Estimating your horse's weight...

[pamz]

It is easy to estimate the weight of a horse and tests have shown that the results obtained this way are accurate to within 3% when compared to scale weight. That's much more accurate that the old tapes that everyone gives you for free as an advertising gimmick.


Step 1. Measure the circumference (heart girth) of the body in
inches.


Step 2. Measure the length of body from the point of the shoulder
to the point of croup.


Step 3. Apply the following formula to calculate the weight of the
horse:


Heart girth x heart girth x length divided by 300 + 50 = weight in pounds.

Example:

The accuracy in this case would be within 34 pounds.

[DorothyB]

There are a few ways to measure a horse's weight. I took Shiloh to the vet on Friday and weighed him on their scale - he weighed 848.

I opted to use the method of estimating taught by Texas A&M University:
- The heartgirth is measured straight around at the high point of the withers
- The length is measured from the point of the shoulder to the point of the buttock on the same side with the tape basically horizontal

Formula is (heartgirth x heartgirth x length) / 330

Annierose helped me measure Shiloh this evening. His heartgirth was 67 and his length was 61. His weight calculated to 829.8 (or 830). The estimated weight was 18# off from the vet scale.

[pamz]

Looking at the pics I posted, I bet if you put the tape on the high point of the withers and measured straight, it'd be the same as the heart girth measurement. And if you don't add the 50 pounds, instead of being 34 pounds over, it'd be 16 pounds shy of the actual weight. Either way, it's a much more accurate method that just wrapping a tape around the middle and looking at what the tape says.