Is 70 kg Too Heavy to Ride a Horse? Rider Weight Limits Explained for UAE Riders

Almost every adult who books a first riding lesson has the same private worry, and very few say it at the desk. They type it into Google instead: is 70 kg too heavy to ride a horse? It is one of the most searched questions around horse riding, and the answers online swing between vague reassurance and blunt rules of thumb that fall apart the moment you look at an actual horse.

The figure is not a stable-yard superstition. Researchers at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute loaded light riding horses at 15%, 20%, 25% and 35% of bodyweight and tracked heart rate, breathing rate, temperature and loin muscle condition. As University of Minnesota Extension summarises it, an average adult light riding horse carries about 20% of its ideal bodyweight comfortably. The same ceiling is recommended by the Certified Horsemanship Association and appears in the old US Cavalry manuals, which is a rare case of research and tradition landing in the same place.

Newer work keeps refining it rather than replacing it. A 2025 study in Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica on Icelandic horses used for tour riding found most could keep working aerobically up to a load of about 23%, and that stride length shortened as the load climbed even though stride symmetry held. Useful nuance for the UAE, where endurance is the flagship discipline: research on Arabian endurance horses found lameness was more common in horses with smaller cannon bones, so build matters as much as the scale.

Percentages are useless until you know what the horse weighs. Here is the same rule converted into numbers you can actually use at the booking stage, allowing a round 10 kg for saddle, girth and bridle.

Read the bottom of that table and the answer to the original question gets simple. At 70 kg you sit inside the allowance even on the lightest horse in the column, which is why no UAE riding school is going to turn you away.

This is the bit riders forget. The guideline covers rider plus equipment, so your tack quietly eats into the budget before you swing a leg over. On a 500 kg horse with a 100 kg ceiling, the split looks like this.

Percentages are fine in a research paper and impossible at a booking desk. So stables convert the rule into a single figure that covers their whole string of horses. Rahal Ranch in Al Wathba, for example, states a strict 95 kg rider limit for its horses, which is a conservative reading of the 20% rule applied across a mixed yard.

There is a legal backdrop too. Anyone keeping animals in the UAE owes a duty of care under Federal Law No. 16 of 2007 Concerning the Protection of Animals, and a published weight limit is one of the simplest ways a yard demonstrates it is meeting that duty. Add the heat, which raises the physiological cost of the same work, and a cautious number starts to look sensible rather than fussy.

1. The horse's own condition. Fat is not muscle. A horse carrying excess weight has less capacity, not more.
2. Build. Loin width and cannon bone circumference track carrying capacity more reliably than height does.
3. Your balance. A still, balanced 80 kg rider is easier work than an unbalanced 65 kg one.
4. Duration and terrain. A 45-minute arena lesson and a 90-minute desert hack are not the same ask.
5. Saddle fit. A saddle that spreads the load properly changes what the horse actually feels.

Ring the yard before you book and ask two questions: what the horse you will be riding weighs, and whether they have a heavier-weight-carrying horse in the string. Any well-run stable answers both without hesitation, and the ones that do are the ones worth booking with. Start with a 45-minute arena lesson rather than a long desert hack, since a shorter session on level ground is the gentler introduction for horse and rider alike.

A private lesson is also worth the extra outlay at the start, because the coach picks the horse around you instead of allocating whatever is free in a group of ten. If you want to compare formats and what each costs across the Emirates, our horse riding classes in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah page sets out group, semi-private and private options side by side. Timing matters too, and our guide to the UAE horse riding season explains when the cooler months make longer sessions realistic.

At 70 kg the question answers itself. The rule that matters is roughly 20% of the horse's bodyweight including tack, UAE yards translate that into a ceiling near 95 kg, and the variables that genuinely decide whether a horse is comfortable are its condition, its build, your balance and how long you are out. Ask the yard what your horse weighs, and book the lesson.

Coursetakers.ae is a UAE course platform that works directly with training providers across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the northern emirates. Our editorial team reviews programme data submitted by partner institutes, including pricing, session length, age ranges and entry conditions, and checks every regulatory or safety claim against a primary source before publication.

This article was written and fact-checked by the Coursetakers Editorial Team and reviewed against published equine research and UAE federal legislation. We do not accept payment for editorial placement. Spotted something that needs correcting? Write to our editorial desk and we will review it.