John Wayne was a big man, and they chose larger horses for him to ride, so that he didn’t look like a giant onscreen.
However, even is his later years when he wasn’t as fit, he didn’t weigh as much as a lot of women in my local Walmart. He put on heft in the belly, but the rest of his frame was wasting from the cancers.
True Grit (1969)
[last lines]
Mattie Ross: Trust you to buy another tall horse.
Rooster Cogburn: Yeah. He’s not as game as Beau, but Stonehill says he can jump a four rail fence.
Mattie Ross: You are too old and fat to be jumping horses.
Rooster Cogburn: Well, come see a fat old man some time!
My first thought was “What would Hoss Cartwright think about this?”