Archie's Weigh In

Weigh tapes are a fantastic tool, they allow us to follow trends in our horses' weight quickly and simply. They are accurate to within 10% of your horse's body weight, a fact which must be taken into consideration. Of course if your horse holds deposits of fat at the tail head, then they could feasibly lose weight by mobilising these fat pads, without alterations being seen on the weigh tape.

When using a weigh tape here are some points to remember.
1. Always use a scientifically calibrated tape that has separate horse and pony measurements.
2. Make sure your horse is standing squarely.
3. Try and take a measurement at the same time of day on each occassion.
4. Position the tape from the lowest point of the wither to behind the elbow, this is often a diagonal line.
5. Pull the tape snug and make sure your fingers aren't underneath.
6. Make a note of your horse's weight every 2-4 weeks and plot it on a chart.

 Correct positioning of a weigh tape. 

Archie came to visit us at the practice to make use of the weigh bridge, this is a large scale suitable for horses and ponies of all sizes. We were pleased to find that the weigh bridge weight for Archie was 530kg, only a 5kg difference from his weigh tape measurement at the time. Great news!