karmikacres
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Another wrinkle to nutrition...We finally broke down and purchased an equine scale. Much to our surprise, all of our horses are much heavier than the weight tape. The scale is very accurate and I have weighed other things to confirm this. Barbie weight tapes around 1300 - scale 1670. Yonex 1150/1319. Bo 1150/1313. Dodge 1000/1150.
So, we have been grossly missing the mark on worming, hay estimates, and mineral estimates.
Mike
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Clarissa
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Gosh Mike that's very interesting! Imagine how fat some horses could get if given yet more feed/supplements because the weight tape is lying! 
I'm thinking your horses are a variety of breeds so the heaviness wouldn't just be peculiar to the one breed.
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Julie
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The weigh tapes are usually under estimates. Best to use one of the calculations which incorporates body length measurements as well.
Mike may be able to try this and compare overall results.
We all had our ponies weighed at a show and were all from 75 to 120 kilos under estimating!
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karmikacres
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What were you using to estimate their weights?
We are really shocked that even our small guy weighs almost 1200lbs.
Wish we weighed the 17.3 Shire that was here for the clinic last week...
Mike
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PasoBaby_CarolU
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I find it interesting that it was THAT far off. Several hundred pounds in some cases. I'd like to see a picture of Barbie!
Friends who do Endurance and get weighed at the beginning of the race said the tape was about 50 lbs low on their horses. I've always figured that in.
The question I have to ask Mike, if you were basing feed on the weight tape, and it was so far off, did you have horses loose weight because they weren't getting enough to eat?
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Thunder Hollow
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PasoBaby_CarolU
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| Julie wrote: | The weigh tapes are usually under estimates. Best to use one of the calculations which incorporates body length measurements as well.
Mike may be able to try this and compare overall results.
We all had our ponies weighed at a show and were all from 75 to 120 kilos under estimating! |
The weight formula is
Weight (KG) = (Girth(cm) squared) x Length
11,877
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fairhavenranch
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This is what we use but we round up generously, especially when it comes to wormer due to development of resistance.
ESTIMATING EQUINE WEIGHT:
This is an easy and fairly accurate way to estimate equine weight based a few measurements and using a simple formula.
Actual weight per scale may vary approximately only 3% - 4%. This formula has been found to be more accurate than a weight tape.
Definitions:
Heart Girth (HG): Measure around the horses chest in the front cinch area.
Body Length (BL): Measure from the bottom point of the scapula (shoulder blade) at the front of the chest to the rear of the buttock where it sticks out the furthest. Be certain the horse is standing square.
FORMULA:
Adult horse: Heart Girth squared, then multiplied by Body Length, then divided by 330.
Yearling: Heart Girth squared, then multiplied by Body Length, then divided by 301.
Foal: Heart Girth squared, then multiplied by Body Length, then divided by 280.
EXAMPLE:
Heart Girth measures: 72 inches
Body Length measures: 80 inches
Heart Girth x Heart Girth (72 x 72) = 5,184
x 80
Multiplied by Body Length (80) = 414,720
Divided by 330 (Adult) = 1,257 pounds
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creekwood
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| karmikacres wrote: | What were you using to estimate their weights?
We are really shocked that even our small guy weighs almost 1200lbs.
Wish we weighed the 17.3 Shire that was here for the clinic last week...
Mike |
big horses! My 14h mare is about 750 lbs, and my 14.3h 2 year old Quinn was 800 before his sugery in June. He's going to be a BIG boy though, for a 3/4 arab.
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karmikacres
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| PasoBaby_CarolU wrote: | I find it interesting that it was THAT far off. Several hundred pounds in some cases. I'd like to see a picture of Barbie!
Friends who do Endurance and get weighed at the beginning of the race said the tape was about 50 lbs low on their horses. I've always figured that in.
The question I have to ask Mike, if you were basing feed on the weight tape, and it was so far off, did you have horses loose weight because they weren't getting enough to eat? |
They have free choice hay 24/7, but they are eating a lot more and wasting less now that we have the slow feeders. We are feeding 400-600 lbs of hay per day.
Mike
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Leah
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hehehehe...I had that shock a few years back.
I thought Julian, 16.1h TB was about 1100 lbs. I took him to an endurance ride-had a scale. He was smacking over 1350 lbs.
There are so many weight formulas out there-I used to have a link to about 6 or 7 of them.
It would be great to have a way to compare them to a scale.
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PasoBaby_CarolU
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If my horses had free choice hay, they'd be topping the scale at 130o+ too!
With easy-keepers I weigh my hay for every feeding. I give a handful of chaff in the morning with whatever supplements I have them on too. It was vitamins, right now it's probios since I just wormed them. They were at 1.5% of their weight daily, now bumped up to 1.7% for the winter. If the weight tape is way far off, they should be loosing weight, but none have.
I would think that the makers of the tape made it for QH (largest breed) bodies, but apparently they used a lighter breed for their model.
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toreolau
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had the same thing this weekend. Took them to the DMV and put them on the weight scale. Have underestimated our horses by aprox. 150 kg.
Have some recalculation to do.....
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karmikacres
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None of our herd is overweight, in fact, we have finally been able to get weight on a few of them. The slow feeders work great. We are just shocked at the amount the weight tape is off. It certainly seemed to be reasonable...
Mike
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jenlm
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Mike How many horses do you have if you are feeding 400-600 pounds of hay a day? Where in the world do you store it all? Yikes, I'd hate to see your feed bill!
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PasoBaby_CarolU
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| jenlm wrote: | | Mike How many horses do you have if you are feeding 400-600 pounds of hay a day? Where in the world do you store it all? Yikes, I'd hate to see your feed bill! |
Good point! OUCH. Glad I feed Paso Finos. I feed 104 lbs a day...to 8 horses.
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karmikacres
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14.5 (12 horses, 2 minis, and a foal on the way) Our smallest horse is 1250lbs. Barbie (pregnant 17h) is almost 1700lbs. Most others are 1300-1400lbs.
Hay is stored in a lean to, large squares.
Some days they eat a lot more than others. Record is 1 large square in 24 hours.... We need to cut them back a bit as they are all getting to a good weight. We were feeding around 10 small squares a day previously and could not keep weight on several of them.
Weighed a few visiting horses today and continue to see the weight tape 10-20% low.
Mike
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Julie
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I have been using a weigh tape - mainly to see if they go up or down!
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jenlm
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Mike,
Gotcha. I was wondering if it was a typo. You must then be feeding the square "round" bales. In illinois are you feeding an alfalfa or T&A ot O&A mix? SUrely not fescue if you have a prego?
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karmikacres
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Timothy and or orchard grass.
We switched to the big squares for economic reasons.
Mike
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joti26
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Have always thought tapes were likely to be innacurate so use condition scoring. I think that like us horses store fat in different places any way. Del always gets a fatty chest and bum first never on his neck.
I am still using the tape but just to see if it goes up or down.
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karmikacres
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They might be valuable to some degree for keeping track of weight gain or loss, but are very far off actual weight. We have been under dosing wormer based on the tape weights.
Mike
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Thunder Hollow
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karmikacres
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As soon as our clinic is over, I will post height and tape vs scale for our herd.
Mike
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