Estimating Your Horse's Weight

Many people have little idea how much their horse weighs. Most simply guess when formulating their feed, and give it enough to keep it in the condition they would like to see it in.

Condition scoring is one way of keeping rough tabs on how your mate is going.

In the first photo, we see a horse that is extremely emaciated and would be considered to be at condition score 1.

The second photo shows an older brood mare (not in foal), in obese condition which would rate at condition score 4.5 out of 5. Condition scoring does not give an accurate weight, but it is the most ideal way of making sure you are feeding appropriately. Most horses should be around condition score 3 to 3.5, with no ribs showing and the rump filled out nicely, but no crest development on their neck.

 

Another much more accurate technique is to actually calculate the weight using a special formula. To do this you need to get the length, from the point of the shoulder to the pin bone beside the tail base. (See above)

Also the girth measurement is required, going around the whole horse as shown in the above photo. Both measurements are in centimetres. The formula is then

Body weight (kg) = (Heart girth squared x Length)/ 11880

This can be really useful to know, particularly when medicating horses, or if you are trying to scientifically formulate a diet. Alternately, it can be good just to make sure that your best mate is keeping his weight despite the hard work you’re asking of him.