even if a horse can carry 300 pounds, and even if they could carry it all day without harm, i KNOW most cannot ride balanced at that weight. I only say "most" because I know if i say "all" someone will come up with "I had my great uncle roscoe who weighed 450 and rode at Tevis three years straight on our Mini marec buttercup", never fails, then instead of really talking about whats important, the weight bearing limits of icelandics, it morphs into "there was once a man in a village i once passed thru when i was 8 years old who could ride standing in the saddle on his one wooden leg, his name was fred, it was in barcelona, i believe" then someone else says "I have been to barcelona many times, its lovely there" then someone says "I had an uncle named FRED! oh my GOSH!" then another "my uncle named fred had ricketts".
Then someone says "I have never actually heard any icelander personally say from their own lips that they had any uncles named fred so they must not actually exist altho I have seen on maps there is a country named barcelona so i suspect, altho i am not completely 100% certain since no icelander ever told me themselves, that barcelona could possibly exist" in the mean time all over the planet 350-400 people are hefting themselves up onto little icelandic ponies with cranes and forklifts and riding them helter skelter over hill and dale, tolting fiendishly, yee ha! yee ha! slapping crops and throwing their hats in the air. then after several have broken their necks someone comes on here and says icelandics cant carry 300 pound people even if a 300 pound person COULD ride without breaking their neck at the least spook, tho icelanders wanting to sell horses say they can, (and also that icelandics, not one ever, has ever spooked) then someone says that it has to be true if an icelander said it but they personally never heard an icelander say it with their own lips so they doubt any icelander ever said it (how many icelanders do they know, one maybe two?) My husband weighs a lot, i dont know how much but its at least 270 maybe. according to the 1/3 their weight formula his horse should carry him, but his horse has to stagger for balance when he first mounts and when other horses are not worn out on a ride, his is. So the 1/3 their weight doesnt work either. I have a horse that weighs 1300 on tape and he carries my husband as if no one is up there. and he is 17hh. maybe height has something to do with it too. But he seems unaffected by carrying a lot of weight, but then when my husband rides the ride is short, rarely more than an hour, and the ride is at a gentle pace usually during the cool early morning hours. if a rider is heavy they should ask the horse. A horse gives many many obvious signs when a rider weighs too much. The most obvious one--- altho they are a horse that will stand for mounting they MUST take a step or two to regain balance when a too-heavy person mounts and they sway, and sometimes their rear end will give away a little as they step to regain balance. Also excessive sweatiness and exertion on a ride when all other horses are dry and not breathing hard. then later on- a wrecked back and pain issues such as bucking and bolting. janice-- sometimes i just get exasperated and impatient yipie tie yie yo
