Until I find one that is TOO BIG. Meet the aptly named Crane, our newest boarder horse. He is a solid 18.1hh, broken at the age of 9 due to a prior career as a big eq horse, bloodlines, and well, being 18.1. He had recent bilateral pastern fusions in both hinds due to his crippled-ness, and guess who gets the fun task of walking the beast? That's right, me. They warned me that he only walks with a gum chain and he rears like a maniac. So far, I've found him to be a complete sweetheart and a goon who is just too big for his own good. He respects authority completely and hadn't put a toe out of line with me, and I've only used a stud chain on him. However, I've seen him run over a couple other people, so it's hard to say.
You really can't appreciate how gigantic he is unless you're standing next to him. That picture makes him look tiny compared to what he's really like. It's funny, for such a big guy he's really quite delicate. He has a very dainty face and body.... his legs are just a mile long. Literally, the point of his elbow is at my belly button. I'm 5'7", just to give you some sort of idea of height.
Bigger isn't better in my opinion. Just ask Nicole, who tells me the tales of the horses in her barn that have named like Greyzilla and Jurassica.
Think I'll be sticking with 16.1hh, thanks.
Good Lord, I can't imagine trying to mount from the ground! Mine is 16.3, and that's PLENTY of trouble. He is a handsome guy though.
ReplyDeleteI work for an Ohio hunter/jumper trainer and got the oppertunity once to ride an 18 hand FOUR YEAR OLD warmblood gelding that they had in training. Like you, I've always had a thing for bigger horses but I've come to realize that after a certain point they just get clunky and break because their size causes way to much concussion and stress on everything in their body. And let me tell you, when I rode and jumped the 18 hand 4 year old, I felt like a royal idiot because my legs barely reached down his sides...and I'm 5'6" with pretty long legs...
ReplyDeleteI totally agree...16hh or 16.1 is my happy height!
Isn't it funny how you sometimes think big is best but having gone back to the 15.1hh to 16hh range I think I prefer smaller. what does his owner do with him? ....and he sure is good looking
ReplyDeleteHe didn't look that big to me...until you mentioned that you are 5'7"!!! Yikes! I think that was the hardest thing to adjust to in the dressage world. I was just a whatever rider so most of the horses I was around were in the 15-16 hand range. When I started doing dressage it was like someone decided to take away normal horses and only use giants! Poor thing is crippled at 9...it is such a shame.
ReplyDeleteMy QH is 16.3 and my trainer calls him gigantor. He out stands every horse in our barn by a full hand. He's tall for a non-appendix QH.
ReplyDeleteI love big too, but not stupid big. 18.1 is draft, not riding!
Oh, he's super cute, though! Too bad he's ouchy. I'm actually a little bit surprised he's got such soundness problems because although he is big, he doesn't appear to be too badly put together. I do agree, though - horses that big are often a recipe for unsoundness. :(
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. I am tall, 5'10" and still have no desire to ride anything over 16.2.
ReplyDeleteMy dressage instructor is adamant that my 16.1 TB mare is too small but I have no desire to buy anything bigger.
So what if she looks like a pony...she seems more then happy to do her job!
I know what you mean. I am tall, 5'10" and still have no desire to ride anything over 16.2.
ReplyDeleteMy dressage instructor is adamant that my 16.1 TB mare is too small but I have no desire to buy anything bigger.
So what if she looks like a pony...she seems more then happy to do her job!
I have honestly never jumped on the "bigger is better" bandwagon. I'm only 5'4, and my 15-almost-3 mare is just perfect for me. In fact, I honestly wouldn't mind her being just a bit shorter.
ReplyDeleteBut really? 18 hands? I can't even imagine trying to ride a monster like that. It would be like being 6 again, would my legs even reach half-way down the barrel?
I'm happy with my 15 hand mare. :)
ReplyDeleteThere was something I heard a while ago about size of horses in eventing. Something like it takes a "great" big horse to do what a "good" little horse can. They were talking about Teddy O'Connor at the time, who was a fantastic little horse!
I'm a pony person myself. I'm barely five feet tall and can still wear kids clothes and shoes; I have no business riding barn elephants! I ride in the IHSA in college and the draw table really makes or breaks my ride more than a lot of people, because if I draw something really tall or really wide I'm almost certainly not going to get pinned just because my legs are so short-looking on the big guys. Give me 13.2-15hh any day!
ReplyDeleteI think it just depends on the horse. I used to have 15hh QH mare who I loved and was awesome. My current horse is a 17.3 TB who is equally amazing. So far no soundness issues...knock on wood!
ReplyDeleteWhat a big, handsome boy! He looks sweet. I'm not surprised he behaves for you. I have lost count of the times I've heard about a horse with bad manners with its owner yet is fine for other people. Those people sometimes never can quite grasp that the horse is not the problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that Klein has stayed right at 17hh. Sometimes I forget she is as big as she is until I see a picture or some days she just looks big to me for some reason. You mention such a valid point in this post about horses and their "bigness". That is EXACTLY the reason I condition her like I do and try my best to take every aspect of anything we do into consideration.
Sounds like they did not let the poor boy grow into himself. What will happen to him now? His career over at nine? I think his owner needs some handling/reality lessons, too!!
ReplyDeleteI'm under the impression that his current owners were not the ones who crippled him. They got him about two years ago, and from the sound of it he went lame after a couple of months, has surgery to fuse one pastern, came through a very long rehab and then needed to have the other pastern fused, and is now coming through rehab again. He was a big eq horse (still is), so very likely he was jumped very hard very early very often. His sire is also known for not producing a very sound line of horses. Right now, he is walking under saddle and will begin trotwork not too far down the road, so we will see if he is sound then. They want to get one more eq season out of him if they can (the daughter is 15 so they have a shortening window of opportunity). She said something about nerving him today to get one season out of him.... hmm.
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