When I worked the dude ranch, I rode a horse named Spook, because he was grey and would come out of the morning fog looking like a ghost. He was 16 hands and for me it was like trying to scale a vertical surface, I'm under 5 foot (1.5 meters). He would wait patiently for me to climb aboard and then we were off.
My beloved Jasmine was about 14.5 hands, we were inseparable when I was at the farm in the summers. She belonged to my uncle, but she would only let me ride her, no one else could get near her with a saddle. We had three good summers and won a couple of barrel races together...that was a long time ago!