PLEASE PUT IT ON YOUR WEBSITE AND/OR TELL ME WHEN I CALL ASKING ABOUT YOUR PROGRAM!
I contacted a program in my area that does therapeutic horse back riding for adults last week after I looked at their website and saw that it was certified with PATH (Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International) and that it looked legit and so I called them. The woman who answered the phone asked me to fill a form and to have my doctor fill out another. Got that done and mailed to them. Someone else, not the woman I talked to, calls and tells me I’m too heavy for their program. They only allow people ≤ 180lbs to ride their horses and that I’ll have to find another program. :mad:
I am not some morbidly obese person; I’m a 6’0, 200lb man!
Horseback riding helps with a connective tissue disorder that I have and I need a “dead broke” horse for my safety and horses in PATH certified pragrams tend to be better trained and more of a “been there, done that” type of horse.
Damn, I thought the weight limit would be something like 300 pounds. 180 is really damn strict. That isn’t even BMI-overweight for heights above 5’11".
Sounds like they’re working with older or smaller horses. The general rule of thumb is a horse can comfortably carry 20% of its body weight. You’d need a 1,000lb horse, which is on the lower side of large- an average size Thoroughbred. Interestingly, racing horses are capped at carrying about 119lbs during a race.
I agree with the sentiment, though- more information is always better.
OTOH, they actually looked at your information and called you rather than waiting for you to schedule an appointment, pay, and show up, before realizing you were too heavy.
It’s the little things that get me through the day.
That’s not a maximum weight, that’s a minimum, and varies from race to race. Obviously, the trainer doesn’t want to go over the minimum, but there is nothing actually to stop the trainer from putting up a 200 lb. jockey if he wants to.
Off-topic, but horses used to carry 126 lbs. in the Triple Crown races. That may have changed since the days when I was paying attention to such things, but it would surprise me to find that it had changed downward.
Hell, I’d agree with the OP even if you were morbidly obese. Maybe if it were just you filling something out, but having you fill out something from your doctor, too? They need to let you know before you go that far.
One thing I looked forward to in Hawaii was a helicopter tour of one of the islands. They had some absolute weight limit - 280 or 300 - but also imposed a significant surcharge on anyone over some much lesser weight - 190? 200?
When I tried to book the 4-person flight, I pointed out that while I was over the surcharge limit, my wife was of average weight and the other two were 70-pound children. In my view, adding up to less than four adults negated the need for a surcharge.
Wrong. “It just doesn’t work that way.”
We skipped the flight. It was already expensive enough without another $90 that the person on the phone couldn’t give a justifying reason for.
The woman on the phone did sound apologetic, like she honestly wished they could help me. It wasn’t a “Go away, fat man!” type response more like, “Gee, if you could lose some weight you could ride with us.”
Amateur Barbarian: It does sound like they were trying to scam you with the $90 charge.
Big T: That part is what really ticked me off. Even though the copay is low ($12) it is still irritating to have to have gone through all those hoops (Dr had to go back several years through my medical chart for the info they wanted) only to have it come to nothing.:mad: The doc was all excited about it and had hopes that it would help with several of my problems. Luckily another place I’m looking at has NO weight restrictions and doesn’t need a Dr to fill anything out.
It sucks for the OP that this turned out the way it did, but it may well have been one of those oversight things, ie: at one time they could accommodate people over 180 but then they lost that horse and it never occurred to anyone that the change should be put on the website and made part of the regular introductory spiel.
Not every horse can be a good therapy mount and organizations will protect the ones that they have, even being a little overcautious sometimes. Also, if they did lose a weight carrying horse, finding a good replacement is not always as easy as it sounds, nor is it likely to be cheap.
It still sucks for the OP though I hope the new contact comes through for you!
Weight and Balance calculations for helicopters are very tricky. You often don’t realize that there is a “Balance” portion to the calculation. Depending how the seats are arranged, your position in the helicopter may be too far from CG for the weights to just average out like you assume they would, and it may require reconfiguration of the aircraft.
Is it just me, or is anyone else’s woo meter pinging? The Wikipedia article on equine-assisted therapy includes lots of references demonstrating psychiatric benefits, and none demonstrating physical benefits.
Complete and total woo. I’d provide a cite but we all know animal companionship has no beneficial effects what so ever and that people that have pets are actually psychotic and should be put into mental institutions.
Discussed that, actually. The bird had three-across rear seating and I offered to sit in the middle rear to take any load off of CG issues.
I may have missed something but the (bitchy) woman I spoke with insisted it was an absolute, in all cases, loading and (what we spoke of) balance notwithstanding.
I hope the new contact comes through for you!