>>>> Well said! I like that. It always makes me wonder when I see an ad for a horse for sale, 15.2 hh and it says that the horse is "sadly outgrown." Perhaps ability wise, but...I think Americans are way too height-conscious.
Sometimes, but there are a lot of people out there who simply don't care. As Judy pointed out the other day, many of the working stock type horses, many ridden by average to tall men, are actually fairly short - 14-15H - because the horses are actually most effective for their jobs when they are that size. Cary (6'2") was used to riding a tall TWH (15.3H and very big-bodied, so he feels even bigger) but had no trouble at all getting used to 13.3 1/2H Skjoni. My first soul-mate horse was 16.2H Sundance, and I'm 5'0" - quite frankly he was too big for me. I couldn't be as physically effective on him as I could be on a smaller horse, but I loved him, and we had a bond. (I had two horses I alternated riding during that time: 14H Holly, my TWH, and my 16.2H QH Sundance. I didn't pick my horses for size, but for how well we clicked. I liked them both.) Janice's husband, Donny, is similar in height to Cary, and he seems to adore his 14.1H-ish McCurdy horse. I think the height-obsession is more common among certain show circles more than within the pleasure riders I know. On the other extreme: all things equal, I'd buy a shorter, smaller pony for a small child's first mount. Short legs simply can get anchored around a smaller barreled animal. But, all things are seldom equal, and if I found the right horse with the right temperament to be a child's horse and that horse happened to be 16H, I'd prefer to have a well-suited 16H horse than a flighty or poorly trained 11.2H pony. Tall isn't always better, but neither is short always better! Karen Thomas, NC [EMAIL PROTECTED]
