Are Jockeys Dwarfs? (Find Out!)

I’ve been taking my kids to the races since they could walk.

It’s always been a great family day out and everyone loves it.

As any other parents will know, kids are always full of all sorts of weird questions about everything.

The horse races, as much as I love them, are quite strange in a lot of ways.

So, while it’s a great family day out, be ready for a million questions.

One particular one that they’ve asked me on numerous occasions is whether or not jockeys are dwarfs.

Well, I’ve always just told them no, but I decided to do some proper research.

So, are jockeys dwarfs?

No, jockeys are generally not dwarfs. Jockeys are just small people. Dwarfism is a particular condition. Jockeys have a weight limit for races, so while they often are short, more important is just that they’re very light. Jockeys usually weigh under 115 lbs.

Horse racing is all about weight.

In most races, called handicap races, great care is taken to ensure all horses are running at the same weight.

So a jockey’s weight and size are very important to their career.

Dwarfism has a few definitions, sometimes simply being under a certain height.

Disproportionate and proportionate dwarfism affects the growth of the limbs and the torso.

Jockeys, then, are just small people.

But why do they need to be small, and how do they stay so small?

Why are jockeys so small?

The simplest answer is that horse racing is all about weight limits.

Most races today are what we call handicap races.

This means that different horses of different abilities must wear different amounts of weight on them in order to level the playing field.

The jockey’s riding weight, naturally, comes under this.

They want to be as light as they can in order to meet the requirements for the race.

So, jockeys are not usually small because of any condition.

Small people are drawn to the sport because they’re a good fit.

Horses, obviously, run faster if they’re only carrying a very light person.

There is generally no height limit for being a jockey, but the fact that there are strict weight requirements usually ends up meaning dwarfs are very short.

Jockeys, on average, stand between 4ft10in and 5ft7in.

So, there’s a lot of variation.

It’s also much easier to control a horse if your own body weight is easier to shift around.

Controlling a horse that is running at 40mph and weighs over 1,000lbs is not easy if your own body weight is a big drag on you.

Now, being a jockey can be a lucrative career, so you must also wonder if jockeys have to go to extra lengths to stay within the weight limit.

Do jockeys stunt their growth?

Horse racing is an industry where being a few pounds overweight can mean you’re locked out of a multi-million-dollar race.

So, as you can imagine, just like in any sport, some competitors go to extreme lengths to keep their height and weight under the limit.

While there are not really strict figures on these kinds of practices, and while we can likely assume that most keep their weight down in healthier ways, some jockeys go to great lengths to stunt their growth.

One particularly egregious method jockeys used in the past was simply vomiting into bowls before races, to the extent that racecourse dressing rooms even had bowls for this very purpose.

Tobacco is habitually used to suppress appetite.

Other methods include frequent sauna use, or simply starving oneself for the day before a race.

Are jockeys underweight?

Again, there is very little literature on the topic; most jockeys, while they are not strictly breaking the rules by using any of these methods, in modern racing these kinds of habits have become taboo.

Though BMI is not as accurate a descriptor of an actual weight-to-health ratio, a small study of 20 jockeys showed that only one of them was in the underweight category.

The fact is that it can often depend on how frequently a jockey races.

For some, if they race very often, it can take more of a toll on their body as they need to always keep their weight down.

For a jockey who races less frequently, they may only need to attempt to alter their weight occasionally.

Ultimately, most jockeys do have healthy habits and tendencies and are not underweight.

The important distinction, however, is that they do deliberately keep their weight and size at as low a level as possible; unlike dwarfs, who are strictly short because of a condition and not underweight.

So, dwarfism is a separate thing from simply being small.

There is no height restriction on being a jockey, but the weight restriction is what typically makes them all so small and short.

Horse racing is a careful art, with the weight of the horse being the make-or-break factor in the race. Modern horse racing is all about the weight of the horse, and it’s carefully orchestrated to ensure all riders are riding with the same weight.

Being a dwarf is an entirely separate matter, and usually caused by a specific bodily mutation of some kind.