Worried About Weight

As some of you may already know, the FEI has recently introduced a minimum weight for Young Riders; something I never thought would've happened in my wildest dreams! For some, 60kg is simply just some sand in their saddle tree, or maybe nothing at all, but for me, a previously 35kg, tiny human, that is a huge amount. Despite my best attempts at trying to stop this rule from being put in place through a long email to EGB and spreading the message on social media, I was unsuccessful. It was time to crack on, and by crack on I mean eat.

I was due to do my first FEI ride on the 11th April at Kings Forest and the clock was ticking, fast, and there is so little information about weighting for endurance rides online so we were struggling. I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed some tears, think of giving up all together and stress a lot, but in the end I got myself together and got working.

As soon as I heard the rule was going to be put in place, I increased my food intake almost subconsciously! I've always been very slim, and so to eat a bit more wouldn't hurt. I am also lucky that I am still growing, so gaining weight wasn't as difficult or obvious as it may be on others. A month or so later when I got on the scales I was 40kg fully clothed with shoes and my helmet, it had paid off!

Next, we needed to see how much my tack currently weighed, so I jumped on the scale with the saddle, seat saver and all, and... 8kg. No where near the 20kg I needed, but it was something, and it could've been worse, if we were talking about Spot, his pony club saddle can't be more than 2 kilos. So that brought me to 48kg leaving me desperately wondering, where on earth am I going to add 12kg?

Another worry I had is whether Duke could carry 60kg. He is only 14hh, and being an Arab I wasn't sure if 60kg would be over the 20% limit (including tack) for him. Luckily we were reassured that he has carried 60kg before with other riders and that he is capable, but there is no question it is going to impact his performance. He now will need to be even more fit, muscled and prepared for every ride to stay happy and comfy. I've taken on board all that I have learnt from the EGB welfare seminars, including the impact of rider weight on a horse's wellbeing; Dr Sue Dyson gave a brilliant talk to us on this in 2018.

At first I started wearing a weighted vest, but eventually it gave me back pain, so that was no good. My mum and I went all the way to Newmarket one afternoon to get a weight pad but the saddler pointed out that as it was not designed for a GP Saddle, it was going to create uneven pockets of pressure which were a big no. We also got lots of help and advice from senior riders who have to use weights (thank you so much) and we worked our way through the ideas seeing which might work for us. My amazing saddler even made me hunting bags to attach to the saddle that could carry plenty of weight, however Duke told me with a buck that they were not to be (they will be used to carry snacks on the spotty pony though). Back to the issue of time, any saddle pads that would be custom made to carry weights were going to take over a month to come from France and that would give me no time for trialing them, slowly introducing weights to Duke and no room for error (terrible idea with horses). I started to realise just how tough this process was going to be for me.

If I had a pound for every time someone said, "Just eat loads of McDonalds," I could buy myself a stride free saddle and problem solved! However, fat would be no use; it would slow me down running, decrease my fitness and I'd be no help to my poor pony. Muscle, on the other hand, is actually helpful and weighs more than fat, yay! Not really... muscle doesn't just appear overnight, so I'm having to go to the gym, something I had never done in my life before, until January. Luckily my school has a great gym that I can use for free and even has fitness instructors to help me with weights etc. My school has been been so supportive, and my gym coach is so invested; I am on the school's Sport Performance Programme which is also super helpful. I had managed to gain 2kg, which took my total weight with tack to 50kg.

It was a great improvement, but still left us 10kg short and little time. My mum and I were now at the point of begging and borrowing, and we had sourced a 8kg saddle pad to borrow for Kings while we order one, and I was going to shove 2kg of sand down my riding tight's pockets. However, after all this, my ride and pretty much the whole season is cancelled, so there was no need after all! Just kidding of course, I am one day, wether that be in 2020 or 2021, going to need to weight 60kg for competition so all of this learning has been worth it. I have to say, for the moment, it has been a weight lifted off my shoulders, quite literally.

Finally, FEI, if you are reading this, please remember that Young Riders can be 14 years old and slim, like me, and often on small ponies appropriate for our size, and for us 60kg is a heck of a lot. Not to mention how poor Spot will never get his FEI debut that we both worked so hard on as the vets have confirmed he cannot carry 60kg due to his size. It is a shame this rule can't be tailored to the different circumstances, for example a horse-rider weight ratio.