# Do I look too overweight for my horse?



## Dreamcatcher Arabians (Nov 14, 2010)

As long as you're not bouncing around all over her back, then my answer would be no, you're not too big for her. Look at some of those paso show videos and you'll see men much bigger/heavier than you on those horses and they do just fine. The horses are small and compact so they'll carry more weight than a bigger more strung out horse can. The more fit she gets, the less I'd worry.


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## walkinthewalk (Jul 23, 2008)

Agree with @Dreamcatcher Arabians BUT the horse does look hollow and not comfortable.

It doesn’t have anything to do with you but since she is a rescue, if you have access to a quality equine chiropractor, I sure would get her examined by one.

More often than not people don’t realize a horse can be in pain or discomfort for reasons unknown- they often misinterpret the bad behavior associated with trying to escape the discomfort as just being bad, not wanting to work. It may end up that way but often does not start out that way.

She also looks nervous, so please don’t rush her into anything. Let HER tell you when she is ready to move onto something new


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## bsms (Dec 31, 2010)

I'd ride her short spells at a walk until she gains some weight. Horses support us on their backs by muscle. An underfed horse won't have as much muscle, and a horse who isn't ridden won't gain the needed muscle. Walking is easier on a horse's back that trotting - much easier. So let her walk and get stronger and gain weight & strength with progressive exercise (and improved nutrition).

Bandit gained 50 lbs during the first year I owned him. During the first couple of years, his feet went from 4.5" across to 5.25 inches. He was 7 years old at the time. Bandit in 2015:






Bandit 2018...50 lbs makes a difference:


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## LemonMoon098 (10 mo ago)

As a rule of thumb is that the weight of the rider plus tack should not exceed 20% of the horse's weight.

At 800 pounds, the math is:
800 X 0.2 = 160

Therefore the weight of rider plus tack shouldn't exceed 160 pounds on this horse.

When she reaches 880, she should be able to carry at max 176 pounds.


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## gottatrot (Jan 9, 2011)

I've rescued a couple of underweight horses. Something my vet told me with the last one was that horses put protein and cell repair work into their internal organs first, then will put energy into damaged muscle recovery (used to spare the vital organs) and finally fat storage. If a horse still hasn't started building their muscles back, you don't want to have them working yet because they might not have fully repaired any damage that happened to their internal organs. You want to wait and begin riding them after you start to see some muscle development happening. A lot of people say you need to work on building a horse's muscles if they've been underweight, but they should have a little bit of fat storage to work with before you do that. When you see some fat behind the shoulder and above the rump and tailhead, you should be fine to start working on the muscle building.

Something that can help the process is feeding a complete amino acid supplement. With my underweight horse I fed Tri Amino for a few months.


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## Cheyanne Taylorr (10 mo ago)

walkinthewalk said:


> Agree with @Dreamcatcher Arabians BUT the horse does look hollow and not comfortable.
> 
> It doesn’t have anything to do with you but since she is a rescue, if you have access to a quality equine chiropractor, I sure would get her examined by one.
> 
> ...


Yes thank you I was looking into getting a chiropractor out to work on her but that picture was also a while ago around when I first got her so she was really nervous etc. she is definitely less hallow and more comfortable now that she is used to everything and Had 1 on 1 time with her.


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## Cheyanne Taylorr (10 mo ago)

Dreamcatcher Arabians said:


> As long as you're not bouncing around all over her back, then my answer would be no, you're not too big for her. Look at some of those paso show videos and you'll see men much bigger/heavier than you on those horses and they do just fine. The horses are small and compact so they'll carry more weight than a bigger more strung out horse can. The more fit she gets, the less I'd worry.


 Thank you so much. I definitely don’t bounce around a lot because of her smooth gaits.


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## Sunnys Mum (10 mo ago)

Cheyanne Taylorr said:


> So my horse is a rescue and about 80 pounds under weight but she is easily gaining that and my vet said to ride her more but I don’t want to cause her more pain. She’s a 17 yo Peruvian paso and about 14.2 hh and about 800 pounds (she should be about 880 to be normal weight, my vet said) anyways I’m 190 and 5’6. Should I be concerned? She Carries me fine and I’ve never noticed any difficulty with our riding. The picture I have is when I didn’t have time to rack her up but she needed exercise so I hopped on bareback and she ate some of the weeds we have (they are edible for horses).
> View attachment 1126260
> 
> this next picture was from awhile ago but it’s terrible quality. She was a little nervous cuz it was getting dark. I just so happen to be wearing the same thing 😂
> View attachment 1126261


As a rule, a horse shouldn’t carry over 20% of it’s own body weight.
That includes tack.
Hope that helps.


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## Fairyprncss5678 (10 mo ago)

You are not too heavy. I would listen to the vets opinion. They obviously don't think you're too heavy and they're the vet....a person who cares ALL about the horses health.


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