How much weight can a horse carry?
When asking the question, “how much weight can a horse carry?” You often hear a response similar to “it depends on the breed of the horse, its conditioning and conformation, how far and how long it will travel, the bone structure of the horse, the type of weight the horse will carry (eg live [rider] or dead weight [gear]), weight distribution “, etc. So with this good advice from your fellow riders, surely now you will have a much better idea of how much weight your horse can carry. No? Of course not. Although your colleagues are right in Al state all of the above factors, you are still left in the dark with no guidance on how much weight a horse can carry, can my horse only carry 80 pounds, or is it capable of carrying 300 pounds?
Fortunately, over the years some very smart riders have come up with a few methods so that we can calculate a starting point to help determine how much weight a horse can carry. A very simple guide is to take the horse’s weight and divide it by six to get the total weight, including rider and tack, that the horse can carry. Given this, a 1,200 pound horse could carry up to 200 pounds.
Another quick and popular method is to use the 20% rule. You take 20% of your horse’s body weight and the result is the amount of total weight your horse can carry. For example, a 1,000 pound horse should easily carry 200 pounds of rider and tack. The 20% rule typically applies to competitive or “hard” driving. For pleasure riding, many use a 30% rule, so this 1,000-pound horse could carry 300 pounds for shorter pleasure rides.
Some use a horse’s cannon bone measurement to determine the approximate weight a horse can carry. A measurement is taken around the circumference of the front leg, just below the knee. Add the weight of the horse plus the rider and the tack, and divide this sum by the measurement of the circumference of the barrel bone. Then divide that result by two. A number between 75 and 85 is good. If the number is higher than 85, you probably need a bigger horse. Using this method, I measure the circumference of the horse’s cannon bone and get 7.5 inches. The horse’s body weight is 1,150 pounds and the rider and equipment weigh 235 pounds for a combined total weight of 1,350 pounds. Divide 1350 (total combined weight) by 7.5 (cannon bone) and I get roughly 185. Divide 185 in half and my final resulting number is 93. With this calculation method, I need to lighten my gear or get a bigger horse to get the number to around 85.
Some guidelines for horses and riders when it comes to load weight:
The maximum weight a horse can safely carry varies depending on the breed of horse and the intensity of the work. There is no absolute rule about how much weight a horse can carry, but in general, the lighter the horse, the less it can carry. A well-conditioned horse or a robust horse can generally carry more. Some breeds are bred to carry heavier weights such as the Quarter Horse, Arabian or Icelandic pony. Well-balanced riders also make weight bearing less of an issue.