Maximum Weight Your Horse Can Carry

I have been wondering about maximum rider weight for your horse and how to know what that is. I have a draft cross so it's probably not something I need to be concerned about unless I plan on ballooning up in weight but it's still on my mind because I don't want to add an extra burden to my horse regardless of her breed.

I looked it up and here is what I found:

It depends on several factors: the horse (breed, conditioning, conformation, bone structure), how far/long you will be riding, what else the horse will carry besides yourself, etc.

Did that answer your question? It didn't answer mine.

There are a couple of ways you can try to determine the maximum weight for your horse to carry. These are:

• Your Horse's Weight Divided By 6 = Max. Pounds Horse Should Carry
• 20% Rule for hard riding (20% of your horse's weight) or 30% rule for leisurely riding
• Measure your horse's cannon bone (the circumference below the knee). Take the horse weight + rider weight + tack weight and divide that total by the cannon bone measurement. Then, divide that result by 2. The recommendation is 75 - 85.

So, that is what I found online on how to determine what weight your horse can carry. It doesn't tell me whether I should be looking up diet pill reviews yet but it gives me a better idea on what my horse should be carrying. I hope it helped you too!

If you know of other ways, please feel free to share them!