Cob Jockey

A while back, the equine career center coordinator at my college sent me an email, introducing me to a freshman at my alma mater (I've only been out two years, they still remember me!) who is in the equine major at the college, not totally sure where she's going with it, and short.  Specifically, the coordinator wanted me to talk about the challenges and benefits of being a small equestrian, and how I've used that in my equine life.  I am not quite 5'1 and 105-ish lbs.

All sorts of disclaimers need to accompany the posting of this 2009 picture, including "Kids, don't try this at home," "School horses are saints," "It's amazing I've survived this long," "What an ugly helmet!" and "There's a reason this wasn't on Facebook while I was still in college."  Amazing that they asked me to mentor someone!

It wasn't an easy email to write.  While I do have to take being small into consideration, I never use it as an excuse in my riding or in the gym.  Size makes some things harder and some things easier, but is no excuse, as Margie Engle proves every time she's in the ring! Regardless of how I look at it, though, there are definite upsides and downsides, and I thought they'd make good discussion here.  What follows is nowhere close to what I sent her, but I'm happy to report that we did have a good long discussion that left her with options she'd never considered before.

Benefits
- Ponies 4 life, yo!  If I wasn't in love with my career as an IT professional, I would be riding ponies on the East coast.  (Somewhat) skilled adult riders that are child-sized are a rare thing, I've been told.
- Thoroughbred racing  Been there, done that, sucked at it, but I'm small enough to do it.
- Young stock  Some people wouldn't see this as a benefit, but I do.  I weigh so little that people will ask me to hop on their young stock, which I really enjoy.  This was my favorite part of working in the Thoroughbred racing industry.
- Shopping  Being on the borderline between a child size and an adult size means I can fit in both and occasionally score excellent deals, or choose the child size because it's substantially cheaper.

Drawbacks
- I do not have the leg length to ride really big horses effectively.  Which leads me to my next point...

Scale drawing of me on a big round horse.  Really, guys, I would never lie to you.  My legs look just like that...

- I don't get pinned often in hunters.  My size does not lend itself to the "picture" hunter judges typically look for, or, if it does, it's on a smaller horse that generally wouldn't be pinned well either.  Having switched to the mostly subjective sport of eventing, this doesn't bother me anymore, but it was frustrating in college.
- Saddle shopping is a nightmare.  My saddle has a 16" seat.  Those are not easy to find, especially used.  And on a somewhat related note, thanks to IHSA, I have become a professional at making a ride look good while I'm swimming in a saddle with a massive seat.
- While I'm on the subject of IHSA, stirrup leathers, especially older ones, often have to be rolled.  Usually once, sometimes twice, once in an IHSA show, I had to roll them three times, which left me with this big knot of leather against my ankle for the class.  (Short people prejudice back in the day?  Men's leathers?  Who knows.  Newer ones are usually punched higher.)
- BLANKETING.  I swear it's the #1 reason I own a pony.  I can't tell you how many times I've said a silent prayer before throwing a blanket over a big guy's back, hoping that A) the horse doesn't freak out, B) I don't get covered in dried mud dust or C) I actually got it somewhat aligned well.

Do you have any size-related considerations, or do you know someone at the barn who does?  My husband will tell you that his 6'4 height presents just as many problems in the horse world, if not more!