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Estimating Your Horse's Weight
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Determining your horse's body
weight is useful in establishing basic daily rations and in
monitoring your horse's health and general condition. It is necessary for
administering de-worming products and medications. Unfortunately,
most horse owners don't have ready access to a set of livestock scales and must
resort to visual evaluation of the horse for estimating his weight.
Fortunately there is a simple formula that can be used to estimate
the horse's weight with fair accuracy. This formula is shown below:
Estimated Body Weight =
Heartgirth x Heartgirth x Body Length / 330. (For yearlings divide
by 301; for weanlings divide by 280)
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For accuracy,
it's advisable to have a helper when taking body length measurements
and the horse should be
standing somewhat square. Horse
heartgirth and body length measurements should be taken with a tape
that is at least 75 inches long. Non-stretchable plastic or cloth
measuring tapes are preferred for taking body measurements as metal
tapes can scare horses making them
the least preferable tool for taking measurements. A piece of string
or light rope
can also be used to mark a heartgirth length that is then measured
by tape.
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Heartgirth,
for purposes of this equation, is measured by running a tape measure
all the way around the circumference of the horse, using the highest
part of the withers. Measure the heartgirth by placing the tape
around the body pulling it tight enough to depress the flesh
slightly. For best results, take several heartgirth measurements and
average them.
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Body length is measured from the point of the
shoulder, straight back along the horse's side, around the rear and
to the point of the buttock.
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In two demonstrations that were conducted at Texas A&M
University a total of 12 horses were measured. The horses were of
Arabian, Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred breeding and had been
actually weighed on a set of scales. The tape measurements and the
above equation underestimated the actual weight of 5 of those horses
by an average of 15 pounds and overestimated the actual weight of 5
horses by 12 pounds. One mare, that was extremely heavy fronted,
deep-hearted and light hipped, was overestimated by 150 pounds. The
equation estimated weight of 1 horse exactly. Overall, the procedure
averaged being within 24 pounds of actual weight.
Overall, horse owners
should be able to utilize this simple tool for better managing
their horses as the above-mentioned formula
appears to be a more reliable method for estimating weight than
visually guessing. This procedure and formula can be used
effectively on many horses, but may not be highly accurate for
pregnant mares or for horses that have extreme conformational
irregularities, especially very unbalanced horses.
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Weight Calculator
To estimate your adult horse's weight, measure its heartgirth and body length as
instructed above,
enter those numbers in the fields provided below,
and click on the "Calculate Weight" button.* |
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| *Weights calculated are estimates only
and are dependent on the conformation of the horse and the
techniques used to take body measurements. As always, consult with
your veterinarian if a more accurate weight measurement is needed. |
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