THE BEST WAY TO USE WEIGHT TAPES
Weight tapes have always entailed a tradeoff: They’re portable and easy to use, yet they aren’t especially accurate. But a new study from Scotland shows that—used properly—a weight tape can be very helpful for managing a horse’s weight and protecting his health.
University of Edinburgh researchers worked with a British feed company to investigate the utility and pitfalls of weight tapes, which are designed to be wrapped around the barrel to “measure” a horse’s weight in pounds or kilograms.
For the study, the researchers reviewed the records from 1,716 horses seen by the feed company’s consultants over a two-year period. In addition to documenting each horse’s height, breed, type (heavy-, medium-or light-boned) and body condition score, the consultants took weight readings using both a weight tape and a portable livestock scale.
As expected, the researchers found weight tapes were far less precise in determining a horse’s weight than livestock scales. “For example, for every 0.5 increase in body condition score unit—using the 1 to 9 Henneke scoring system—the weight tape on average will add an extra 1.24 kilograms (2.7 pounds) to the reading in horses with the same actual bodyweight,” explains Katie
