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From jlevy@cbnewsd.cb.att.com Fri Sep 25 12:39:13 1992
FYI, the following is from an article in "The Chronicle of
the Horse", August 21, 1992. It concerns getting an accurate
weight on your horse to give dewormers and medications more
safely. A U. of Florida study found 88 percent of visual guesses
on horse's weight resulted in underestimates. The best way is
to use a truck scale, weigh the trailer and horse, then the
trailer unloaded. Weight tapes give only rough estimates.
For those who can't use the truck scale method, researchers
developed the following formula, using heart girth and body length.
Measure the heart girth just behind the elbow, taking the reading
right after the horse exhales. Measure body length from the point
of the shoulder to the point of the buttocks in a straight line.
Avoid using a cloth measuring tape because it may stretch. A metal
carpenter's tape is accurate (but noisy - can spook the horse!). A
plastic coated tape works best. If one is not available, use cord
or string that has no stretch and mark the spot with a pen; then
measure the cord with a carpenter's tape or yardstick.
Take the two measurements and multiply the heart girth in inches
by itself, then multiply that by the body length in inches.
Divide the total by 330 for the approximate weight in pounds.
For example, if the horse measures 75 inches around the heart girth
and body length is 64 inches:
heart girth x heart girth x body length
------------------------------------------ = body weight
330
75 x 75 x 64
------------- = 1,090.9 lbs.
330
Never saw this on the net before,
Janet Levy
jsl@ihlpm.ATT.COM
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