s been many threads concerning weights…
I’m 5’10 and 120-125 and I do everything from babies to gate work to breezing to daily galloping. I get my share of hard pullers too, which I prefer. I love my job 
Hubby started the season around 165 but looking at how his shorts are falling down without a belt I’m betting he’s down to around 155, maybe 150 right now. He gets on all of ours, from the 3 year old filly to the 10 year old man. He’s all upper body though, frog legs below.
I’m 5’1" and I’m at my heaviest at 140, still losing. I was actually at 137 this evening. I’m coming out of breast reduction (yay!) and attempting to get back down to my light weight, though most now is muscle. Glad to hear if I can find anyone that needs TB’s exercised in MI that I’m not too heavy.
I’m 5’8" and 125 but I don’t consider myself a true exercise rider. 
I gallop our horses on the farm but it is nothing like doing it at the track.
My last job they wanted riders less than 135.
Other barns I’ve worked at, we always seemed to have one solid, 150-ish male rider (we’d stick him on the real nutcases haha!) one in mid range 130ish, and one almost jockey weight (often they were former jockeys actually) 115ish. These were bigger barns and the trainers seemed to like having the options offered in the range of weights.
So long as you are fit and learn to ride and the rules of the track, no sensible weight should rule you out as an exercise rider.
Arcadien
light?
Some people are heavy but “ride light” as we call it. Some people are just heavy. I would say most trainers would sacrifice a bit of weight for somebody with good hands and good clock.
I’m 5 3", 130lb’s ish and have held steady jobs for Baffert, Frankel & Asmussen over a fifteen year span.
Weight is going to vary, and some trainers have very specific ideas on weight. When I galloped, my weight was around 115 until I ballooned up to 125. At 125, the trainer I worked for at the time thought I was too heavy to breeze, but most trainers wouldn’t have cared.
When i first got started i knew a trainer who tacked at least 175 getting on all of his to gallop. There are some big guys and girls out there who ride. That being said, there are a lot of bigger riders who get put on tough mounts thinking they will be able to hold them and still get run off with even on easy horses. Finesse over strength.
I’m 5’10 or 5’11 depending on the day, and about 135 depending on how I’m doing trying to kick my cheesecake habit. I’m allowed to work everything that’s going 6 furlongs or less. I break out of the gates, ride babies, ride the old crusty guys, etc with no problems.
I’m 5’10 or 5’11 depending on the day, and about 135 depending on how I’m doing trying to kick my cheesecake habit. I’m allowed to work everything that’s going 6 furlongs or less. I break out of the gates, ride babies, ride the old crusty guys, etc with no problems.
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