http://www.diet2ride.com/

How can this lady expect her horse to carry her! How can this lady expect to lose weight with the amount she is eating. And please do not get me started on the American forums.

Fuming.

…Is why I blog, seriously what kind of person does this? The last time someone started a too heavy to ride thread on the horse and hound forum it ran on and on, with people from both sides of the story giving their views & opinions. The only problem with this as you know weight issues are an emotional issue.

Which it seems that if you don’t have a weight issue then you are highly anti it. This then becomes a very emotive issue, with an obvious losing side. You will never change the minds of these people they have it in their heads that horses can only carry X amount. To be honest as a general rule I really don’t care what they think any more.

I do care though when someone posts on a public forum the above… it’s an obvious attempt to get a group of people into a fat bashing. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was even a genuine discussion for weight limits. I notice some of the replies tried to be diplomatic with maybe a little bit of a double edged sword in for good measure.

You might also note the thread didn’t run for as long as previous threads. This is mainly because every ones attention was on another equally damning thread about someone asking for financial help towards vet bills. Which I have no comment on, other than the fact as usual they like to take it to a personal level.

Ironically though when I tried to start my own thread, by sharing a recent circular about bullying which I thought was quite apt considering the way these people like to take to such a personal level. I was once again met with indignation that I could post something non-horsey and ignorance that what they do is merely ‘disagreeing’ which isn’t bullying!

As I politely pointed out though Goading and Taunting are! After this my thread was quickly removed. And yet the others remain.

I would just like to quote the BHS who commented on another thread that was started about riding schools enforcing weight limits.

To clarify, the BHS does not impose weight limits for its Approved Centres to adhere to and there are no plans to do so. 

Weight limits are completely at the discretion of individual Centres and will of course depend on factors such as horses available, types of lessons offered and so on.