How much weight can a horse carry?

When asking the question, “how much weight can a horse carry?” often hear a response similar to “it depends on the breed of the horse, its conditioning and conformation, the distance and time it will travel, the bone structure of the horse, the type of weight the horse will carry (for example, living [rider] or dead weight [gear]), weight distribution”, etc. So, with this good advice from your fellow riders, you probably now have a much better idea of ​​how much weight your horse can carry. No? Of course not. Though your colleagues are right in saying Taking all of the above factors into account, you are still 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, some very clever riders over the years have devised some methods for us to calculate a starting point to help determine how much weight a horse can carry. A very simple guide is to take the weight of the horse 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 total amount of weight your horse can carry. For example, a 1000 pound horse should easily carry 200 pounds of rider and tack. The 20% rule generally applies to competitive or “hard” driving. For pleasure riding, many use a 30% rule, so this 1,000-pound horse might carry 300 pounds for shorter pleasure rides.

Some use the measurement of a horse’s cannon bone to determine the approximate weight a horse can carry. A measurement is taken around the circumference of the front paw, just below the knee. Add the weight of the horse plus the rider and tack, and divide this sum by the circumference measurement of the cannon 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 larger 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 1,350 (total combined weight) by 7.5 (cannon bone) and I get about 185. Divide 185 in half and my final resulting number is 93. Using this method of calculation, I need to lighten my equipment or get a bigger horse to get the number down to around 85.

Some guidelines for horses and riders when it comes to carrying weight: