SmartPak Monday Morning Feed: Calculating Your Horse’s Weight

Do you know how to calculate your horse’s weight? Without a scale, it can be hard. But there are ways to get closer than a weight tape.

Weight tapes are designed for horses of average size, shape and overall body proportion, such as a 16 hh riding horse that weighs 1,000 lbs. However, if your horse isn’t of average height and length (think ponies, draft breeds and especially long horses), you may need a more accurate method of determining his body weight.

Our friends at SmartPak have developed this Equine Weight Calculator, which takes into account a horse’s age, length and heart girth (barrel), instead of just the heart girth like traditional weight tapes do.

The types of horses in most need of an accurate weight measurement include hard keepers (horses that need to gain weight), easy keepers (horses that need to lose weight), seniors and growing horses. The measurements needed for our Equine Weight Calculator are easy to do – all you need is a soft, flexible tape measure. If you can’t find one that is long enough, use a lunge line or bailing twine to take the measurements!

Go SmartPak and go riding!