Guest blog PMO: Estimating live weight
Last Friday, an instructor from the Dutch educational institute Paard Mens Onderwijs at Steenwijk, the Netherlands- posted a live video on our Dutch Facebook page about how you can estimate the weight of horses. He promised that he would send us the course material and the related worksheet.
Objective: The participant can estimate the live weight of a horse or pony and assess its body condition according to a score form.
In six assignments you can assess the body condition and estimate the weight of your horse or pony. In the first assignment you have to describe your horse, such as breed, height, body type (very heavy or thin barrel) and it helps to guess how heavy it can be. You can do this with the bare eye. Then do the same with other ponies or horses at your stable.
Now measure the length from hip to chest and heart girth circumference* (*measure around the midsection, immediately behind the elbow and withers) and write them both down in the worksheet. Look at your measured weight from the chart and you will find the weight that matches your horse.
Take another good look at the horses. Try to estimate the estimated weight more accurately and review the previous answer. In the meantime, think about why you might need this weight information for and how serious a certain deviation would be.
Now weigh the horses on the scale and compare the actual weights with your estimated weight. Then calculate the difference between the weight from the chart and the actual weight. Next, you can define the body condition score of the horses and ponies. In the worksheet, you will find a picture with examples and descriptions of all conditions.