Welcome back to our discussion of the normal horse. In this lesson, we'll take a look at weight and body condition,. By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to recognize over and underweight horses and you will be able to take proper measurements to assess weight and body condition. It's important to remember that weight and body condition vary with breed, size, confirmation and age. For any horse in your care, it's important to know the baseline for each individual horse and to monitor him over time, watching for changes up or down. Weight and body condition are a reflection of the balance between proper food intake, active digestion, and appropriate exercise, as well as overall health. These values should be monitored over time, so you can detect changes that alert us to a potential problem. Again, knowing what the baseline normal is for an individual horse is key to optimizing in his health and welfare. Since most people don't have access to a livestock scale, you can still estimate the horse's weight using a simple girth tape, which can be purchased at your local feed store or through your veterinarian. This tape has lines with increasing weight in pounds or kilograms, just like a ruler has inch marks. To estimates a horse's weight, place the tape over the top of the withers and behind the elbow. This is known as the heart girth. Circle the entire chest of the horse, the way a saddle and girth go all the way around. This measurement will tell you an approximate weight which you should record. As you continue to monitor weight over time, remember to be consistent with the placement of the tape. Another method of estimating weight is a simple math formula using two body measurements taken with a regular soft tape measure. First, we measure hearth girth, which is a measure, in inches, all the way around the torso, over the withers, and behind the elbow. Second, we measure body length, which is a measure in inches from the point of the shoulder front to the protrusion of the hip, or point of the hip. Okay, now here is the formula to plug those numbers into. The horse's weight is going to be equal to the heart girth squared times body length, and then that number divided by 330. For example, if the horse's heart girth is 73 and body length is 69, in inches, you should get an estimated weight of 1,114 pounds. Just as with the way tape measurements, the answer is not so much about one point in time, but consistent methods and watching the trend of stable weight or gain or loss. By the way, the heart girth and body length are measurements use to size girths, saddles, and blankets. Now, let's discuss body condition which can be more difficult to assess. Assessing a body condition score or BCS can be subjective, but there are specific BCS chart guidelines that are based on the amount of visible and palpable cover of fat at six specific body points on the horse. The neck, shoulder, ribs, withers, back and tail head. There are numerical score ranges assigned to each category. Including ideal, thin and overweight, which makes it easy to follow body condition score over time, just like weight. Body condition score is a visual and palpable score. >> When we make a body condition assessment of a horse, it's not just a visual assessment. We do need to put our hands on them to feel for the areas of fat distribution over the body. We usually start just over the crest of the neck and we will work our way down, feel over the shoulder, along the rib cage, along the back, over the tail head. And we will decide how much fat we palpate in those areas. A great place to start with body condition is to look at the rib cage and determine how much fat is over the rib cage. Ideally, you want to horse somewhere in the area of body condition score five where you cannot see their ribs, but you can palpate the ribs just under a small amount of fat. >> Now, let's look at a thin horse. A thin horse will have visible ribs and they will be easily felt underlying the skin. In a thin horse, you will see a sunken appearance of the back muscles with a prominent tail head and hip bones. There's also an abrupt transition between the neck and the body, and the shoulder and the body with noticeable bone structure in a thin horse. On the other hand, an overweight horse will have a thick cover of fat over the ribs, which you may not be able to feel. And overweight horse will also have an overall thick appearance of the neck and a rounded top edge of the neck along the mane, known as the crest. An overweight horse will have spongy layers of fat over the ribs and rump, which may appear as lumps. Before we live the topic of body condition, we should add a special note about older horses. As horses age they lose muscle mass much like elderly humans. It is not unusual for an aged horse to have a prominent wither and tail head. In older horses, this thin appearance should not be confused with weight loss. Carefully consider the age of the horse and his scores over time when assessing body condition. Seek veterinary advice to help you determine the reasons for a horses appearance that do not fit into the ideal category, or if he is showing rapid changes in body type. In the next lesson, we'll take a look at some of the major breeds and how breed can account for wide variations in condition, care and characteristics.
