I just got a second horse, and he's pretty much the polar opposite of my first horse.  Where my first horse is a small Arab cross, the new one is part draft and heaven knows what else.  He's already a full hand taller than my first horse, and heaven help me, but he's still growing -- he's only two and a half!  My first horse only stopped growing perhaps a year ago -- he's six and a half now -- so I have probably another several inches to look forward to, in both height and length.

It's funny to me that I am unexpectedly straddling such extremes, especially since so many people told me with my first horse (whom I rescued as a baby, so I had no say in the size) that I would eventually want a bigger one.  I haven't found that to be true, yet I now find myself in possession of a second horse equally as large as the first one is small.

My first horse, Panama, is 14.2hh (the "hh" stands for hands high, if you don't already know).  This means he is 14 hands, 2 inches.  (Fourteen and a half hands is written as 14.2hh, not 14.5 -- another FYI, since people writing this wrong is one of my pet peeves.)  At 850 pounds, he is a pretty small horse, right on the cusp of being pony-sized.

I'm pretty small myself, not quite 5'4" and about 120 pounds, so this has worked out just fine for me.  I'd never be able to put my 6'3" husband on Panama, but said husband doesn't want to ride horses anyway, so it's not been a problem.

I've heard all sorts of rules for how big a horse needs to be in order to carry you comfortably.  I've heard the one-sixth rule, that you and your tack shouldn't equal more than one-sixth of the horse's weight.  (According to that rule, I am just barely small enough to ride Panama, but that doesn't seem to slow him down any.)  I've also heard a more-reasonable sounding rule of one-fourth the horse's weight, but experienced horse people often say that a larger but balanced rider is better than a smaller novice rider.

If you think about it, then, most riders are accustomed to far more horse than they actually have to have.  Little girls are often mounted on 16- and 17-hand Thoroughbreds, even though those same horses could just as easily carry adults at least four times those kids' sizes (and probably be less likely to forget that the adults are there).

I guess what I'm saying is that people shouldn't put so much emphasis on riding BIG horses.  A good horse is a good horse, no matter what size it comes in.  Obviously an adult shouldn't ride around on a mini, but don't get hung up on thinking you need the Jolly Green (Four-Legged) Giant, either.